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Empire Strikes It Right

So I just finished watching the season of Empire and I was absolutely fascinated by this episode. I know many have been turned off by the show after the beginning of this season was a little too Hollywood cameo filled and the writing was very sporadic and not tight. But damn it, I must say that by and large since the season has returned they have delivered show after show of must see t.v.

Tonight we found out that Luscious’ mom isn’t dead but is alive and well. We found out that the FBI is going to come back after the Lyon family. We saw the damn producer for the awards show reveal that he’s a queer and fucked around with Jamal, like OMG. We see that Jamal might be fucking around with Tiana again. We see that Rhonda is starting to piece together that boo boo kitty might have been responsible for killing her unborn child. We saw the Lyon’s come together and create a beautiful song that was just perfect. And then we saw Luscious’ mom show her true colors.

I mean how much can you fit into an episode. Oh, and lets not forget that Cookie’s assistant planted a seed in her sister’s head about being jealous. My goodness, the show may not still be for you but damn it did for me tonight. I was truly mesmerized by the collab that they did tonight. I thought it just made you sit back and think and appreciate that music and the voices that they have. Hakeem and his verse was fye. I can appreciate where the story lines and are going and the cliff hangers that they keep dangling are enticing.

They continue to shine the light on rebuking the stereotype that gay men all look and act alike. They continue to dig deeper into what it means to have your first love around and remembering all the up and downs that keeps you from letting go, especially when you have kids together and are in business too. I’m really happy that they went away from spinning Jamal from gay, to bi/curious or whatever they did and continued to explore the dynamics of gay men.

I’m excited to see what happens the next two weeks. One of the Lyons will die and there will be so much left to cover before they sign off for the summer. The music, the drama, the plots and the stories. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

 

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Stop the Rape

I received an alert this morning that completely disturbed me and I heard the story on the radio and I was reminded just how delicate and fragile the relationship is between Morehouse and Spelman College. Again, another story surfaces bout multiple students from Morehouse taking advantage of a Spelman student at a party and gang raping her. Four men on one girl, just because she was drunk.

While that was sickening, the most heinous part was what her school Administration told her to do. According to her story that she posted on Twitter, she was told to give the young men a pass because Morehouse and Spelman are brother and sister schools. I’m sorry but what the fuck is the thought process like at these schools? I just really can’t believe that once again we’re confronted with this dynamic.

Time and time again, I defend my alma mater because I am proud to be one of the privileged to have attended the school and grew up with an extreme sense of pride. While we have our share of issues, I never thought that this would become the epidemic that we became known for. I understand that Spelman has a lot of very attractive women, and Morehouse is filled with very handsome men, but got damn is really that serious that you gotta ruin yourself, your rep and tarnish your schools image.

Maybe, that’s part of the problem though at 830 Westview Dr SW. Maybe, they spend too  much time telling us how privileged and special we were. Maybe some of the students chosen weren’t use to hearing that or the opposite is true. Maybe they been hearing it too much. Maybe we are too stuck on ourselves and think that just because we go to this prestigious school that we’re immune from following the rules of decorum and the laws of the land.

If you know me, then you know that I bleed Maroon and White, but I’m also a man who’s so serious about human rights. Who was the ignorant ass who thought that we can continue to take advantage of the special bond that suppose to exist between these two tradition rich schools? Why do we feel that if we can’t get what we want, we must force our will to be done?

I implore the students of Morehouse and Spelman to come together and have a forum to truly bring an end to this foolishness. I urge the Alumni of both schools to become more involved. I need to see that there are folks who are more concerned with protecting the current and next waves of Morehouse men and Spelman women, than protecting their status within either school.

This type of behavior doesn’t make either school look good. It makes us question why we really have the “brother, sister” bond in the first place. We need to take these Administrations to task also. The Presidents, Dean’s and respective Student Government leadership need to come together to get a handle on this shit. What the fuck will it take in order to truly put a stop to this? Does someone need to get seriously hurt in one of these gang rapes?

