Mardi Gras--Happy Fat Tuesday!

By now everyone knows I’m a proud Louisianan---and it is in that tradition that I celebrate the Great Louisiana tradition that is Mardi Gras!

What is Mardi Gras? The words “Mardi Gras” literally translate into “Fat Tuesday”. Fat Tuesday is a festival day ending a period of celebration and excess before the Lenten season. It is the last chance to eat too much, drink to much….and do whatever else you want to do before we sacrifice our favorite things during lent. It’s sometimes hard to believe that Mardi Gras is a religious holiday…..but it is.

I’m a member of a Mardi Gras Krewe….Here’s a little information about it: The Zulu Social & Pleasure Club was establishing in 1909 by the member of the Tramps Benevolent Aid Society. Zulu is one of the oldest and well–known “Second Line” clubs in New Orleans.

“The club is known for it's antics on Mardi Gras day as well as its famous parades, and has spawned more offspring across the country than it even knows. This club brought second line to it's present cult status, pioneering several of the common icons associated with second lines today, including the sash, and grand marshal to lead the line and/or parade” (From http://www.mardigrasdigest.com/).

When I was a kid, I rode the Zulu queen’s float and it is still one of my most fond memories.
-A

Links:
Mardi Gras New Orleans: http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/
Mardi Gras: http://www.mardigras.com/
Mardi Gras Day: http://www.mardigrasday.com/

MJB Breaks Through!

Congrats to Mary J. Blige for FINALLY breaking through at the Grammy's (and Billboard awards)! It was long overdue! This woman's music defined a generation while others came and went in a revolving door. She's consistant and this last album was genius. I have long believed that MJB would never be appreciated until she was no more....but I'm glad to be wrong.

-A

R E D E M P T I O N !

Congratulations to the Dixie Chicks on their 2007 Grammy's (for Best Country Album & Album of the Year) ! This is redemption! For all the bad press and horrible displays of American intolerance that followed their "ordeal" of self-expression it is nice to see such a public redemption. Sometimes we Americans forget what being an American truly is.....it's not entirely our fault....we have so much freedom it can be easy to forget how much freedom costs. Freedom and the American way, to me, means the right to be an individual. Rebellion is the very definition of American individualism. Freedom of expression is American! Although I was not surprised by he fall-out I was very disappointed by the intolerance to independent thought. I could soap-box on this all day but I won't. I'm glad a few "ugly" Americans have not spoiled the true American spirit.

-A

Black History is American History...Period!

This month as we celebrate the numerous historical contributions of African-Americans to American society at large let's remember that Black History is American History. If history was to be told properly thier would be no need for a seperation and distinction of one culture's contributions from another but alas in this country race has always mattered --to the extent that history was only told from the vantage point of European-Americans. The distinction was and is neccesary--still I am ready for the day when it will no longer be neccesary.

With that said--

Let The Celebration Begin!

When I was in school(In the 90's), I always felt like my teacher knew nothing about black history and were "just getting by" going over the same few names and pictures every year--now I'm a teacher. In this year's celebration I wanted to focus on more obsure black history facts. It is just too much information to contain to a blog....so I'll provide links.

As most of you know I'm a military brat and lover of military history. It's amazing how any group of people who endured such indignity as black people in this country rise up to defend it so valiantly. Black people had to fight for the chance to fight for our country and that should tell you a lot. In fact the fist man to die in thie country's fight to exist as a nation was a black man, Crispus Addicks. Here are a few of my favorite black military men and women.

African -Americans in the Military:

The Buffalo Soldiers-So named by a Native American tribe who once fought them because they fought like the buffalo the native americans revered (which meant they were valiant and fierce) and had wooly hair like the buffalo as well. The Buffalo soldiers coined the the battle cry now used by all American military, "Never Leave a Man Behind". They were also the nations first border patrol.

The Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee Airmen & General Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr. (a Tuskegee airman who later became the first African American to attain the rank of four stars and was named commander of the North American Air Defense.)

General Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr.

General Russel Honore'

A Louisiana born general who rose to fame in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This distinguished general and I share an alma mater, Southern University (Baton Rouge, La.)

Rear Admiral Lillian Fishburne, a Maryland born graduate of Lincoln University.

Here are a few of my favorite Black Inventions:
The Elevator (Alexander Mils)
The Traffic Light (Garrett A. Morgan)
Typewriter (Lee Barage)
Refrigerator (John Standard)

Links:
Little Known Black History Facts: http://www.theblackmarket.com/slavefaq.htm#The%20Rise%20of%20Cotton
Black Inventors: http://www.littleafrica.com/resources/inventors.htm
Buffalo Soldiers: http://personalweb.smcvt.edu/thefort/History/BuffaloSoldiers.htm
Black Quest: http://blackquest.com/

-A

It's Been a Long Time Coming...

But a change 'gon come....

I know I've never posted about sports but I'm a huge sports fan. I love my Southern Jaguars, the Miami Dolphins and can be cajoled into mild adulation for the LSU Tigers. But today is not about any of those teams. Today I want to speak on the mathematical anomaly that has resulted in NFL Head Coaches, Lovie Smith and Tony Dungee, both taking thier teams to the big dance....THE SUPER BOWL! the NFL only has five black head coaches (out of 32 teams) the chances of two black head coaches getting to the superbowl is...well you do the math...I'll just say highly unlikely). It must be the talent.


I was a kid in 1988 when Doug Williams led the Washington Redskins to a superbowl win. I remember how happy my father was...and I remember people on the radio being so ridiculous, saying that a black man wasn't smart enough to be a quarterback. I was old enough to be offended by that and to celebrate when Doug proved every one of those critics wrong. A few years ago, when Rush Limbaugh, a recovering drug addict, made a few borderline-racist comments about eagles QB Donovan McNabb all the Doug Williams rhetoric came back to me. Some people are just destined to be locked into trying to make the world fit into thier backwards stereotypes. Just last year reports circulated that Vince Young, a national champion winning QB, lacked the QB IQ to play in the NFL---Now Vince is the NFL's Offensive rookie of the year. Most black QB's have been through simular situations, with many of them being coaxed to try a new position to make room for more plyable, yet probably less talented white QB. It seems the tide is just turning. From Warren Moon and Doug Williams to Steve McNair, Donovan McNabb, Mike Vick, Daunte' Culpepper.......to Vince Young, Jamarcus Russell(Sugar Bowl Champ. QB), Chris Leak(BCS National Champ. QB), Troy Smith (Heisman Winner). I always find it funny how being a mobile quarterback is only a good quality when exhibited by a white Quarterback. If a black guy is mobile, it is quickly said that he should stay in the pocket....one Critic of Vick even added, "like a real quarterback". Yet someone like David Carr, of the Houston Texans can stand in the pocket and get sacked 249 times and his O-Line gets blamed. Then, after the team exhausts all other possibilities and lose out on Vince Young, they finally considered the fact that a fifth year QB who couldn't feel the rush coming was a liability. I guess they were just happy he stood in the pocket, like a real Quarterback. He lost like a real quarterback too.

Throughout our history it was said, thought and believed that black men couldn't play baseball, basketball (if you can even believe it) or football for various racist based reasons....and evey one of those stereotypes had fallen except that of the head coach....the strategic thinker...and master planner. Well, now that is a thing of the past too. Recent Hall of Famer, Fritz Pollard was the first black head coach in the NFL in 1921, for the Akron Pros. Another black coach didn't appear until Art Shell took over the Raiders in 1989. Like I said it's been a long time coming. It took 41 years for a black head coach to make it to the superbowl.....but even that has been done in style. Not one but two brothers will run out onto the field in Miami. I don't even care who wins...and I know I'm not the only one.

*Okay, If I had to choose I think the teacher should be the victor....Tony Dungee he's earned it.

