EMMETT TILL’S ACCUSER COMES CLEAN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS…

Well, it is Black History Month.   And I really can’t remember when this actually took place… the year when a young 15 year old youth went south to Mississippi from Chicago, to spend the summer with relatives in the south.

http://nypost.com/2017/01/27/emmett-tills-accuser-admits-it-was-all-a-lie/

In looking back at a newspaper article on the story, I see where it took place in 1955.  The summer Emmett Till went to spend what was to be his lastsummer visiting those cousins, and an aunt and uncle down south.  Because somewhere during that visit in August 1955 it was said
that Emmett took certainly liberties with some white woman.  He got out of place… he crossed that divide that colored and white were not to cross… because he was just being a young innocent kid… unaware of the do’s and the don’t of the then… and maybe still in some parts of the south.

Supposedly young Emmett while in this woman’s family store had told the white woman how he had dated a woman just like her up in Chicago.   And upon leaving the store it was said that young Emmett Till gave that woman 1 of those big long whistles, that men did back in that time when they thought a woman was beautiful… somewhat of a wolf call or something.

It was that story of Emmett Till which always colored me and my thoughts about how when you leave home… if you lived north of the Mason/Dixon Line… how you should behave very differently if you were to go down south.

Something like how you had to remember when you crossed that line …that Mason/Dixon Line going into the south, that you were no longer in the north… or in your little Northern town or big city, like Chicago or Detroit.   And how remembering this… that this ‘black and white thang’ could possibly save your life.

I recall once just we had crossed that line 1 summer on 1 our many drives south to visit my grand mother in the south, that once we pulled up to a motel where my mother sent me out to go inside and ask how much it would cost to get a room?

An occasional stop at a motel to freshen up used to be a habit of my family sometimes while we were making the more that 20 hour trip down south to Florida.  But this particular day as I almost was about to reach for the door leading into the motel office, out came running two black boys… or teens… something I couldn’t really tell how old they were as they came running through that door shouting back to me, ‘Get of of here!  Go!  Go!’

I immediately ran back to our car and reported to my mother and father what those 2 boys had told me as they had whizzed pass me and shouted for me to get out of there.

Suddenly, my mother started screaming at me to get in the car… and she started hollering they ain’t gonna take my sons.   ‘They ain’t gonna take my sons.’

Boy, I had never seen anything like it or ever heard my mother react in such a way.  But years later I understood.

At that time my brothers were young kids… maybe 10 or 11 or something like that.  But my mother having grown up in the south… my being a Jamaican had grew up in Jamaica so he had not really experienced any that Jim Crow stuff of the deep south.  But my mother knew it well.   And she knew that it would not matter to white folks that my brothers had not robbed or done whatever those 2 boys had done… but that they were black and that in of itself would have been enough for my young brothers to have been taken …in place of the real crooks or whatever they were who had come running out of that motel office.

I do not think we ever again stopped at another motel in all the years we continued to travel back and forth to Florida after that.

For years, I think that up until this very point I had always felt that Emmett Till  should have been told how to behave, and carry himself while down there in the south.  I always thought it was his mother’s fault for not sitting him down, and telling him how to behave down there when it came to being around white folks.   It was the typical blaming that many people do when they blame the dead for being dead.  Like some people blame Trayvon Martin for being out late… or out in the rain in that white neighborhood when he got shot and killed.

I thought that way because I  was stupid.  I was  blind.  Ignorant of the fact that many times it just didn’t matter what we did do or not, irregardless there was a very likely could still come up dead

He was a kid.   And you could have told him something a thousand times, and would you believe you wouldn’t have to tell him it again… as we all do when it comes to talking to our children?
Emmett Till did not live in the south.   Nor was there any reason for me to believe that what had been said regarding that story had been true.   For you see, evidently I had believed something inappropriate must have been done for those white men to go in the middle of the night seeking this young boy, regarding something something he had said and/or done.

That is the irony of it.  How readily we eat up the things we see or hear.

It had been a lie.   It had all been a lie.   And because some white woman had lied on her son, Mrs. Till was forced to go down to Mississippi and collect the bloated remains of her young teen age son, her only child… I think… and bring him back to Chicago in order to bury him.

