Not My Momma or "Yo Momma": Addressing the Cult of Black Female Ridicule

A friend recently sent me an email about MTV's Yo Momma reality show and it gave me the opportunity to offer my own reflections.

So here goes:
---------------------------------------

Hey Girl:

Greetings from Nicole.

Oh, no this show is no joke(no pun intended).

I watched a few episodes last time I was visiting family and by the 2nd episode the novelty had worn off and the academic in me just began to struggle with this thing.

I didn't share all my beef with my partner cuz he found it relaxing and humerous at times, but it was just troubling to me to watch predominantly AfricanAmerican men attack each others fictional "mamas". Then, by show's end, their real mommas are there in some instances to act as prompts for each other's abusive jokes as the ambiguous Latin host howls with laughter along with his two brutha-man sidekicks.

It was like something out of Spike's Bamboozled, but ferociously worse---SINCE IT IS AN ACTUAL TV SHOW!!! It was an emotional blood sport as Black men battled one another over whose "mommas" were blacker, more impoverished, more immoral, more sexually explicit,etc.,.

As I overheard some of the jokes from another room, the show just gnawed at me. In a culture where Black mothers have been much maligned over the last 40years (and back as far as slavery is we push back muchfurther) CAN SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMEEEEEBODY MAKE THEANNOUNCEMENT THAT IS IS NOT ALRIGHT FOR BLACK MEN TO CONTINUE TO MOCK AND DEMEAN BLACK WOMEN---YOUNG AND OLD---FOR SPORT, LEISURE, COMEDY OR PROFIT????

When will we move to a space where Black women could possibly be celebrated, valued, affirmed---hell, atleast by our own men??? Why does African American entertainment always have a destructive, divisive quality? Our genius is often born out of pain and struggle, but we always seem to turn that genius against each other---while white folks stroll to the bank with the proceeds.

Can't wait to read the article below and glad to knowthat someone else ain't laughin'!

It's time to get well sis, WE GOTTA GET WELL!---Nicole

(P.S. It makes Oprah's Legends tribute all the more timely...and poignant!!!)

Coming Clean: How Cable Got Me Twisted

8:18 am 4/6/06

I did it.

Today.

Had to.

And its kind of eerie just the same sitting here listening to the street.

Sounds and muffled voices up on the hill across the street.

But I had to.

Things were just getting out of hand.

I'd rise and get up in the morning feigning for my fix of Democracy Now
while chekcing my email.

Ear poised, eyes fixed, trying to be sure Amy's coverage lines up with Yahoo's top 5 news list for this moment.

Then check 3 of my email accounts letting the other two sit for a while.

Surely my East Coast folks are writing, emailing, talking about something being 3 hours ahead of me here in LA.

By the time I get through typing, surfing, dreaming, riding the highs of emails received (so sweet when they're good) and the lows of emails never sent (awful when the ones you are feignin' for neverarrive), it's at least 11:30 by now.

Time for a snack.

Then turn on C-Span just to see how immigration fight is going...that's a whole 'nother post to be sure.

Yep, there Kerry is droning on and on and on.

Then I cut C-Span with a lil' TBN...gotta see what my Christian folks are yammering about today.

This will always throw me into the lurch.

Between the politicians and the evangelicals i'm always caught in the middle cussing and fightin'.

By the way, how come the Xian network, C-Span and the Cable yappers all look alike?

Pasty silver foxes in blue suits with forked toungues.

Katie Couric ain't got a chance in hell...

Well, by lunch i'm ready for a toot of As the World Turns.

...(White) Girl (actress), get up off the floor or out the bed cryin', he'll take you back by in a few weeks...Jack always does.

Then i'll hop up and do a lil' cleanin', chat with mama as Guiding Light washes over me.

After venting about the days madness via TV or radio report, I hurry off the phone as we now move to the premium drug of the media junky---The Oprah Winfrey show!

Please let it be good today, please God let it be good today, I pray in my heart of hearts!

At least let her have on somebody Black talking about something substantial (hell, on really low days, i'm just happy when Dr. Robin is in the audience!)