-A

R.I.P To The Godfather of Soul

Mr. Brown you were and inspiration to many and forever changed the spectrum of music. Thanks to you, I'll always remember to: "SAY IT LOUD, I'M BLACK AND I'M PROUD!" Thank You.

I felt is best to remember Mr. James Brown in the visual with verses from his musical catalog.

Get up, get on up
Get up, get on up
Stay on the scene,
like a
sex machine...

I feel good, I knew that I would, now So good, so good, I got you...

He ain't no drag. Papa's got a brand new bag...

I'm Living in America...

The Big Payback....

Paid the cost to be the boss...........

Say It Loud, I'm Black And I'm Proud!

-A

What have we unleashed?

From Columbine, Co. to Nickel Mines, Pa.

Why is violence so prevelant in American schools?

I figured since I have no answers I'd start with a question. In my day school, violence was a fight between two people who didn't like each other. Today, armed people shoot at random to avenge 'wrongs' done to them by spilling innocent blood. Why now? Kids have been picked on forever. High school was seemingly invented to weed the strong from the weak and has done so from the very beginning. Sadly, I think our violence has filtered itself down into other, less violent socities (i.e. Canada, the Amish community, etc.).

Above is a now outdated map of school shootings.

The last two generations have been the most evaulated children ever. From the first day of school kids are "screened" for dissorders, counseled for any problems and generally very over-analyzed. If all that is so good then why is this the result? This kind of thing didn't happen with our less analyzed generations. I live in Texas and I find it interesting that no shootings have ocured in a place that embraces guns so readily. So the answer can't be access. Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. What have we adults done that allows our kids to devalue human life so much (I relaize that the last two shootings were committed by adults and I'll get to that in a minute)? Any of "life imitating art" people can take me on on this but I don't believe it has anything to do with violent tv and video games. The Westerns of the 50's and 60's were more violent. To that end, the cartoons of the past generations were more violent than alot of these video games. The difference is those kids didn't take things literaly. I think it has a lot to do with respect. We don't show respect for each other anymore. As a society, we have embraced indulgence and apathy as family values. I think the entire situation can be traced to the breakdown in the traditoinal family(by that I simply mean two-parent households). Feel free to disagree, but if you respond please offer an opinion of your own (Don't just just bash my opinion). ;)

The last two shootings have been by grown men which leads me to another disturbing trend which is the dispoportionate killing of girls. I think that too can be related directly to respect. Women and girls are more and more often portrayed as objects these days(i.e. "Girls gone wild", music video "hoes"). When we allow ourselves to be objects it eventually filters into being treated that way en masse. We've gone to far. Last week a man, sexually assaulted several girls he held hostage in a Colorado school before killing one girl and himself. It isn't enough that we have to worry about the loner kids, now we have to worry about grown men (and women) taking thier problems out on the most defenseless among us. How can we defend ourselves against random homicidal lunacy? What are we going to do about it?

-Astrya

Hurricane Katrina (A Memoir)

Being a native Louisianan (From Baton Rouge) now living in Houston the devastation of this storm hit me on several different levels. Directly because my brother, James, a Dillard University student lives in New Orleans and thankfully left the city the Friday before the storm. New Orleans has always been my favorite city; it was the locale of many of my personal milestones. It was the first place I traveled to with friends, the first place I saw Lenny Kravitz, and Ziggy Marley and live; not to mention years of annual trips for the Bayou Classic and Mardi gras.