Years later after Emmett Till had been viciously murder by a group of white men in the middle of the night, after going to his relative’s house and demanding that they send him out to them or they would burn them out and all up in their home.

How could that woman possibly live with herself after that?

Years later, I moved to Chicago and while working as a church secretary for a pastor by the name of Dr. A. L. Reynolds, Jr.,  I was told something by Dr. Reynolds, who pastored Sixth Grace United Presbyterian Church, at Cottage Grove and 35th Street, on the South Side.

Dr. Reynolds 1 day came into the office and for some reason began telling a story, of how he had had to run away from his home, which had been back in Arkansas.   The reason he had to pick up and get out of there he told me, was because some white woman wanted him and he didn’t want her.   That is exactly how he put it.   He said, ‘she wanted me.  But I didn’t want her.  So, I had to leave.’   Because I did not want her to lie on me.   Because in those days a white woman could say a black man raped her and they (meaning the other white people… mostly men) would kill him.

So, Dr. Reynolds said he got of Arkansas as quickly as he could.

And he said he left Arkansas running because he didn’t want her to tell a lie on him.

Through the our history in this country many black people have found it necessary to get up and get out of town in the middle of night, headed north or to other points unknown.  Because they were afraid of some type of bad consequence which might take hold upon them… or befall them due to a lie… or some white person wanting something that belonged to them.

It comes to mind that even in Biblical text Abram lied.  He was forced to lie when he and Sarah went to enter Egypt.   And he became afraid that the king… otherwise known as Pharaoh… would want his wife, Sarai…as she was then before being renamed by God Sarah.   Because the Bible says she was fair and goodly to look upon.

So, Abram felt that he would be killed by Pharaoh.   So, therefore, told Sarai that they should say that he was her brother rather than her husband.

The end of this story is that Pharaoh and the people of his kingdom are overtaken by what the Bible calls a ‘great plague.’   Pharaoh questions Abram and asked him why he had not told him that the woman, Sarai… was his wife?

We come into the 21st Century now, some more than 60 years later and now we hear that the white woman who had told her husband and his white buddies, that Emmett Till had whistled and spoken to her… a white woman inappropriately… that she had lied.

All that pain and heartbreak … tears shed had been over a lie.

A young boy was pulled and dragged out into the dark of night… tortured and beaten …then partially burned and thrown into the river… to be found days later a bloated beyond recognition dead decomposing body.   Because that woman lied.   And now …I guess on her death bed… or on her near death bed she tells the truth… that she lied about the whole thing.
How did that woman do that… when she knew what the consequences for any black man would be?

She knew what times she lived in.   But just did not care.  She told that lie knowing that some out of control white drunken men were going to go and find them a white boy, and have what they called ‘have some fun.’    While they enjoyed torturing him and beating him…and eventually killing him.

How did this young boy respond?

Can you imagine what was going through his mind and heart… scared beyond his wits…
kicked…slapped…punched… stomped… cut… lit on fire…

And all because some white woman thought it nothing to lie on him.   And me thinking years later that it had been his fault… because nobody every trained him properly how to behave around white folks.

This reminds me of how I hear black commentators on television now when they are talking about black men being shot and killed by white police officers.   Everybody saying they should have kept their hands on the dashboard… or where they could be seen… or not moved too quickly… etc… etc… etc….

Blaming the victim because racist people still abound….

Well, God bless… It was sleeting a little bit this morning.  But I hope it is nice and warm
where you are.  Have a good day all… and remember it’s BLACK HISTORY MONTH.   “pass it on…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2017

 

 

 

Add a comment February 8, 2017

Skin and color issues… on being black and beautiful

Happened to come across this on youtube and it touched me.

You’re pretty for a black girl???

In this the 21st Century…I would have hoped that we were far from the backward thinking of yesterday…all of  us.  But particularly black folk…or so called black folk.   You know when we walked around trying not to be black…afraid to show our napps and kinks.

You do remember yesterday?  

You know the time when …when if  you were white  you were alright.  Light and you could  just get by…or wasn’t as dark as the brown paper bag…and your hair wasn’t too short…too kinky…or your lips too big.

