Uninformed in an Age of Information

What's going on in Israel? What about Brazil? What goes on in Brazil on a day-to-day basis? As far as the healthcare bill is concerned, is the one recently passed only a starting point for improvements? Will there be more amendments? What about the relatively weak financial reform bill? Will it be strengthened as the months pass? What is the President doing daily to stop the Gulf Spill? Have the families of the 11 TransOcean explosion been financially compensated?

I don't know. I haven't heard. I watch at least two hours of news and two hours of news commentary every day, and I don't know. Headlines from the Washington Post are inboxed to every day. My homepage is MSN.com, and CNN.com is bookmarked. With all of this, I still don't know. Could it be possible that even in the age of information, when people want to know everything about everything, the most informed of us are still uninformed? What does this say about the state of our media, and the types of information we crave most?

I'll give one example. For the past two weeks, straight news and liberal/conservative news commentators have criticized President Obama for now "showing enough emotion" concerning the Gulf Oil Spill. Hours have spent on this with talking heads analyzing the man's every facial expression and comment. However, we don't know how much money fishermen stand to receive. What kinds of cleaners have been used to clean the wildlife? What is actually in that dispersant? What happened to the less-harmful dispersant? Is it still in Texas? What are the plans to replenish the wetlands that are being choked off by the oil? What would the military do if they were involved? What could they do that BP is not doing if they don't have the equipment? We don't know any of these things because our media has been wasting time asking why the 6'0+ Black man who runs a country that many see as a white man's country hadn't blown his top or started crying. We already know the damn answer to that. If you are reading this post, and you don't know, see Jonathan Capehart's June 8 column at washingtonpost.com. I'm more into action, not posturing. Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh can show emotions. Would we want them in charge of this catastrophe?

Don't buy my implication that our national media is keeping us ignorant of important policy while focusing on mind-numbing fluff? Remember the year of Bennifer? That very public affair of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez? While our news and our minds were following the couple around as they made out in public and purchased a gun permit, our country was embroilled in two foreign wars. Servicemen and women were dying daily, and we couldn't get enough of what the powercouple -two individual adults with their own lives and damn it, their own prerogatives -garnered more of our attention and news space than two wars.

By now I know you want to ask, "Why should we even care about what goes on in those other countries?" I'm glad you asked. Our national deficit is reaching epic proportions, and Republicans are correct to be concerned -lest America become Greece. Spending has to stop at some point. Something needs to be cut. I find it strange, though, that none of these Republican (or Democratic) lawmakers ever speak of reducing American aid to Israel. And I'm not saying this because of any political standpoint I have concerning Israel and Palestine. As pointed out earlier, I don't know enough about the on-going conflict to make a judgment call one way or the other. I say this because Israel receives tens of billions of dollars of American aid, and America gets what in return? While Republicans focus on cutting social welfare funding and education here at home, what of Israel and our lack of return for the investments we have there? What social welfare programs are American citizens bankrolling in Israel? What benefit does giving tens of billions of dollars hold for the average American citizen? Why does America continue to give Israel aid when the country deliberately disrespects our leader?

Why should we care about Brazil? Well, it has one of the biggest and fastest-growing economies in the world, and it is almost independent of OPEC. What does that mean for us? Well, nothing right now. Brazil relies mainly on ethanol for fuel. Their government offered to import to the United States some of its very cheaply-made ethanol (the abundance of sugar cane in Brazil makes ethanol production there much cheaper than ethanol made here in the United States from corn). Unfortunately, our then President Bush, in all of his wisdom, placed a 100% tarrif on this fuel, according to the History International Channel, while his MMS office issued more and more drilling permits. You make the connections between Brazil, Bush, and our current crisis. I don't need to spell it out.

Even in this age, most younger citizens, who are part of the soundbyte generation, remain uninformed. With cuts to our education in favor of more foreign aid to our "allies" and millitary spending, the American populace will be even less informed that what we are now. And a population of uninformed taxpayers become....What? I'm too afraid to finish the thought.

Some Things Really Are Priceless

"English? English? Shit, I thought you went to school for something. English ain't nothing."

