deeceevoice's blog

LeBron goes ape-sh*t for the camera. 

My bet is you've already seen -- or at least heard of -- the current Vogue  cover (above) featuring tattooed, muscle-bound b-baller LeBron James. In and of itself, the notion of a Black athlete on the cover of a fashion magazine cover featuring "best bodies" isn't a big deal.

The controversy is in the execution; the "blue-eyed devil," as Brother Malcolm once would have said, is in the details. James is snarling and baring his teeth like a roaring beast. He's clutching a svelte, smiling blonde with one hand and dribbling a ball with the other. Of course, there will be those who will counter the growing outcry over this latest indignity targeting The Race as flimy, hypersensitive and wrong-headed, as crying wolf; "there's no racism there at all." Below is an old poster for "King Kong." You be the judge.

King Kong with a thing for Fay Wray - Movie Poster (c. 1933) 

The fact is there were lots of ways to photograph James: dapper, well-dressed, classy; on the court, doin' his thing; with a sexy woman, or several, of different ethnicities. The options were many. But Vogue chose, arguably, one of the most offensive and incendiary images it possibly could: the Black, male athlete as brute beast. The Black man as King Kong, White woman in hand, only this time as a smiling, willing companion. The photographer aped (pun intended) the old M. Cooper/E. Schoedsack poster right down to the poses of his/her subjects; right down to the silk charmeuse, slinky bias-cut dress so evocative of the 1920s and '30s (the original "King Kong" was released in 1933) and the hair color of the model (Fay Wray was a blonde as well). The Vogue photograph is, in fact, so faithful a fascimile of the vintage poster, it's highly probable that the iconic image served as the inspiration, if not the template, for the cover shot.

The message/image is all too clear, the comparisons inevitable, the stereotype as old as White supremacy itself: Black men are gorillas. Animalistic. Brute savages. And dem big, Black bucks jus' lubbs dem sum Waa-aaat wimminzes! (Well, that last one certainly appears to be true! )

Is this a message deliberately, cynically calculated to inflame the passions of White men, with several Democratic primaries still pending and a presidential election in the offing? With White women literally swooning at Barack Obama rallies? It wouldn't surprise me in the least -- particularly since the White, male demographic, somewhat unexpectedly, has been voting for Obama instead of Clinton in recent primaries. I mean we know how antagonistically and viciously White men react, and have always reacted, to the perceived superior sexual potency of Black men and White male feelings of inadequacy. The book Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America is proof enough of that. And there's no coincidence that sales in penis enlargement nostrums and the vasodilators Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are booming at a time when more and more White women are openly pursuing -- and being pursued by -- Black men.

It's too bad so many younger Black folk have so little race consciousness, so little understanding/grasp of our history, so little political savvy or self-pride that they constantly allow themselves to be manipulated by, or collude with, the media in this manner to denigrate and ridicule our people -- from that boob-tube coon Flava Flav, to Bobby Brown talking on MTV about digging a "doody bubble" out of Whitney Houston's butt (crack constipation, one supposes) as an expression of marital devotion, to that kickboxing fool in Japan, Bob Sapp - who, I'm convinced, understands full well what he's doing: pandering to ugly stereotypes about the Black man as mindless, brute savages -- in a word, a gorilla. After washing out of professional football, Sapp has made a fortune in Japan by calculatingly becoming that ugly, damaging stereotype reified.

Check this out. This is Bobby Sapp is unable to control himself upon being shown a photo of one of his kickboxing opponents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3__il-LxDlI

(Is there a way to embed video on this crappy website?)

Note the banana. He's a raging beast. But he's childish, feeble-minded enough to be easily subdued and handcuffed by a single, physically unassuming policewoman. His moniker, in fact, is "THE BEAST," which he wears emblazoned across his backside in what are akin to Speedos, cut tight to accentuate his relatively small "package." (Can you say "steroids"?)

I wish I could find another video I've seen, of Sapp at a Japan zoo, doing a similar schtick in front of a gorilla cage, flexing his muscles, roaring at the poor, imprisoned creature and pounding his chest like one himself -- all the while, again, cramming bananas into his mouth, eyes bulging. This guy gets paid big bucks for being a modern-day sellout, an animalized Steppinfetchit. He was, in fact, recently in the U.S. for a bout, photographed alongside Mike Tyson.

"The Beast" is a household name in Japan. He makes a killing off commercial endorsements and kitsch like this.

The Beast, Sapp's kickboxing persona, is big, dumb brute with the mind of a child, but the real man is a reasonably articulate, clearly business-savvy performer.