After all these years…and throughout history we have yet to get over not loving who we are.  And what makes it so really bad…we can’t even see that the rest of world wishes they were us.

If  the truth be known…for better or for worst…we set the fashion trends…style…language patterns… music…dance… and almost everything.   And not only here in this country…but around the world as well.

Western Culture…is definitely highly rooted in the black culture of this country.

So, then why do we feed in to this…I hate me…or can’t find a good black man… or can’t  find a good black woman lie?

It is a lie…because I am a good black woman…and I know I’m not all by myself. And I also believe that there are just as many good and decent black man.

I will never buy into the hype that the reason so many black men and women are preferring to date outside of our race…is because they can’t find someone good in it.  That is a lie.  

I would really like to know just where they have been looking?

The bars…and  prison?

If you seek out junk…then you will find junk.

And if  you seek junk…don’t expect it to step up…to being anything else.   But junk.

I know someone…a black woman…a bit younger than myself…who I used to think of as being smart.  Until one day she said to me that she was  involved with someone who is an addict…and he has been this way for years.

Now, she has her own business… is in the church…but.   She says she loves the guy….that he is a good person.    She says…she is willing to wait on him with the hope that he will straighten out his life.  

And with God’s help…that could happen.

But has anybody ever heard of  being  unevenly yoked?

What if  he never gets his life straight?

And there you are…sitting around all these years…hoping and praying…and sexing it up with somebody who may never be able to be anything real in your life…outside of what he already is.   An addict. 

I don’t know if this is still true or not…but when this whole thug culture was being hyped up…I could not believe the number of decent women…and who I thought were intelligent black woman… talking about they wanted a thug.

“I want me a thug.”

What????

Were they crazy?

A what???

A thug?

I guess that is what Vivica Fox wanted when she hooked up with half-a-dollar.

It got even worstt when I went to hear Nikki Giovanni…and she flashed her tatoo…a large…very large…marking…a tattoo on the inside of  one of  her arms reading….”THUG LIFE.”    At 60 something years of age…I felt she had lost her mind talking about celebrating that lifestyle.  Of what...men beating their women…neglecting their children…etc…  And having sex with anything moving…and dis-respecting women with a bunch of  misogynistic lyrics…loaded with the N-word from start to finish…and a bunch of  other filth.

What is there to celebrate about someone playing like he’s a thug?

“Ahhh…come on now, Nikki.”

In the above video Oprah says that 70% of  black women are not married because “there are not just as many black men out there.”  Meaning that the earth is populated with more black women than black men.   I debate this highly…simply because it is not true.  Since we were created by God…and He is and has always been a God of  balance.  He would never have created more of one sex over another.  And particularly since He…Himself  said-

“Be fruitful and multiply.”

And He would not have said that…to go against His own laws against adultery and fornication…by creating a shortage of any one sex to the other. 

All through nature there is balance between the sexes.  Why would it be any different for man?

I think that people make all kind of excuses to accommodate their choices.  In the earlier days of  black stars in this country (of which most of them had white husbands or wives)…they claimed that it was that they could not find anyone black equal to who they were…being that great singer or actor or actress… or musicans etc.  that they were.   Today they  certainly could not make the same claim since many African-American people excel in all areas from business to sports to entertainment to entrepreneurship…and ministry too.  

In churches all across this country today there are plenty of  black millionaires lining church pews and pulpits…and not  just in the church.   (But doesn’t Pearl Bailey and Queen Latifah look very much alike?)

So, nobody can tell me that there are not enough good or decent black folk around…of both sexes to go around.  Just a couple of weeks ago I was at a very large church convention called AIM in Tampa, Fl…and I never once saw an im-balance between the black men and women…or teens…and children that were there of   either sex.  And they packed the Tampa Bay area coming from everywhere across this country and outside of  it.

I think that media is to blame for starting the rumor that women out number  men.  Since in the beginning…media like most of everything else was male dominated.   Men love to justify certain behavior.    So, why not create a lie like saying-

“Women out number us.  So, therefore we are allowed to have as many of them as we would like.”