The above quote is the response I get from people 90% of the time when I tell them that I am a Ph.D. candidate in English. In addition to that quote, I work with a gang of Education professors who look upon my graduate work with condescension because, as one Education professor put it, "You never have to do any quantitative studies. You just read and write, and what you all read and write really aren't pragmatic at all." Well, I can't argue with that. Anybody who has ever tried to read Lacan or Spivak knows that the obfuscate nature of their writing is difficult enough to read, let alone apply them to real situations.

It is true that since the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan and other hardline conservatives painted humanities and social science professors as a bunch of ex-hippies looking to badly influence students with their Communist-inspired ideology, these majors have been on a steady decline. It seems that everyone who was anyone who went to college ran to the MBA programs. Those who really wanted to major in something that mattered took hardline sciences such as Biology, Physics, or Chemistry in order to obtain entrance into medical or nursing schools. Still others who wanted a quick, guaranteed job after college majored in elementary education. For the most part, by the time I enrolled in college in the late 1990s, people only majored in other Humanities/Liberal Arts courses to help them pass their LSATs and enter into Law School.

Thus, at this late date in the year of our Lord, most people ask me, "What in the Hell did you major in English for?" My answer is simply, "I like to read." Most people do not understand the purpose behind a humanities/liberal arts major because they cannot easily translate these majors into six-figure jobs. Most college undergraduates attend college to make money. The formula goes: 4 years of college + self-deprivation of the college life = big bucks, authority, and prestige upon matriculation. Since the 1980s, fewer and fewer jobs have been awaiting Humanities/Liberal Arts majors -even at the Ph.D. level. The degrees are equally difficult to obtain, since theories relating to human culture are never as simple as even the most difficult calculus equations. Humans just aren't that predictable. The purpose of a humanities/liberal arts education is to expose students to other cultures and other times in the human famiy through art/literature/anthropology/music/theatre/dance/philosophy/psychology/history, etc. And hopefully, along the way, we learn something about ourselves. We learn, through an engaging study of history, that it does not have to always repeat itself, and that people do not fit into neat little labels. But most of all, a degree in the humanities/liberal arts teaches us how to think about our world. LIBERAL ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES TEACHES US HOW TO THINK.

And seriously thinking about problems before we try to solve them really is priceless. If I have any criticism of American culture at large is that it is anti-intellectual. We continue to be the dumb jocks of the world -all muscle and no brain. Our current political discourse encourages all emotion and no reason. Other countries laugh at us because they can. Let me provide some prime and contemporary examples of where more liberal arts/humanities course would help our world reputation.

1. During last year's Presidential election, the Right accused Barack Obama of being a "Muslim/Islamic terrorist," and then proceeded to play clips of a very militant sermon from his long-term pastor, Jeremiah Wright. People were calling and twittering in to various political pundit shows saying how they were afraid of this "Muslim terrorist" who sat in church all of those years and listened to hatred from that antiwhite pastor. Sigh. When was the last a Muslim regularly attended your local churches? I've never known a Muslim to attend a Christian church regularly, seeing as how they have mosque sevices to fill their spiritual needs.

2. Not simple enough for you? Let's look at the healthcare debate. Why should we listen to people who use government/tax-payer funded healthcare tell us that government/tax-payer funded healthcare is bad? In case you don't know, all government workers/Congressmen use government/tax-payer funded healthcare...including Republicans. I was so embarassed for old people when they said, they don't want government-funded healthcare and the government had better not touch their Medicare. I can hear the French and Canadians laughing even in South Mississippi.

3. It's not American to pay taxes, but it is American to send soldiers to foreign countries to take natural resources. If not for taxes, who pays for wars?

4. Somehow, being gay has become a cardinal sin in America, but we're the fattest country in the world. Do I have the only Bible in the world that lists gluttony, not homosexuality, as one of the seven abominations before the Lord?

5. Celebrating Halloween is fine, but Harry Potter is witchcraft? How are the two different?

6. Wow, here's a good one. Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin tell people to watch out for liberal news bias and liberal news agendas. Those poor conservatives are always under threat, even though 91% of all talk radio is conservative talk radio and they have an entire news network devoted to their agenda. I guess the other 9% is REALLY dangerous.