But, alas, the best I can hope for is 52 minutes of white celebrity worship...

Or the latest best consumer item/age-defying gimmick...

Or I am forced to listen to Oprah wrap our nuckles about how fake we are as a society as she chastices us about celebrity worship or living inauthentic lives...

Ain't she a confused mess...yeah, all the way to the bank!

So I just exercise and while she blathers on...I love her...she works my nerves...what I'ze gone do???

After Oprah I invest in Hardball with Chris Matthews...clearly...by this point in the evening i'm fully out of control.

Hardball is a summation of C-Span's with jokes.

I do enjoy Matthew's style, but its like watching political strip club where senators, reporters and politicians do their best poll dance all the while flaunting today's breaking political ineptitudes...i'm repulsed and intrigued at once...why can't I look away?

By the end of Hardball, i'm wasted, sick on my stomach and just bloated and ill from the day's media binge.

I finally flop on the couch to come down, take the edge off with a lil' Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network.

I then begin the round of declarations: That's it...time to turn it off...that's enough...you've had enough for God's sake...turn the $^&*%& TV off.

So head to the kitchen to scrounge up dinner... and I wonder...hmmm, what's Rachel Ray cooking tonight...

SOMEHOW, the TV pops back on while i'm eating dinner and I peruse the channels for tonight's tv lineup

...sigh...it's a sickness, yall, it's a sickness...
------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, so that's how things have been looking for the last few weeks while i've been waiting for feedback on several completed chapters as I pack, clean, tie up loose ends and prepare to move.

At first, all this TV watching seemed harmless at the beginning. I've been working from home these days and the TV became a way to "stay informed", a company keeper, just some noise to break up the monotony of job hunting, writing and isolation.

But there is a distubring side to it as well that's affecting me.

The sum total of all of the email, voice mail, leftist radio pro-po-ganda, soap (opera) dopes, WWF cable news, and talkshow-tainment is wiggin' me out, fa' real yall.

It's information overload.

It's stess inducing, anxiety producing and frying my brain and emotions.

Furthermore, I am exausting my loved ones with conversations heavy-laden with my own stress AND global madness...you know it's bad when your mom who loved our daily chats begin to find reasons to cut me off and run like hell from my calls (smile)!

So, I am happy to report that i'm working on taming this beast TODAY.

I'm fighting the pull of needing to know.

Puting some distance between myself and the fear the world-spend yo' money-inadequacy machine today.

It's now 8:56 am...and so far so good...i'll keep you posted...

----------------------------------------------------------

Nicole wrote this email at 4:37 pm on April 6...and happy to report that neither the TV nor radio have been on today...Cold Turkey Like A Mother Baby, Uh-Uh-Uh...

Breaking Bread Together: America, Something's Gotta Give

Greetings all:

As the political season approaches, I feel the dread and loathing building. The looming pressure to sign up, get out the vote, support "your team", prepare for the mindless, bitter election warfare of us vs. them politics, vote stealing, fear mongering on all fronts (domestic and global fears of all "others") and other party-driven playground antics.

And i'm tired already.

I need a new way to engage in nation-building---beyond division and fear and excruciating partisan politics.

So, i'm reaching out to all those interested in meeting in the middle, crossing party lines and just getting together to talk about America's future with folks from diverse perspectives.

If you are interested in participating in reflection, a shared meal, dialogue across difference and compassionate organizing for future projects, i'd love for come and gather with you and others who share these sentiments.

If you are interested in planning and participating in such a gathering in your community, please contact me at breakingbreadtogether@yahoo.com.

Take good care and I look forward to hearing from you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nicole Anderson is an educator and community organizer. I am currently interested in creating opportunities to diverse communities to come together and transcend division and spirit-breaking politics to forge a new vision for America's future.

P.S.:

Yeah, I know that such a project seems ambitious, but when you are tired of waiting for change and struggling with what is, you have few options: you either wither from within... or create the thing you want to see...and be.

Our fear and frustration with one another is devouring us from within.

I want more for myself and my country. And I know you do, too.