All through history you see women being used as sexual objects…and with men having multiple wives…or harems.   Yet, when you see pictures of those times, art, and readings from early times…they do not reflex a lesser number of  men to women.  If anything…it seemed as though the opposite were true. 

So, shows like the above  segment on the Oprah Winfrey Show only legitimized that lie for many people.  Vast number of people have always believed  it.  But now because Oprah said it…that makes it true.  Not so.  

It is very much the same as saying that there is a ‘gay gene’ …therefore, gay people can’t help being gay.  That too is a lie.  There is no ‘gay gene.’   Gay people are not a freak of  nature.  But there are some scientist who claim that this is true…and falsely want to lay claim to this based upon some bogus laboratory discovery.

What it rally all gets down to… is  what do you want to believe?

You can choose to believe lies…falsehoods…or choose to believe the truth. 

But no matter what…black is beautiful…even for a black girl.

CLICK the LINK BELOW to see the video…it is sad to the level of  self-hate due to their dark conplexion.

http://www.mwza.com/tyra-banks-show-black-women-their-children-bleaching-their-skin/

It is amazing the number of women, men and children is this country and abroad…from the Caribbean Islands to Europe…and Africa…who are running to blench their skin.  Many without any knowledge of the vast risk to their health or  life…not to mention that  the chemicals in the blenching creams are toxic and can destroy the person’s face and body over a period of time.

It is a mystery how many of  us would have loved to have been born darker…and those darker…some of  them least ways…and I guess many…since the blenching cream market has grown so big.  It is truly a shame that  so many would want so badly to be lighter.   And would destroy their beautiful natural complexions trying to undo what God has  so richly and generously blessed them with. 

In listening to the videos above…it all mostly stemmed from feelings that they felt that lighter skin meant better treatment…better jobs…status etc…   All of  which really stems…from lack of respect of  yourself… your capabilities… and how you preceive yourself.   Preception of  one’s self  is a great thing…it can hinder you …or sky rocket you into excelling high levels in life…whether others believed you could…or not.

Personally…I have never felt that anything was more beautiful than being black.  I may have never liked what I personally looked like (in terms of my facial stuff)…or my size…but I have always liked being black…and black features.

Beauty…is us…in all of  our  varying shades.   It’s really what makes us so much more interesting than all the other group of people in the world.  We’ve got variety, baby…and lots of it…and in all kinds of ways.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/08/celebrity.race?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/africa_have_your_say/8095882.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7244374.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8148719.stm

They say a picture says a 1,000 words.  If  this picture could speak what would it say?

I think…it would say-

“I’m not happy.”

In comparing this picture with some of  Michael’s earlier pictures before any of the surgery… you can see that he not only hated his skin color…but his lips…hair… nose…chin… and I guess just about everything else about himself.    How very sad.   And even worst…what he did to himself  thinking he could improve upon what  God had already blessed him with.

Thank you so much, Aisha for posting your video on youtube.  You are not only pretty…but fasinatingly beautiful…and a highly intelligent young black woman.  Your husband must marvel every time he looks…at his queen.  I know you must be an equally wonderful mother…because you possess all the right tools to having a beautiful and  successful loving family.

Take a peak at Ethiopian Sara Nuru…Germany’s next top model…and perhaps the world.

And yes…I’m still plugging  my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.    In fact…I better get some sleep now…so I can get up early in the morning and get out to go work on my book trailer some more…which I will post here as well as on youtube.  Soon and very soon…   It  is coming.

 Well, enjoy your day tomorrow.  Finally…some sun…but  lots of  humidity too.  Plus I have hot flashes…oh, well… 

God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009

 THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.  You do not need a paypal account to purchase, and you can purchase using a debit card.  Thank you. 

6 comments July 28, 2009

Appalling…

Last night I started thinking about something and it began to strike me as being funny.   And yes, the funny ha-ha kind of funny.   I thought –

“Wow, if I told my gay friends this they would fall over and die laughing.”

And they would.

So, then I tried to call one of them…one of my gay women friends but she wasn’t home.

So, then I thought to call another friend…and finally I called a cousin of mine who I knew would understand what it was that I had found to be so humorous.