What happened in Louisiana and Mississippi is a prime example of our nation tending to the troubles of the world and being abhorrently deficient in dealing with a CRISIS here at home. I want to keep this blog happy so I have dealt with the political side of this disaster in my other blog, “Just Politicking”. Here, I will simply say that for the first time in my life I was ashamed to be an American on the week of August 28, 2005. Many things have happened over the history of this country that have been wrong, and unjustified but never in my young, black life have I been ashamed to call myself an American until I watched the lack of response to the Katrina catastrophe. I remember crying myself to sleep for at least a week. My family, my friends, my people were the ones dying. I had an epiphany on Thursday of that week as I sat up late watching CNN, unable to sleep. This disaster is the personification of the treatment of poor and black people in this country. The rich people left New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama. In-fact three weeks after the disaster the debutant balls went off without a hitch in New Orleans. It did not matter that half the city looked like a war zone and most the people were scattered across the states. I will not soon forget the disparity of public opinion regarding race and the Katrina response either. Some of use should really be ashamed for not dealing with reality. If nothing else this incident should have sparked an honest dialogue about race in the United States. The pain of my disappointment aside, I will also never forget the Katrina disaster because although it diminished my faith in my government it intensified my feelings on the resilience of the human spirit. As a country, we came together the way we always should. That is, after all, the essence of America’s greatness.

Theatre 8.0

Confessions of "Rent-head"

In February of 1996, while serving as a White House fellow I took a short trip to New York with a friend of mine. My only goal for that weekend was to see at least one Broadway show. Well, we got lucky when my friends cousin, supplied us with tickets to see a, then off-Broadway, play at the New York Theatre Workshop. The play was called RENT and all I knew about it was that it was supposed to be a modern day version of La bohème, and I found that out reading the playbill. La bohème is one of my favorite operas, I always preferred it to Puccini's other great work, "Madame Butterfly" because it was about artists (and I could relate to that). Sitting in that small theatre before the show began I remember thinking, "How can La bohème " be updated? That question was quickly answered and I was blown away by the show! The subject matter spoke to my generation in a way nothing else has. The music was outstanding and it was a completely different knd of musical, edgy and raw.

Afterwards, I heard the story of Jonathan Larson, Rent's writer wunexpectedlyectantly the night of the show's firrehearsal rehersal. That night sparked a whirlwind of creative expression in my life that ultimately lead to me pursuing writing and learning not to take things so seriously. Until then, I was a staunch political scientist with a side passion for word-play. I can even remember the moment that changed my life, it was the first time I heard "No day but today". I had wasted a lot of my young life being "good" since I knew only a squeaky clean person could be a politician. I learned from Nixon's "recordings" and Clinton's "non-inhaling", how fickle public opinion could be(Thankfully that was well before Monica-gate). Before that play, I believed youth was immortality but I walked out of that theatre a different person...a RENT-HEAD. I was no longer willing to ignore my adventourous streak, or waste time in mundane social mazes.....I was reborn (and I may still get be president one day).

I saw that phenomenal original cast three times and crossed paths with the cast a fourth time when they performed at the Democratic National Convention that August in Chicago. That time I got to meet the rent kids and get autographs (unfortunately, I lost them before I got back to D.C.). In my view, Rent is single-handedly responsible for the revival of American theatre and for that we all owe a debt to Mr. Larson. I'm so happy the play was able to come full circle and become a theatrical release as well. I polled my friends (after all I am a political scientist) and not one of them can name anything they've loved for as long as I've loved Rent. I've never been much of a gushing fan, my way has always been quiet reflection but after ten years I felt it was finally time I came out of the Rent closet. Whew, now that wasn't so bad.....

Thank you Johnathan Larson for the masterpiece that is RENT!

-A

American Crisis 5.0

"Stupid Girls" and The State of Our World...
When I first I heard the new Pink song, “Stupid Girls” I thought it to be a chorus from feminist heaven...I pictured NOW rallies and people burning bras (yeah, well I'm over the top like that). This song attacks a generational divide that my husband likens it to a 1950's throwback of male defined femininity (and no, he wouldn't use those particular words...but then this isn't his blog). Thank you Pink, for firing the warning shot that started this discussion.