The narrative needs to change too. We must open our mouth and not be afraid to challenge that which we know is wrong. Across America college campuses are facing this horrible epidemic and we really need it to stop. So please start the conversation, band together and lets make some changes.

Tell me your thoughts and lets have the dialog.

Leave a comment Posted on current events, Politics, real talk

Trump’s Republican World

Last night, the Donald did what few thought he was capable of doing when he first announced his candidacy, he clinched the Republican nomination for President. By winning Indiana, he knocked out the last two opponents in the race, Ted Cruz and John Kasich. What an unbelievably ignorant time we’re living in.

I respect those who have differing views than I do on than I on the state of the country and on American politics. But I truly want someone with half a brain to tell me what the fuck Donald Trump has going for him that makes anyone think he really lead this country? Where in the hell does he have the credentials to be President? Because you Republicans want an “Outsider” to lead your party, you turn to a reality celebrity, that really knows nothing about policy. Is he a successful businessman? Surely, can he run an entire nation? Looking at what he’s done and stood for in this nomination cycle.. Hell Naw!

Listen, I get it when it comes to Trump. He has the balls to say things that a lot of people believe. He talks a certain way that a lot of racist and supremacy groups find appealing. He disparages women and think that we should force immigrants that aren’t to his liking, to wait to enter the country. I mean I understand, for those who think that this country has gone down hill because we elected a Black man as President and the Supreme Court made landmark decisions that allowed for more equality in this country.

I guess it never seems to fail that when we think that the country is ready to take steps forward, we see that the country really may not be as ready to embrace change as we thought.  While Progressives, Moderates and Centrists can accept the fact that the world is changing, the base of the Conservative movement still believes that we should be a “Good Ole Boy” network. Whites in control and women taking a back seat. You don’t believe what I’m saying, well just listen to their leader.. Donald Trump.

The General Election fight is now here and Hillary and Donald are about to square off in one epic contest. Donald and his machoism. Hillary and her Clinton machine. For the next six months it’s going to be a political war to see who comes out on top. Partial or not, this wasn’t my first idea of who I’d like to see, but this is the matchup we’ve got. So my two questions are: Is Trump planted by the Clintons to ensure that Hillary wins? Are we really dumb enough to put Donald Trump into the White House?

America wake up and pay attention to what Trump’s trying to do. He is an establishment Republican politician. And, now he may be one night away from the White House. Democrats and Independents alike, you gotta come out and make your voice heard in this election. Trump is not who we need running this country.

Gimme your thoughts and feedback

 

Leave a comment Posted on current events, real talk

Purple Sadness

I was reading an article that said that less than a day away from death Prince was set to meet with a doctor who could help him deal with his drug addiction. The doctor had sent his son to Prince’s home to prep him on the therapy and treatment he was going to receive upon the doctor’s arrival the next day. Sadly, Prince didn’t make to that appointment, as he died the night before.

Part of this blog is talk about the sadness of how mega celebrities struggle with the fame and often times turn to drugs to deal with the constant pressure to produce and create magical music. The other talks about our incessant yearning for the most amount of detail about their lives and struggles as possible.

Lets deal with the former first. It’s really a shame that three of the biggest musicians in the history of the business, Prince, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, all befell a similar fate: overdose on drugs that eventually took their lives. Michael used powerful sleep anesthetic that wound up taking him out, Whitney was addicted to crack cocaine and Prince’s drug of choice was Percocet. All drugs that when abused cause severe side effects and possible death.

You just have to wonder just how much the pressure to continue to be legendary winds up getting to these mega celebrities. You think about all the other celebrities who have died because of accidental or intentional drug overdoses. Think about Wrestling Superstar China. She died the day before Prince, due to an accidental drug overdose. You can continue to name names and the result is the same. Rick James and on and on. Sad cases of celebrities too caught up in partying, or too depressed to get the help they need.

