VULTURE: ‘Oh, I’m So Good at Math’: Lessons From the Jay-Z Business Model
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Reflections.
THE WASHINGTON POST: Message to Zimmerman: Black like me
SEE ALSO:
THE WASHINGTON POST: Racism and the George Zimmerman trial
Untitled.
Black Sheep.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Zimmerman Prosecutors Duck the Race Issue
THE GOOD MEN PROJECT: Pro-Athletes React to the Zimmerman Verdict, and What That Says About Race and Class in America
SEE ALSO:
THE WASHINGTON POST: Racism and the George Zimmerman trial
Untitled.
Black Sheep.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Zimmerman Prosecutors Duck the Race Issue
THE GOOD MEN PROJECT: Pro-Athletes React to the Zimmerman Verdict, and What That Says About Race and Class in America
Untitled.
words.
"You ain't shit.
That's the lesson I took from this case.
You ain't shit.
These words are deep because these are words I've heard my whole life: I heard from adults in my childhood that I needed to be "about something" other than all that banging and clanging and music I play all the time. As I got older, I heard I wasn't as good as so-and-so is at music. All the "you ain't shit" stories I got — Jesus, it's a wonder I made it.
Rich asks, "Wait, you're not surprised, are you?" I'm not surprised at all, but that doesn't mean it stings any less.
I should be angry, right? I remember when the Sean Bell verdict came out and I just knew, "Oh, God, New York is gonna go up in flames." And yet no one was fuming. It was like, "[Shrug] … No surprises here. That's life."
Rich asks again, "Are you surprised … that you ain't shit?"
It hurts to hear it, and I say, "I'm not surprised, but who wants to be reminded?" What fat person wants to hear that they aren't pleasing to the eye? Or what addict wants to hear they are a constant F-up? Who wants to be reminded that — shrug — that's just the way it is?
I guess I'm struggling to get at least 1 percent of this feeling back, from all this protective numbness I've built around me, to keep me from feeling. Because, at the end of the day, I'm still human.
... Right?"
NY MAG: Questlove: Trayvon Martin and I Ain’t Shit
SEE ALSO:
Black Sheep.
"You ain't shit.
That's the lesson I took from this case.
You ain't shit.
These words are deep because these are words I've heard my whole life: I heard from adults in my childhood that I needed to be "about something" other than all that banging and clanging and music I play all the time. As I got older, I heard I wasn't as good as so-and-so is at music. All the "you ain't shit" stories I got — Jesus, it's a wonder I made it.
Rich asks, "Wait, you're not surprised, are you?" I'm not surprised at all, but that doesn't mean it stings any less.
I should be angry, right? I remember when the Sean Bell verdict came out and I just knew, "Oh, God, New York is gonna go up in flames." And yet no one was fuming. It was like, "[Shrug] … No surprises here. That's life."
Rich asks again, "Are you surprised … that you ain't shit?"
It hurts to hear it, and I say, "I'm not surprised, but who wants to be reminded?" What fat person wants to hear that they aren't pleasing to the eye? Or what addict wants to hear they are a constant F-up? Who wants to be reminded that — shrug — that's just the way it is?
I guess I'm struggling to get at least 1 percent of this feeling back, from all this protective numbness I've built around me, to keep me from feeling. Because, at the end of the day, I'm still human.
... Right?"
NY MAG: Questlove: Trayvon Martin and I Ain’t Shit
SEE ALSO:
Black Sheep.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Black Sheep.
An Ongoing Discussion/Moment of Clarity.
words.
"Our society considers young black men to be dangerous, interchangeable, expendable, guilty until proven innocent. This is the conversation about race that we desperately need to have — but probably, as in the past, will try our best to avoid.
...The conversation we need to have is about how black men, even black boys, are denied the right to be young, to be vulnerable, to make mistakes. We need to talk about why, for example, black men are no more likely than white men to smoke marijuana but nearly four times as likely to be arrested for it — and condemned to a dead-end cycle of incarceration and unemployment. I call this racism. What do you call it?
Trayvon Martin was fighting more than George Zimmerman that night. He was up against prejudices as old as American history, and he never had a chance."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Black boys denied the right to be young
SEE ALSO:
THE WASHINGTON POST: Trayvon Martin and the stolen youth of black children
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Whole System Failed
ESQUIRE: WHAT GEORGE ZIMMERMAN CAN DO NOW
GAWKER: The Zimmerman Jury Told Young Black Men What We Already Knew
words.
"Our society considers young black men to be dangerous, interchangeable, expendable, guilty until proven innocent. This is the conversation about race that we desperately need to have — but probably, as in the past, will try our best to avoid.
...The conversation we need to have is about how black men, even black boys, are denied the right to be young, to be vulnerable, to make mistakes. We need to talk about why, for example, black men are no more likely than white men to smoke marijuana but nearly four times as likely to be arrested for it — and condemned to a dead-end cycle of incarceration and unemployment. I call this racism. What do you call it?
Trayvon Martin was fighting more than George Zimmerman that night. He was up against prejudices as old as American history, and he never had a chance."
THE WASHINGTON POST: Black boys denied the right to be young
SEE ALSO:
THE WASHINGTON POST: Trayvon Martin and the stolen youth of black children
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Whole System Failed
ESQUIRE: WHAT GEORGE ZIMMERMAN CAN DO NOW
GAWKER: The Zimmerman Jury Told Young Black Men What We Already Knew
A Moment of Clarity.
WORDS.
"When you have a society that takes at its founding the hatred and degradation of a people, when that society inscribes that degradation in its most hallowed document, and continues to inscribe hatred in its laws and policies, it is fantastic to believe that its citizens will derive no ill messaging.
It is painful to say this: Trayvon Martin is not a miscarriage of American justice, but American justice itself. This is not our system malfunctioning. It is our system working as intended. To expect our juries, our schools, our police to single-handedly correct for this, is to look at the final play in the final minute of the final quarter and wonder why we couldn't come back from twenty-four down.
To paraphrase a great man -- We are what our record says we are. How can we sensibly expect different?"
THE ATLANTIC: Trayvon Martin and the Irony of American Justice
"When you have a society that takes at its founding the hatred and degradation of a people, when that society inscribes that degradation in its most hallowed document, and continues to inscribe hatred in its laws and policies, it is fantastic to believe that its citizens will derive no ill messaging.
It is painful to say this: Trayvon Martin is not a miscarriage of American justice, but American justice itself. This is not our system malfunctioning. It is our system working as intended. To expect our juries, our schools, our police to single-handedly correct for this, is to look at the final play in the final minute of the final quarter and wonder why we couldn't come back from twenty-four down.
To paraphrase a great man -- We are what our record says we are. How can we sensibly expect different?"
THE ATLANTIC: Trayvon Martin and the Irony of American Justice
All You're Waiting For.
A video.
From Classixx & Nancy Whang.
PITCHFORK: Video: Classixx: "All You're Waiting For" Featuring Nancy Whang
From Classixx & Nancy Whang.
PITCHFORK: Video: Classixx: "All You're Waiting For" Featuring Nancy Whang
Venus.
Starring Azealia Banks & Paul Oakenfold.
PITCHFORK: Listen: Azealia Banks and Paul Oakenfold: "Venus"
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