These are just a few examples. I could go on and on. But hey, I'm writing to Americans, and you're tired of reading by now. Thanks for sticking around this long. Think about this, most of our greatest leaders, presidents, and thinkers were liberal arts majors. However, George Bush II had an MBA from an Ivy League school. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, studied in three liberal arts areas before attending law school: Philosophy, Economics, and Political Science. One left a surplus. The other left a deficit. THINK about it.

Disappearing White Privilege?

I must say, I hate when people relegate racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia to Mississippi. I hate it because I travel extensively. I follow the news extensively. I'm a history bug. I consider all of the above -hatred - an American problem; not one exclusive to any state or region of the country. From Watts, to Detroit, to Chicago, to Memphis to Jackson to Dallas to Washington D.C., senseless acts of violence have erupted in this country, taking the lives (or in the case of Reagan, attempting to take the lives) of some of our most promising leaders.
When historians write of these times, most of them talk about the politico-economic uncertainty that produced flames of fear and hatred. What they don't talk about is the importance of the hot air coming out of people's mouths that whipped those flames into 5-alarm fires of violence. Case in point: the Oklahoma bombing of 1995 was not a random act of violence. It was carefully planned and orchestrated. Could it also be that Mr. McVeigh, and other domestic terror groups are being given signals to use extremism and violence against opposing points of view from Conservative -often Republican -leaders?
With the passage of the health care bill, the secret service has seen an increase in terror threats against Democratic lawmakers. In Ohio, New York, and even in Washington D.C., seemingly random acts of violence and racial/sexual epithets have been hurled at lawmakers. In Pinson, Alabama, a Mr. Mike Vanderboegh is calling for like-minded patriots to break the windows of Democratic lawmakers before rifle owners have to resort to pulling guns in a new revolution. Mr. Vanderboegh is not patriotic enough, however, to turn down his government-issued social security disability checks which support his suburban lifestyle. Michelle Bachmann, giving an interview earlier this week, described herself as a "foreign correspondent on enemy lines." I saw senior Republican Party members fan the flames of angry Tea Party members by waving their flag back and forth. Meanwhile, on the floor of government, Republicans are just now proposing some sane amendments to the health care bill. Why now? We don't even know what's in the health care bill. Neither does Mr. Vanderboegh. And I'm willing to bet that most of those Tea Party members don't know, either.
So, what's the real issue here? We know that the Congressional Budget Office said that the new health care bill actually reduces the deficit, and is not guaranteed to grow the government. So, what are these people really wailing about? Most of them receive Medicare/Medicaid or some form of assistance. Those who are not already receiving this benefit, will certainly qualify for it in the future. So, I ask again, what's really going on here?
It is my belief that domestic terrorism and anger at government increase from those who stand to benefit the most from government increase is a screen for a more American problem: that of hatred. These people are terrified of losing what they feel is some sort of white privilege. In America, whiteness is a property that comes with not only a form of normalization of life and experiences, but with a certain intrinsic value protected by legal, social, and economic institutions. J. W. Cash called it the Proto-Dorian bond, and it is to be guarded and watered by the "blood of tyrants" who dare take it away. One of the cornerstones of white privilege is that it is exclusive. In order to enjoy this white privilege, one needs first and foremost, white skin. I think that may be all, because certainly the throngs of poor white people gathered in Washington D.C. and who live and benefit from government intervention, have nothing to gain under Republican rulership, which leans toward big business. According to W. J. Cash, the Proto-Dorian bond is a feeling of unity and support that unites whites across all class lines in a common culture of white supremacy. So, it was no slip of the tongue when Pat Buchanan, when being interviewed by Rachel Maddow, claims that white men alone built this country and its theirs.
All of this violence, protesting, screaming, and yelling is not about Big Government. It's not about health care. It's not about the deficit. If you ask me, these are just code words in a common culture of white supremacy. White supremacists feel like they are under attack, and may very well lose the white privilege they've enjoyed for more than three centuries in the United States of America. They are angry at the white people who voted for Barack Obama. They are angry at the white lawmakers who would betray them by guaranteeing immigrants and minorities a share of that seemingly shrinking American Pie. Most of all, they are afraid, and their leaders are stoking that fear every day. People like John Boehner, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, John McCain...good white American people who stand up to this "socialist/communist takeover" are their last hopes. In true American fashion, they react the only way they know how: with hateful words and equally violent actions that follow. If this violence results in tragedy, I think the people who are fanning the flames should also be held accountable, not just the participants of the protests and acts.