I never thought I'd use these words but, "In my day" girls were proud of who they were and not banished for being individuals or, what my mother called “standing in your own light”. Speaking personally, I was always a unique girl, taking dance class and karate lessons, competing in motorcycle races and beauty pageants. I never thought it odd and felt free to do anything I enjoyed. Being myself has always drawn people in to me. That is the beauty of allowing people to see who you really are. My father once told me that it was his job to afford me any opportunity to discover who I am and for what I was created. Do parents do that today? I’m not going to get into a rant blaming parents for yet another problem but let’s examine it, shall we? My hero's growing up were "Clair Huxtable," Barbara Jordan, and Nikki Giovanni to name a few (FYI: I'm a writer w/a Poli. Sci. degree, who will attend law school shortly), the influence is crystal clear. Those were the people (and a character) that I was drawn to. Who are today’s generations drawing their inspiration from? My parents and I watched television together. We discussed the sensitive topics and I usually left the room feeling like my parents gave me good advice. Compare that to the divisiveness of a lot of today’s families and you can begin to see how a generation got lost.

To be fair, this sickness was made worse by my generation and even I have to ask, why? This trend happened over time...slowly, as if manipulated by sheer evil, under the guise of the "boys will be boys" creed by which this country operates. Somewhere between “Brenda's got a baby” and “Whoop that trick” the industry that gave us both made women not the “object of desire” but just “objects”; from “honeys” to "hoe’s" and then simply a means to an end. I’m talking, of course, about the evolution of the music video. It’s obvious how images affect those who watch them. Scientists have drawn links between violent behavior and the amount of violence viewed by the person in question. In this case a generation, breed on pimp/hoe culture has begun to act in accordance to what they watch. With the “icons” this generation has, what will they become? Who will they become? Today, three-year-olds are emulating and idolizing video "hoes". My question is, why are three-year-olds watching video’s that expose them to such demeaning images of women (and men for that matter)? We are losing a generation to our own masochistic promotion. Today, teenaged girls give oral sex like kisses. We are in the mists of raising a generation if self-demeaning girls; and a generation of lost girls will always be followed by a generation of lost boys (because who will they be raised by?). America, you are in crisis!


Just for the young ladies:
What's worst than male masochist behavior is that in classic oppressed form have now become our own oppressors. Ladies no one can make you a hoe by calling you one ….it’s when you answer to it that you do yourself an enormous injustice. Women have power over men that is unrivaled. Consider this; wars have been fought over women, and wars have been stopped by women. I man knows not who he is until he finds a woman to live for. Give yourself a chance to grow into that virtuous woman without the baggage of doing things you didn’t really want to do the boost the ego of some boy.


Just for the young men:
Yours is an equally hard task. You must find the middle ground between all the images thrust upon you at every turn. Just know that every young lady you encounter is someone’s daughter or sister and try to imagine how you would feel seeing your sister disrespected. Try to imagine how you would feel seeing you mother disrespected and for God’s sake respect yourself. Decide what kind of man you want to be and be that way now.

Happy Birthday To Me...

You say it's your birthday?...It's my birthday too...

February 25th is my birthday and on my birthday I often reflect on the people that came before me. So on this day, I would like to pay homage to all the many people who made their bodies bridges so

that I could even exist, by surviving some of the most horrifying episodes in the history of this world. Listed below are some of the most important images in American History. Thanks for reading...well in this case viewing.
~A

Happy Black History Month!

It is with pride and respect that I offer this tribute...

Question: Remember how this country was founded?

Answer: With Slave labor.

People don't talk about this much today...it has become taboo to tell the truth. My country, my country, built on the backs of slaves and afraid, ashamed and sometimes unapologietic about it. Well, I refuse to dishonor those that came before me and survived over 300 years of slavery, and later jim crow, so that my generation could have a chance at a free life....so that I may have the chance to be a writer and tell thier stories, America's stories. This is a visual tribute to the strength and struggle of my people.

by Tom Feelings

A special thank you to the women who shaped, and molded me into a political scientist...

Shirley Chisholm

Barbara Jordan

To our ancestors I say, Thank you!