I should preface this first by saying…I have never been funny.  I couldn’t tell a joke if they gave me all of Oprah’s money to tell one. 

This is what I felt was so humorous.  As you may or may not know I am saved and have been so now for at least six  or so years.  But during this time…I have run into some very strange things in the church.    Here in lays the joke…when I was in the club and hanging out I understood what it meant if I exchanged my phone number with someone.  It was one of the main reasons we hung out. 

Since having come out of gay life…I do not find it necessary for me to want to exchange my phone number with any woman and particularly any woman I don’t know.  Don’t know her name…and do not share anything in common with…just somebody out of the clear blue sky.  No.  

 And if you have ever been stalked…you too soon learn.   No.

While in the school library computer lab a couple of days ago, this woman who has stopped to talk to me on a few occasions came and began a conversation with me again…near the end she asked me for my phone number so she could call me.  Before I could think about what it was I was going to say…I blabbed out-

“No, I’m not giving you my number.”

To which the woman just grinned at me and asked me why not?

I had not meant to sound so…I don’t know what.  But I thought I had been a bit harsh in my response so I soften a bit.

Then the woman offered me her number…grabbed up a piece of paper and wrote down her number and gave it to me…to which I told her I would not be calling her.

But I recanted…somewhat and said…

“But if you want here is my number.”

And she gave me a piece of paper to write it on.  While I tore up her phone number and handed it back to her saying-

“Here.”

And with that the woman was gone.

I never thought anything of that incident until last night…and then I started laughing.  I have all of my life been naive.  It is something that all of my friends can clearly tell you about me.   It had never dawn on me from the moment that woman started talking to me…I don’t even know how long ago…that she was trying to hit on me.   It is funny but last night…while doing something…I can’t remember what…but that woman asking for my phone number came back to me.  And I started laughing…it struck me humorous.

Once while in church, I was called into one of the church hallways by a very older church mother.  I had no idea what she wanted to say to me.  From the point I had joined this church I had been friendly towards this very older woman.  I respect and have a great love for older women.   I loved my own grand-mother very dearly.  But the thing that this older called me into the hallway to discuss with me horrified me.  I was shock…and …and…   And…oh, I don’t know…insulted.  

Yes, I was insulted…that some woman older than my mother and grand-mother could have possibly thought that I was interested in her.  A woman who was very exceedingly old…with…with…     Well,  with false teeth…and…lots and lots of  wrinkles…and…   And…she was real old…and a church mother too?

It was absolutely appalling to me.  Who would expect such a thing from an old church mother?

What could have been going on in her mind?

 How could she have possibly have thought such a thing? 

This was so far fetch…and yes…again…absolutely appalling to me.  That when our conversation ended…where she had called me out into a hallway to talk to me… I went immediately to my friend, the one I wrote about in a blog earlier who passed, another church mother in this church with whom I had become very close to.  She was a friend… a confidant… a counselor…and  an ear to me and for me…and I told her.  The blog that I wrote about her was back in August 2008…if  you go back through the calendar to the right of this blog you can go right to it…if you would like to read it.

At any rate…I told mother about what the other  older  woman had just said to me.  I had thought about telling it to the pastor.  But mother said no.  She counseled me to not tell anyone and she told me to stay away from that  woman.  There is something which can be said about wisdom…it is wise….and wise always.  I did as mother told me…and have continued to do it even though that older woman seems to changed towards me somewhat…and though my friend has since passed.

In another blog I told you of another church woman…whom following the end of an evening service I offered her a ride home along with someone else.  I have always offered people rides…I do it as this is how I have been trained…my mother taught us.   When we were growing up before church service my mother had us up and out picking up people from the nursing homes and nearby towns to bring them to church.  And at the end of the morning service those people would go home with us to have dinner and then return back to church for the evening service…after which my mother had us take them back to their nursing homes or homes in nearby towns.  So, if  I am driving and I know I am going to pass near somebody’s house and that they do not have a car…I offer a ride to them and to as many people who can fit into my car.