Timely Reminders from Octavia Butler

...A segment from a conversation between Amy Goodman and the preeminent science fiction writer Octavia Butler (who happens to be of African American descent) from Democracy Now (11/11/05). Here they are reflecting on the relevance of one of her earlier novel for these times:

AMY GOODMAN: Octavia Butler, could you read a little from Parable of the Talents.

OCTAVIA BUTLER: I'm going to read a verse or two. And keep in mind these were written early in the 1990s. But I think they apply forever, actually. This first one, I have a character in the books who is, well, someone who is taking the country fascist and who manages to get elected President and, who oddly enough, comes from Texas. And here is one of the things that my character is inspired to write about, this sort of situation.

She says:

"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery."

And there's one other that I thought I should read, because I see it happening so much. I got the idea for it when I heard someone answer a political question with a political slogan. And he didn't seem to realize that he was quoting somebody. He seemed to have thought that he had a creative thought there.

And I wrote this verse:

"Beware, all too often we say what we hear others say. We think what we are told that we think. We see what we are permitted to see. Worse, we see what we are told that we see. Repetition and pride are the keys to this. To hear and to see even an obvious lie again and again and again, maybe to say it almost by reflex, and then to defend it because we have said it, and at last to embrace it because we've defended it."

Youth Connecting Despair Across the Globe

This is an excerpt from a discussion that took place on Democracy Now this morning with Amy Goodman interviewing several writers, academics and activist on France's current unrest.

The following is a quote/perspectives shared by Julia Wright, activist in France and daughter of famed American writers Richard Wright. Here Wright is reflecting on the words of a young man weeks before the fires began:

Wright states:..."And I still feel eerie, because as I work with youth, 20 years -- 20 days before that happened, I asked one of the youths who's very gifted to write a statement on how he felt.

Could I read the first five lines of that statement?

AMY GOODMAN: Yes. Go ahead.

JULIA WRIGHT: "I am 20 years old, and I don't want to survive here. From death row to the prison of Abu Ghraib, from Baghdad to New Orleans, from Chicago's Southside to the French hoods, here, over there where you are, chaos. We're no political spinners. We're just voices, live from the street where we live, where we become wise, where we are duty-bound to take control out of respect for those who are prevented from setting foot in it. That very street I visualize without peace stones."

This is a 20-year-old. He wrote this on the first of October. The two kids burned to death on the 28th of October. And the suburbs have been burning since.

Mourning France's Hip Hop Generation: Further Reflections

Evening everyone:

Greetings from Nicole Anderson in Los Angeles. I sent an early version this to some friends and family last weekend...and just thought I would also send this along to my extended HH family...
Writing to bear witness and survive these times,---Nicole
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I must start at my own beginning. I am African American sistah born and raised on Chicago's South Side. However, as my dissertation research in Islamic West Africa dictated, I spent most of the late 1990s shuttling between Senegal, Guinea and France. And most recently, I was in
Paris for several months at the end of 2003/early 2004 finishing some of my research some of which looks at the African immigration to France during the 1960s and 1970s.

During my 2004 stint in Paris, I often spoke withAfrican and Arab French about racism,discrimination, and the vulnerability/invisibility ofthe people of color in France.
My boyfriend---a fellow African American brutha who came over to visit during my research stay---would laugh when he would come and meet me at different spots---cafe, cyberspot, archive. Inevitably, he would find me in the center of a debate with folks arguing about race relations in France. There she goes again, he'd sigh! He couldn't follow the French at all point, but he could tell from the crowd and my body language what we were addressing.

Seriously, though, in the same heated, impassioned conversations, they would ask meabout race relations in the US, about the US post9/11 and talk about how much further along BlackAmericans were then they were. Many lamented theimpossibility of life in France for non-whites.

For me, learning about the experiences of folk ofcolor in France was vitally important---because aslong as I was on the street, in the subway, tryingto get into archives, grocery shopping, taking Africandance with West Africans or meals withAfrican, Arab and Caribbean colleagues, my experience was deeply connected to the lives of folk of color inParis.