That there is much discussion and criticism of the "Vogue" cover is appropriate. We shouldn't tolerate this sh*t. James should be castigated -- and schooled. The man is about as wretched in this regard as rapper DMX, who, when recently queried about Barack Obama shamelessly admitted he'd never heard of the man and repeatedly mocked him because of his first name -- this from a mindless, narcissistic, gutter-mouth, gangsta wannabe whose name consists of three letters -- and not a vowel among them.

Go figure.

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Sen. Barack Obama and New Mexico's Latino governor, Bill Richardson

James Carville, the runner-up in the Annual Inside-the-Beltway Celebrity Skeletor Look-alike Contest (Carville is creepy, but Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff is scarier!), has likened New Mexico's governor, Bill Richardson, to Judas because of the governor's endorsement of Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.  Richardson served as UN ambassador and Secretary of Energy under the Clinton administration, so it appears Carville believes Richardson owes the Clintons, and he's now positively twitchily apoplectic that the Clinton campaign has come up empty at Richardson's door.

Bitch!

Snarked Carville in that Old South cracKKKa drawl of his that always sets my teeth on edge and calls to mind rednecks at "lynch-a-nigger" picnics back in the day, "Mr. Richardson's endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out [Jesus] for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic."

Now, that should go a long way toward helping Hillary out with the Hispanic vote!  That's just great, Carville.  Why don't you try shooting your candidate in the other foot, go on national TV and brand John Lewis a racist for announcing his support for Obama? ;)

Richardson refused to respond in kind, but remarked, "That's typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton.  They ... have a sense of entitlement to the presidency."

Indeed.  Never known for his graciousness, not only is Carville starting to look like his spouse, conservative talking head Mary Matalin -- only with hair -- he's beginning to yap like her as well. 

Tsk, tsk.  Bitchy, bitchy, bitchy!!!

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Obama in Philly Yesterday

With a couple of exceptions -- hopefully the result of political necessity, and possibly ignorance -- Obama's Philadelphia address is the most lucid, accurate assessment/description of the state of "race" relations in America today I've heard from the lips of a public official in recent memory (if ever).

Frankly, I have no problem with Rev. Wright. Still, I understand Obama had to repudiate certain of the minister's comments. In his assessment of Wright, he expressed his disagreement with him on certain points -- and that's his prerogative/right. But in explaining Wright's comments, Obama ascribed them to Wright's shortcomings as a man and to "his generation" as though Wright's point of view is outdated, his judgment somehow clouded by bitterness. Frankly, that's a load of crap. And Black folks know it. At least, however, Obama was honest enough to state flat out that Wright's views are fairly common among Blacks in the U.S.

What Obama completely failed to mention, however, was all too obvious -- that Wright comes out of a very specific cultural tradition (which Obama may not quite get, given his ethnic background), which is out of the Black Church and the Black oral tradition, where hyperbole and various forms of verbal aggression/attack are part and parcel of everyday discourse and, certainly, of public speaking. Over-the-top characterizations and incendiary polemics are historical qualities of the African-American spoken word. It's a no-brainer. White America is, after all, very familiar with the hyperbolic bravado of rap (White kids buy more rap CDs than Black folks do) and the verbal aggression of ball-court trash talk, perhaps less so with woofin', signifying and the dozens. Still, hyperbole in African-American oral tradition is a phenomenon White America easily would have been able to recognize, if not relate to -- had Obama bothered to connect the dots for them.

The fact is, owing to deliberate obtuseness (racism) or just sheer ignorance/stupidity, White America still needs a lot of help when it comes to inter-ethnic understanding. And when it comes to African Americans especially, they're still on the short, yellow bus -- if you get my meaning. ;)

The other thing I had a problem with was his obligatory and blatant a** kissing with regard to the Zionist lobby/electorate. I cringed at the way he completely and utterly discounted the issue of the illegal settler colony of Israel as the primary grievance of the Islamic world against the U.S. (and the West, generally), ascribing anti-American Islamic animus merely to some sort of unreasoning "hatred." I can't believe Obama could possibly be so naive/ignorant! As calculated as it would have been, I have to hope his comments were out of perceived political necessity. It was the only gross miscalculation/real error I saw in his address. It deeply marred an otherwise excellent address. Certainly, the issue of Israel/Occupied Palestine warrants as nuanced and balanced an approach -- even in passing -- as the issue of "race." But we didn't get it yesterday. Muslim Americans and other anti-Zionistists (including anti-Zionist Jews) have to have been disappointed at his complete discounting of a very real and intractable problem, one that will not go away with such glib and dismissive rhetoric and pandering instead to the 'crazed, hate-filled militant Islamists' demagoguery that has been so much a part of this country's public discourse since 9-11. I know I was. I hope Obama's unfortunate remarks in this regard were simply currying favor -- and not indicative of the way he will conduct foreign policy once in office.