But as I told you in a prior blog about this woman…as I drove up to her apartment.  And it was just me and her in the car…as she started to get out…suddenly  this woman turned back to me and gave me this kiss that even when I was in gay life I never allowed anyone to kiss me that way.  You know that all in the mouth…tongue…everything.    No…it was horrible.  I withdrew from her…and acted like I had not noticed…if you can believe that.

So, last night I thought of  the woman who wanted to exchange phone numbers with me…I thought of the very old church mother…and I thought of that woman who after service I had driven home…and I started laughing.  I thought-

“If my gay friends only knew this they would die laughing.”

Here it was I had gotten out of the life…meaning gay life.  And this was happening to me.

So, I called my cousin because none of my gay friends were home to hear this story…and I…I felt that I just had to share it with someone who could…and would understand what I was talking about.  So, I called my cousin.   And yeah…she understood.

She enjoyed hearing it and began to share some things with me as well.  And by the time I had laid down to go to sleep following my conversation with my cousin I had started to regret having called her at all.

She had taken too much pleasure in my little stories. 

But here is one of the stories she shared with me.

She told me of a church she used to go to where there were a group of older women just like the old church mother I had told her about in my story.  The only difference was…was that they had all become involved with a very good-looking young male who also went to their church.  As time went on the young male died…and he died from AIDS.   Thus the story broke about his involvement with some old church women in the church who were in their latter 70’s and 80’s.

Since Viagra…I understand that the nursing homes have gone crazy.   But the church too?

Though women do not need viagra…or anything else.

If you have been really reading any of these blogs which I have written…then you would know I find all of this absolutely shocking…appalling really.  It is unthinkable to me…that such older women would be behaving in such a way.  And the other part about it  is that they are so loose…that they don’t care who knows.

In hearing this, I said to my cousin-

“You know some people are just in church because their mother is or was in the church…or their father was in the church…or because they just grew up in the church and have nothing else to do.  Some are in the church because they want to find a husband…some because they want to find a good wife…some because they view it as a great networking opportunity.  So, they are just sitting in the church but they have nothing in them…they are just there.”

And I came to find out as we continued to talk that was also true of my cousin.

I had oftentimes admired her for how she could quote scripture and knew where stuff could be found in the Bible.  But I found out last night that that was about it…she could quote it.  Because she sure wasn’t living it.

Awhile back, she had told me of a guy in her church with whom she had a flirting relationship…but she kept saying-

“I just thank God for keeping me.”

This guy sent her pictures of himself…in the nude via their cell phones.  That right there spoke volumes to me as to character of the guy.

So, last night since my cousin had not said anything about this guy for a while, I asked her about him. 

 Yes…the flirtation was over.  She had done it…and that in of  itself was not what was shocking or appalling to me…because I knew it was going to happen.  She had told me how she had gone to Victoria Secret…well, need I say more?    

She had all the while been preparing to do it.   This mind you while she was thanking God for keeping her from doing it.  Yet, she prepped herself to do it.   So, yes…I knew she was going to do it…sooner of  later she and that guy were going to end up in bed with each other.  And they did…and evidently not with the results she had been hoping for either.

She is in her 40’s now…and she sometimes speaks about how she would like to get married.

It seems that very few people save themselves for marriage any more.   And that is quite curious to me.  I would think you would only want to give your husband the best.  Not something used up and all ran through already. 

Isn’t that suppose to be part of  the beauty about  marriage?

I guess I am just old fashion in my thinking. 

But then my cousin went on and commenced to tell about her female supervisor for which she would love to go to bed with…and that is when I started regretting having called my cousin. 

It is hard to believe that she is an active church member and is readily carrying on in such a way.  But her state is not unusual only to her…there are many fallen pastors to go along with all those old church mothers who seem to not be too old to want to get enough of sex either. 

It is disheartening to me…but it does not sway me.  I intend to stand.   I know that everyone may not know what that means…but there are many who do.

Talking about something that is also somewhat appalling.  Blagojevich.

You do remember him don’t you?

Well, he is rather hard to forget since the guy is popping up all over the place.  If we thought he was insane for trying to get paid-off for selling off the Obama Senate seat of the State of Illinois.  We  know now for sure that he is. 