Now, I’m going to address the sickening later part of the convo and that’s our disturbingly thirsty desire to know all the gruesome details of what happened to cause a legend’s life to be cut short. Remember when Prince first died the thought was maybe it was related to his sickness he had before he came to Atlanta to perform. Now, the media and everyone alike wants to know just to what extent his drug habit played into his death.

I understand the desire for answers, and as a culture we all want to know what happened in hopes that we can tell the story to someone and it will save their life. But, why do we need to dig so deep and get so personal that we need secret sources or family members telling the most private tales of their loved one, that’s no longer here to protect themselves.

Remember the same thing happened to Michael and Whitney. We wanted answers to make sure we knew how they died, but the rabid culture of no privacy pushed until we knew everything about their final months of life, even things that we may not even needed to know. I get it, they’re celebrities and we want to know what happened. We want to feel like we’re able to relate to them. But my damn, can we let the dead just rest.

Fine lets know what happened, but hell after that let the fucking people sleep. Please it’s time to finally stop this stupid ass craze to know what the exact move of our beloved celebrities are and let them have their sweet peace just like the rest of us. What do you think?

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The Purple One

As the news broke last week that Prince had shockingly and suddenly died, I saw tributes galore and read about so many more. The Minnesota Twins “coloring” the stadium Purple and then it just happened to legit rain. The major water landmarks that changed their water and the buildings that did the same. My church gave a beautiful tribute singing the hook to Purple Rain in church. All the folks who wore purple on different days to pay their respect.

I’ve watched many of his videos, seen a few of his performances on the internet and I simply marvel at how he was able to become the cultural, entertainment and fashion icon he was at the time that he did. In the 1980’s and 90’s it wasn’t very common or popular for a man to walk around wearing women’s clothing all the time. But here was this diminutive, in stature, man doing it and becoming a music legend in the process.

He used his fashion prowess to take the focus off the disability he had and damn it, it worked like a charm. He gave you these elaborate and very efeminite looks that made men cringe and women question their look at times. He wore his pumps and ruffle shirts, and on stage he showed you how to rock.

His fashion style I liken to The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, in the sense that not many people could pull off the high water slacks, with slouch socks and penny loafers. Much the same, no one could duplicate what Prince was able to accomplish. He will be known as much for his kindness and attention to the social biases, as he will be for the beautiful music he created. He made music to push the boundaries and to make you feel good about yourself.

Oh Beautiful, Purple One, you will be missed and hopefully your sitting up there making jams with the legends like you. The Doves are flying, the skies are purple, the rain is falling and their partying like it’s 1999.

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The Obama Effect Cont’d…

I was watching The View, as I’m known to do, and they showed a clip of a recent town hall with President Obama and he was challenging the folks who orchestrated the Black Lives Matter Movement to come to the table and have a discussion about the issues they care about, in order to get some progress on those issues. I was listening to him calmly and respectfully explaining how it takes more than just protesting to get things accomplished. He was talking about how protesting opens the door to get you a seat at the table but then you gotta be grown and sit down to hash out the results. Not to continue to yell and protest in peoples faces.

In my mind I immediately had two separate thoughts. One, how awesome it is to have a President who wants to have the table widened and extended to bring more voices in the room. Second, how different, and disrespectful it would be if Donald Trump were the President during this uprising. We’ve seen his insensitive, bigoted, sexist approach to handling those who protest against him.

President Obama shows you what it means to be the leader of the free world. He takes great umbrage with those who are marginalized and does his best to make sure they get their voices heard. You see him taking the power of the Presidency to Flint, Michigan in order to get answers and solutions to the crisis that still grapples that city.

Though his time in the White House is winding down, you see him all over the place. Working both domestically and abroad to cement the Obama legacy and leave his stamp on this world. He’s in England working the political winds to make deals. Saudi Arabia greeted him and worked to ease the strain there while also strengthening America’s position. He’s continuing to keep the pressure on ISIS and disrupt that groups efforts.