I noted that on MSNBC, Scarborough initially tried his usual conservative spin, citing only Obama's comments about Black grievances and completely ignoring the fact that he also addressed Whites' complaints. But Scarborough (asshole-with-an-agenda that he is) had to take a step back from that position once Brian Willliams allowed the brother from The Washington Post to set the record straight in that regard.

So, all in all, the address was very well done.

Now, let's see if the White electorate has the intelligence to receive and honestly process what Obama had to say.

Frankly, I'm not holding my breath.

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<b>Why is this idiot dancing?</b>

I was watching President Bush talk about the economy yesterday. He was attempting to assure the press and the American public that, despite the meltdown of the mortgage lending industry and the subsequent collapse of housing markets, the implosion of Bear Stearns, the falling value of the dollar, the skyrocketing price of fuel/oil, reports that in February alone of this year the nation lost an <i>additional</i> 63,000 jobs (I'd go on, but what's the use?), the Fed had things "well in hand." The man kept saying, "It's for certain that...," "It's for certain that...."

Unconsciously, my lip curled into a sneer. God. What a witless f*ck. The man can't put together a simple, literate sentence, and we're supposed to feel comfortable that he's been entrusted with the (increasingly alarming) future of our nation?

And now I read that clueless, spineless, Ken doll Mitt Romney is a hot bet for second place on the GOP ticket with John "Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran" McCain.

<b>Color-true Obama screen shot</b>

<b>Obama as the Clinton Campaign's Big, Black Bogeyman -- Willie Horton style</b>

Hillary Clinton seems hell-bent on dragging the Democratic party down with her flagging bid for the party's nomination, utilizing every sickening, race-baiting trick she and her handlers can scare up: the conspicuous absense of any black children in the infamous "red phone" ad. And have you seen the doctored image of Obama the campaign has been using? Now it looks like they're trying to scare the White electorate by darkening Obama's skin to some muddy, gray-green-brown shade I haven't seen on a living human being since the early TV news anchors of the 1970s before makeup artists got hip to the red undertones in Black skin. (The racial slur "sh*t skin" comes to mind.) And if you look a little more closely, notice the widening of his head and nose -- presumably, an attempt to make him look more "Negroid" and, thus, more threatening. (Why not just put a grill in his mouth, a crack pipe between his lips and a gun in his hand?) Is it just me, or is anyone else reminded of Lee Atwater and the iconic mug shot of Willie Horton in the 1988 presidential election cycle?

<b>After Clinton Ditched Her Incompetent Latina Campaign Manager, Maggie Williams Is Now Gunning for Obama</b>

Maggie Williams is truly earning her 40 pieces of silver. I mean the sister is tap dancing hard for Miss Hillary. Perhaps when all this is over, she'll use a portion of her ill-gotten gains to buy herself a conscience.

I gotta tell ya. If the Democratic party can't get its act together and shut down Clinton's self-destructive operation, and if the dumber-than-dirt American electorate puts the Republican party within stealing distance of the White House a third time (and try to steal it again they will -- are you listening, Howard Dean?), I'm dropping out. This is one Black vote the Democratic party will never be able to count on again. Chuck the electoral process; it'll be permanently screwed, with no appeal whatsoever remaining for the millions of voters who've been galvanized and given a reason to hope by Obama's message and his vision of a new America.

Maybe I'll follow the lead of a lot of Black folks, become an expatriate and live abroad. Or, maybe I'll renounce my U.S. citizenship altogether, embrace my Cado and Cherokee roots and opt instead to join my distant cousins in the now sovereign Lakota Nation <a href="http://www.republicoflakotah.com/"></a>. It doesn't look like I'd be giving up much -- because after eight years of George and Barbara Bush's idiot spawn, one thing's for certain: the country is totally f*cked.

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Check this out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/us/politics/16delegates.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1205676326-eAyNZo3F5BrqmAUTJJSs9g

According to today's New York Times, there was a meeting at the Washington home of Sen. Clinton this past Thursday with uncommitted superdelegates. This woman is pulling out all the stops. Still, it looks like superdelegates and party operatives are starting to agitate for an end to this mess. According to the article, apparently, the collective will of the superdelegates so far is to go with Barack Obama -- because he has the superior numbers in committed delegates and popular vote. People aren't willing to thwart the will of the electorate. Still others see the standoff continuing and going all the way to the convention floor -- but only after the likely winner of the nomination (Obama) has been hobbled by another five months+ of attacks from the Clinton camp.