He seems to be getting a charge out of his 15 minutes of fame that is what is really unbelievable to me.  It just goes to show that some people have no shame.  And Blagojevich is one of the biggest of them.   What ah…ah…(I hate to say this)…but what a fool.  And everybody is inviting him on their show…and he is loving every minute of it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/02/04/VI2009020401667.html?sid=ST2009020301282

And yes…   Why is it that people who know that they have issues which will probably be found out…such as having not paid their taxes. 

Why do they accept positions when they know that this information is going to be sought after and checked?

Is it that they secretly hate the people who approach them and say-

“Hey, have I got a great job for you.   And I believe you are the best person for it.”

Do they really hate these people so much to want to embarrass them for having asked you in the first place, Tom Daschle?

I don’t know who Ann Coulter is but clearly she either has issues or she lacks a large amount of understanding.  I had heard this interview with her on the View before…but at last I get a chance to comment on it.

It is interesting to me to hear any white person be critical of a black person for celebrating their blackness…or being African-American… or being a non-white person in America or anywhere else in this world.  Or celebrating the lives and legacies of other black folk.   

After years of  black folks trying become more like ‘them’ and less like us.  I think it was great for Halle Barry to accept the Academy Award in remembrance of all the black women who had stared in movies and never received anything…not even a nod in their direction for their great work.  And there were some truly highly fabulous and talented black women actors who had done some outstanding work…both on stage and screen..and now are little known for those efforts. While everybody knows Bette Davis and their other white counter-parts of the screen.

I also think that it is equally as great for Barack Obama to celebrate his blackness and to be proud of who he is and the forces behind him which have all aided in him getting to where he is today.

If Ann Coulter had grown up as a Halle Barry or a Barrack Obama…when people looked at them and didn’t see screen actor or president…but a little black girl or little black boy whom they didn’t want their little children associating with…much less playing with.   Then maybe Ms. Coulter might have a clue as to why they celebrate their blackness…which has and has always been a prominent part of their everyday lives.   (Also just DOUBLE CLICK on below screen to see and hear Halle make the best acceptance speech of the Academy of all times…and ignore the text that appears.)

Wow, having said all of that…and I am just realizing that it is “Black History Month.”   February will never be the same.

Well, I had to shovel some more snow today.   And I am not tired of it yet…though it was very cold out today.  But it is winter…and we haven’t had a real winter in such a long time.  This winter is making up for those past few years.  And I just love…just wish I could lite a fire in our fireplace.  But I rather be safe than sorry.   For now I will just enjoy looking over at my parent’s fireplace and dream ‘fire.’   Smile…and enjoy.

 THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.  You do not need a paypal account to purchase, and you can purchase using a debit card.  Thank you. 

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009  

Add a comment February 5, 2009

Nikki Giovanni…a voice…

I don’t know what I was doing but I decided to see if there was anything on youtube on Angela Davis…I thought of Huey P. Newton…and then my mind went to Nikki Giovanni.

So, I punched it up and I have to share it with you…not that I agree with it.  But it is funny.

Most of what I talk about is serious stuff. 

I am not a comedian…and couldn’t tell a good joke if I tried.  Believe me.

My son tells me often-

“Ma, you are not funny.”

I consider Nikki Giovanni an icon and was happy to see that I could find some footage on her.   And even though I don’t necessarily agree with all of her opinions in these clips…she is funny.  

And we can all stand to laugh from time to time.  And it never hurts to be able to laugh at ourselves every now and then.

So, smile…and enjoy.  

I have the utmost respect for both Dr. Bill Cosby and Dr. Condoleezza Rice…as well as Dr. Giovanni, who still has that same voice after all of these years.   And it is just as strong as ever.

I am happy to agree on those thing in which we can all agree and disagree on those that we do not agree upon. There is just no way that all people are going to agree on all things…or even most of the people.   It is the way that it is.

I have 7 siblings…and none of us can agree on anything.

But the good part is when you can disagree and still love each other. That day hasn’t come in our household yet…and maybe not in the black community either.  It is something for us all to work towards.

Well…. …God bless… …and enjoy your day.  ©2008

1 comment July 22, 2008