President Obama, the Political Chess Master

President Obama has occupied his current post for about 15 months now. For 14 of those months, he has aggrevated his base to no end...even myself, an African American woman who is a Southerner to boot. He has made me regret voting for him, and left me wishing that I'd voted for Hillary Clinton instead. As the "birthers," including Lou Dobbs, questioned his citizenship, we asked, "Why doesn't he do something?" As the Tea Party members showed up to his rallies with loaded weapons, we asked, "Why doesn't he say something?" As the antireform factions interrupted town hall meeting after town hall meeting, we shouted, "When are you going to take the lead?" As we watch Republicans controll the healthcare debate message, every one from Chris Matthews to Bill Maher challenged President Obama by telling him, "Lead, damn it Lead! You are the president of the United States! Act like it and lead."

Which is exactly what Barack Obama, current president of the United States, wanted us to do. Barack Obama the candidate played down race. He ran as an American man, not a Black one. He quoted Abraham Lincoln as his favorite president, and failed to mention the works of Frederick Douglass (an "overlooking" that garnered him criticism from some in the African American community). He stayed out of sight as Republicans and Conservatives concocted fake Kenyan birth certificates. He sat "idly" by and let the Democratic Congress and Nancy Pelosi mop up after the "death panels" windfall. Like a political chess master watching a three-dimensional chess board, he let everyone say what they wanted to say when they wanted to say it, and when everybody ran out of steam about everything, he moved. He went directly to a Republican meeting and took unscreened questions with no teleprompter, and had it televised -a first for our nation. He held a boring, seven-hour press conference on healthcare, calling out Republican incentives and naming names. When he'd done all of that, Daddy came back home and gave Congress a deadline for a bill, giving them the go ahead for reconciliation. To date, no Republicans have made an effective rebuttal.

Check mate.

Though Barack Obama the candidate played down his race, he has conducted himself like the level-headed Black man that he has to be in order to operate in America. He gave us the old ideological rope-a-dope as long as he had to in order to obtain a signed permission slip to lead (Right now, the letter supporting a public option in the Senate has up to 40 signatures). He knows that as a Black man, he's always already perceived as an angry Black man. He is always already perceived as less than capable of being in a position of leadership. As a Black man, he is always already perceived as someone more interested in chasing tail than chasing enemies. As a Black man, Barack Obama could not come out swinging and jabbing. Like Richard Pryor's character on Harlem Nights, he had to play it smooth and he had to play it sweet.

Now we're begging him to lead. Lead damn it! We're begging him to cease being a Black man, and be our president. Exactly what he wanted to hear. To his opponents I say:

"Check mate!"