A recent report suggests that they’re having a little trouble with their finances and paying their soldiers, since we took out some of their high ranking officials dealing with money. We are continuing to see jobs increase, and slowly states across the nation are trying to get on board with the $15 minimum wage. Progress America ain’t quick but it can surely be blatant. Whether you like him or not, Mr. Obama has surely done the job he was elected to do, with or without Congress.

But there’s still way more work to do. Let’s keep the momentum going. Vote in November and continue to support the President.

Leave a comment Posted on lifestyle

The Current Blurried Line

One of the current debates running in the Black Community is the difference between the metrosexual man and the gay man. I’m going to address this solely based on a fashion and style perspective to understand why the lines are so convoluted.

The modern day man is now more in tune with the basic elements of fashion and business and it’s caused many to question their sexual orientation because the stigma has always been that most gay men are well kept, well dressed and love fitted clothing. Now that there is blend of these two words, a straight man and a gay look, we wonder how it came about.

The normal business man who’s gay will wear clothes that very fitted to the body. We are very neat in presentation and have smooth skin. We speak well and always have an eye towards what colors fit our skin tone and what clothes best accentuate the features we’re trying to speak to. So you may see us wear outfits that have pinks, blue, purple and other bright colors at the forefront of our accentuation of the base colors.

You see men who are more comfortable with fitted, tailored suits and pants, customary in European and Asian culture, rather than the more loosely fitting American tailored style of dressing. Metrosexual men have picked up on this and they now enjoy it. Where as, some closeted gay men gravitate towards traditional male dress because they don’t their tea to be spilled.

Look at a lot of the modern day athletes, they’re now wearing the fitted skinny jeans, and tight fitting shirts to best establish their desire to avoid the stereotype associated with lots of heterosexual Black men, which is we only sag out pants and wear big clothes. Because truthfully that look is still quite popular today, but not the prevailing trend. They wear suits that are perfectly tailored and polished Let’s be honest to the eye what looks more appealing: A man whose clothes fit and colors are spot on, or someone whose draws you can see but the look makes no sense.

I remember I read an article where a well known rapper had changed his style from a rugged thug to the metrosexual fitted look and the first thing said about him after the shift was, he must be gay. Who said that just because you choose to care about how you look, what you wear, the details you put together that you automatically are gay? The debate will rage on and I can’t wait to continue to debate.

If I wear a black with leopard trim shirt and some white skinny’s with some black boots  does that make me more homosexual than if I wear some pink skinny’s with a white fitted long shirt with layers at the bottom of the shirt? Is the metrosexual man more “gay” if he wears the Calvin Kline look, featuring tan and blue to work, instead of wearing any American made suit with precise tailoring that features blue with pink accessory pieces? Can you see the visual?

 

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Carolina on my Mind

We are here at another major sports weekend and I’m excited and nervous at the same time. In the Final Four this weekend, my boys out of Chapel Hill are going to try and get the W to earn the right to take center stage Monday night in Houston, Texas and win their third National Championship for Ol’ Roy and the sixth for the Tar Heel basketball program.

North Carolina has shown for the past month and a half that they are indeed the best team in College Basketball this season. While they didn’t turn on the jets until very late in the season, the work they’ve down the stretch in the ACC and through the first four games in the NCAA tourney, Carolina has shown why they were picked as the team to beat in College Hoops this season.

While nobody thought that Brice Johnson would be the consensus All-American on this basketball team, it was not a shock that the Heels would have regularly five or six guys in double figures. Not to mention, they finally found the defense that has been missing the past three seasons and it’s been a welcomed site. They’ve shown the world that they are truly a team that seems to be ready for the brightest lights and the biggest stage. Roy has shown he has the ability to let loose and enjoy the season and his players.

This team has the character of a title team and definitely playing with the swag of a group ready to demolish any team trying to stand in their way of Championship glory. If this Tar Heels team win the title, they will have done something that the 2009 team didn’t do. That’s win the ACC Regular Season, Conference Tournament and National Championship in the same season. While this team may not have been as consistently dominant as the ’09 team, they would have that feather to brag about.