What the fuck is wrong with this woman? Somebody in the party, do something. Dean, just do it! Do it, please. And do it now. Bitch-slap this stupid, self-absorbed heffah and tell her to abandon her lost cause. Clinton's ship of fools, the H.M.S. (Hillary's Masochistic Superego) Entitlement, is listing badly, but goin' down slow.

Time to torpedo that ugly, unseemly sucker and get on with the business of beating McCain.

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Frankly, I don't think Ferraro was speaking of Black men generally when she made her infamous comments; I think she was speaking of the fact that Obama is "biracial," that that is what has caught the imagination of some (particularly) White Americans. But once she put her foot in it, she didn't dare say anything more in that regard.

But, frankly, she's got a point there.

That does not, however, make what she said any more acceptable. Obama's ethnicity may have sparked some initial interest/curiosity. Modern-day White America loves its mulattos.  Plus, Obama is a family man.  He's young and hip, and he can speak flawless Standard American English -- always something that gets us extra brownie points with White folks.  Wrap all that up in a package that's none too hard on the eyes, and you've got a combination set to make White America swoon -- and White women practically cream themselves.  I mean they're literally fainting at his rallies.  And at a time when White folks are fantasizing so hard about being anything other than just plain, boring white bread (e.g., a half Native American former drug dealer raised in South Central L.A. by a classic "Big Momma" earth mother stereotype, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust -- get this -- raised by wolves!!!), they're doin' it in published "memoirs," embracing a "biracial" person makes them feel less racist, less ... well, White.  And if accepting "biracial" people makes them feel all warm and fuzzy, then, shit, voting for a "biracial" presidential hopeful should be right up there with popping a few "special" mushrooms or tokin' that wacky tabacky. It feeds their fantasies of some great, big, amorphous kumbaya melting pot, of that oft-invoked "color-blind society" (whatever the hell that is), their delusions of that nonexistent "level playing field."  Ah, the afterglow!

Yep.  They be straight-up trippin', boo.  ;p

But all that said, let's be fair.  To any reasonably objective person, it is obvious why Obama is where he is in the race today for the Democratic party's presidential slot. I'm not going to bother to name his positive attributes.  I'll let others do that.  Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" smackdown of Clinton on CNBC was dead on. Suffice it to say that the upshot is he appeals to that segment of the voting public who are hungry for change, who are seeking a new idealism and vision in American politics.

The other reason is he's run a smart campaign. Hillary, frankly, has not. And after dumping her Latina campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, she's hired on a Black woman, Maggie Williams, to spin her shameful, race-baiting attacks on Obama.

In no small part because of the ineptitude of her campaign (add in a healthy dose of real hatred/contempt for her and her spouse on the part of the American electorate:  "So, how do we beat the bitch?"), she's lost the contest for the Democratic nomination. She hasn't won, and will not garner, enough delegates in the remaining primaries to beat Obama. There's no defensible rhyme or reason to her continuing in the race -- not even if she's hoping superdelegates will give her a break and swing her way. She doesn't have enough of those either. All she's doing now is engaging in a self-serving, ego-massaging exercise in futility. Her blatant and tackily shameless exhibition of her clearly deeply felt sense of entitlement to the White House is not only hurting the party but her own political future as well -- and I called her national campaign headquarters to say just that. What she and her husband have said about Obama is simply scandalous.

I have to sneer each time Clinton says she's "more qualified" for the presidency than Obama because of her "experience."

Uh, Earth to Hillary. You were never the commander-in-chief. You were First Lady! And if doin' the president makes someone qualified to be president, then why wasn't Monica Lewinsky (or any of Bill's Arkansas white-trash trollops) drafted to run?  We may think the initial field of Democratic presidential hopefuls was crowded. But can you imagine? With Bill's series of skanks on the side included, those first debates would have had to have been conducted in mini series-like installments.

It's time for the DNC to do damage control. It's past time to rein in Hillary and tell her, "Enough is enough. Time to sit your ass down and shut the fuck up! You're going to cost us the White House if you keep it up."

But perhaps that's her mission: spoiler. It's the only ting that makes sense. She can't win her party's nomination, but she certainly can damage Obama so badly that he loses against McCain. Then she can self-righteously say, "See? I was right that Obama couldn't take the White House. You should have anointed me your candidate instead of voting for that loser."

Olbermann's right about Clinton campaigning like a Republican.  She's taken a page from Dubya's playbook on this one:   flimsy, nonsensical propaganda/logorrhea frontin' like Prophetic Truth.

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