From the Plantation to the White House

Last night, something historic happened. America elected its first black president, Barack Obama. I tried to be jubilant, but the benydryl won out, and I dropped into sleep right after his speech. My husband and brother celebrated for me by illegally shooting fireworks in front of our home!
I awoke this morning, however, joyous but not surprised. I knew it was going to happen. And how did I know? A surprising source: football. National Football League, and the way it deals with African American coaches should teach us a thing a two about why we can't let our guards down. We might have shouted last night, but today we must be sober. We stil have work to do, and here's how football teaches us this...
1. It took a long time for Black coaches to be considered as candidates for coaching jobs in the NFL. When they are picked, they are usually given the sorriest teams imaginable. They are put under more pressure to produce results, and given less time than their white counterparts. Remember how Tampa Bay did Tony Dungy?
Think of what it took for a Black candidate to be taken as a serious competitor for the office of president. We are fighting a senseless war of aggression in one country, and half-ass fighting where we are needed most. We have lost our sense of moral and intellectual integrity and our perception as a beacon of hope. Because of greed and racism, the housing market has gone down, and caused a global financial crises. The stock market has crashed and crashed again. WE are experiencing our own depression. Education is in a standstill. America lags behind even some third-world countries in educational funding. Crime is sky-rocketing. In short, this country is a mess. This country had to be tore up from the ground up for a Black man to be considered for presidency. At this point, I think people would have accepted a dog over another Republican, if that dog were white. Even with all of this going on, Obama had a tough fight because of his skin color. Which brings me to my next point...
2. America's team, the Dallas Cowboys, has never had a Black coach, and Jerry Jones won't even think of interviewing one for the job. He wants that winning team, and doesn't think it's a shame that his stubborness is costing him good will in the eyes of his fans and colleagues. Think of the Dallas Cowboys as the South. Do you all realize that the South is one of the poorest regions in the nation, and always votes Republican? With the exception of Virginia and Florida, Obama did not carry any Southern states. So, we can't sit back and relax. Normally, everybody gets to dump on Mississippi, however, this election has proved that the whole South is content to remain at the back of the bus. The South has taken her stand yet again, and like Jerry Jones, is content to accept losing and/or dying over positive change with an African American leader.
3. And then there are teams that have liberal and empathetic coaches, and players shoot themselves in the foot. These teams, like the Bears, and the Bengals, are unruly and undisciplined. They stay in trouble both on the field, and off the field. It is as if their money and superstar status have given them a license to act a damn fool, and piss away a magnificent opportunity to just play football, rather than hit the grind like the rest of us. These men, drunk on the wine of the world, screw up their marriages, their jobs, and their families because they are not mature enough or disciplined enough to handle the enormous responsibilities that come with success. Don't laugh at Michael Vick, one only needs to pay attention to the behavior of some urban African American populations to understand his behaviour. Instead of taking advantage of the tremendouse educational opportunities given us by our ancestors who died in the Civil Rights Movement, and before then, we became satisfied raising our families on trinkets, baptizing them in materialism, and teaching them to accept mediocrity. After the Civil Rights Movement, many Baby Boomer African Americans dropped the ball and fumbled it. They decided that being able to buy more material goods was more important than teaching our current generation our history. Now, it is coming to fruition. We have more Black men in jail than college. We have Black women having a bunch of children by different men so that they can receive more food stamps and other benefits. We have a generation whose only knowledge of Black history consists of a preacher from Georgia and woman whose feet were tired....Period. We are lost...almost.
But Obama gives us hope. And this time, we cannot afford to fumble the ball to the likes of BET and other psychologically damaging images of ourselves. We must look to ourselves and take responsibility for ourselves.
1. Let us reembrace Jessie Jackson. People make mistakes. WE need to stop putting our leaders upon a pedestal, thereby alleviating ourselves of any responsibilities for our own personal actions. Jessie did wrong, but he is our brother, and our father. We need to show him love. We do wrong, too. It's just that his wrongs are public and ours are private. We need to stop putting everything on the preachers' shoulders, and read and study for ourselves.
2. Let us always lift up President Obama with our prayers. Yes, he will be tested. But don't give in to typical Negro apathy, "I told ya'll he wasn't gone do nothing."
3. Let us be parents again, and not friends. Let us teach our children our history. Let us stop putting in ourselves into a system of volunteer slavery that tells you that a maxed out credit card at an interest rate of 29.9% is worth a new outfit for church, and passing on the curse of financial irresponsibility to our children. We don't have to be dressed to be blessed.
4. Let us look past the surface of things. Let us start to address some things that have been quiet as kept for far too long. Let us stop pretending that the young folk are to blame for so much silliness. We learned it from somewhere.
While we lift up Barack in our prayers, let us pull ourselves up by the emotional bootstraps. Mr. Obama once said that his favorite writer is Toni Morrison. I can see that. I can see that because in her books, she lets you feel the power of the white supremacy, but does not concern herself with it. Instead, she holds the Black community responsible for what happens to its weakest individuals. When we don't guide our children, love our neighbors, address our painful pasts, or pray for one another, disaster usually happens to somebody who felt like their own people did not love or support them. By the time the community realizes what is has done or failed to do, it is often much, much too late. And in her narratives, we have nobody to blame but ourselves.