Saturday night will be exciting and I can’t wait to see the updates of the game. I will be out celebrating my b-day so I can’t watch but I’ll be there in spirit as the Heels look the give the Orange a trifecta of losses this season.

Leave a comment Posted on current events, Politics, Uncategorized

Trump Is The Elephant

I’ve been talking about this now for months how Donald Trump is actually just like the Republican Establishment, despite many mainstream media outlets wanting to cast him as the outsider. He has all the talking points, rhetoric and actions of a man sold to the Republican Right Wing. Yes, he may say a few incendiary things that ruffle the feathers of some of the elite, but the truth is if you listen to his words he really is just like the folks sitting on Capitol Hill.

Trump wants to ban abortions and make women criminals if they do abort their child. Trump wants to restore “American Exceptionalism” and essentially build a wall around our country to keep folks out in order to “protect Americans”. Trump wants to expand the Military again and use our might in the Middle East more than using our brains. Trump wants to be the big bully instead of the influential big brother. If you’re wondering where these things have been heard before, well look no further than President 43.

You see as much as Trump is anti-Establishment, his tax proposal, economic strategy, immigration stances, abortion policy and foreign policy are all right from the think tanks of those who represent the Right Wing of the party. And if you think they’re not the Established part of the party just look at the number of “Tea Party” folks in the House and Senate.

Trump doesn’t want the violence to die down. Trump doesn’t want regulations. Trump wants to turn crazies loose. He wants to go back to those days where states could impose whatever rules they want. Jim Crow could return, White dominance reigns supreme and so on and so on. I was listening to Rachel Maddow in her opening monologue on her show and she couldn’t have said it any better. “If the Pro Life folks win the battle, it will be a constant parade of women facing criminal charges for anything that prevents them from birthing a child 9 months after conception.”

If you think this election doesn’t have consequences, look real hard at the candidates that are left on both sides of the aisle. Trump has views that are truly divisive and hurtful to the cause of American unity and equality. Cruz is even worse and while Governor Kasich is doing his best to stay in the race, he really is too moderate for this Republican electorate. Hillary can’t get out of her own way and people still don’t believe in her, while Bernie is just being Bernie and refusing to back down to the big bully in the yard.

The next few months will be interesting and November will be down right entertaining. Who’s going to win.. well I guess we will all find out together.

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The Obama Effect Cont’d…

I’mmmmm baccccckk… I was reading the news stories on my Goggle feed and other apps that I have and what do I see but the Obama Administration getting another major foreign policy win in the fight against ISIS. Just days after the Brussels attacks, U.S. forces kill the number 2 man in ISIS. Then they capture another high ranking official.

While this doesn’t mean the fight is winding down, it does mean that this Administration has proven that they will get the sum bitches that are trying to threaten our way of life and intimidate Americans. If you think for one second that these things are lost on the American public think again. Yes the President is in the final months of his time running the nation, but clearly he’s making every day count.

Another nod to the President was his stare down with the Republican Party and their refusal to meet with, and consider his nominee for the Supreme Court. Maybe, these Republicans thought they were getting the Obama who has another election to win. But clearly, unchained from having to worry about another election, President Obama is taking calculated risks and daring the opposition to stop him.

Commuting the sentences of 61 more people with minor drug charges, to bring his total to over 260. Continuing his push to close that dentition facility in Cuba. Taking the first trip to Cuba as a sitting President in more than 80 years. Sending his top American Diplomat to China to negotiate a nuclear deal. Using American troops to assist the countries in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places recapture their land from ISIS.

Continuing to conduct himself worthy of being President of the United States in the final months. We may see another occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have a brown hue like this President, but the effects of his Presidency will continue to linger for quite some time. You see Mr. Obama has done what many only hoped he would, leave a legacy that when the next round of history books are written, have to include his face and his accomplishments. Whether you like it or not, agree with all he’s done or not, you can’t deny Obama has changed America forever.