And yet, I occupied this complicated place---as a BlackAmerican. I occupied this priveledged post as an Americanresearcher moving with fluidity fromFrench research centers to my lil' apartment inthe heart of Paris...and yet I deeply invested inknowing about the lives of those folks---varying shades of brown and black--- who I only saw depicted on TV during the crime reports on the evening news.

Even though African Americans in Paris get to occupy a different kind of space---asBlack elites from another global West (wealthier,educated, artists, intellectuals, captains ofindustry),I was still concerned with theexperiences of folks on the margins in France. Living a life in America fighting from themargins connects me ---for better and for worse---with strugglewhereever you see it.

And the real for me in Paris was this: once you
get beyond tourist Paris, working and living in the neighborhoods as a young black female meant that I was perceived just one more Black immigrant in a nation hostile to folk like you on French soil.

I was as American as the documents I could produce to prove it. Thus,my passport was the only thing that could help me if something jumped off...and what a tenous space that was to occupy!So depending on the tensions in the country at aparticular moment---and whether or not Black andBrowns are being stopped on the streets for theiridentity papers/rounded up/arrested/etc.,.-- I had to be prepared to prove my American-ness at any moment.So while I was there to get the research done, I was also constanlylistening to the news, talking with contacts and reading the paper for anyhints of trouble/unrest.

The other reality is that we people of color inAmerica know this story. France had no problemextracting the resources of French North/WestAfrica/the Caribbean( raw materials, labor, land andmillions of Africans to fight in both of France'sworld wars) during the late 19th and 20th centuries.

However, when those same folks---many who showed up from predominantly Muslim North and West Africa---showed up on France's doorstep looking foropportunities for a better life in their formercolonial motherland, France became increasinglyhostile to them. Few could accesseducation, decent housing, religious freedom and hopefor a life in France free of religious or racialdiscrimination.

More to the point, French hip hop came out of these very same communities now expressing their outrage at systemic neglect.

So, now as the sun sets on 2005, I sit this week watching Paris burn.

And I feel that heavy ache inside. I fear another generation of Blackand Brown youth who will be separated from their families, incarcerated, detained, killed, lost, demonized, scapegoated, and folded into the global war on terror. I hurt for the parents up tonight wondering where their sons are...for elders whose children and grandchildren will pay a heavy price for this.

...And all because they got tired of waiting, ranout of hope and decided to unleash the fires burningwithin them.

This is indeed a reminder of what happens when hopelessness catches fire across a nation.
It is also a sobering reminder to us of the French wing of the Hip Hop generation---who have moved beyond booty-and-bling-a-thons (for the last 12 nights in any case)---to get in the streets and fight for some basic human rights.

Don't get me wrong: I do not celebrate this at all, but recognize the pain that has fuelled these fiery nights.

Thank you in advance for you patience. I just needed to offer this up on this evening.

Mourning the continued war against the poor of color in the West and asking you to send prayers-energy-good will to all who suffer tonight in your families and hometowns and hometowns across the globe tonight.

Take good care, yall!

---Nicole Anderson
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nicole AndersonIrivne Fellow/Professor of History Occidental College 1600 Campus Road, MC-13 Los Angeles, CA 90041-3314 Office: 323-259-2775 Alternate Email: nanderson@oxy.edu http://diaryofayoungblackprofessor.blogspot.com

Katrina, Media and Race Noise

Race and Katrina Disaster: The Chatter Undergirding The Tragedy
September 16, 2005

One of the things keeps going through my mind is the spirit behind the conversations taking place in post-Katrina America and its media. This is how it sounds to my weary ears:

Black Folks (generally): It’s about race and class. Look at the people who were left behind. They had long been left behind before the levees gave way.

President Bush: No it’s not. Now, me, aw-shucks-guffaw-I was no where to be found, but relief workers have had no color.

Media: Is it really about race...hmmm, that would make good copy...a new fresh angle on an issue we couldn’t see on our own until four days later? Are you sure, Black folks? Wait, let’s call a bunch of white folks and ask them if this is about race....We’ll they say it wasn’t about race...So see, Black folk, we told you it wasn’t about race after all...whew...that was a close one!.

White Folks (generally): No, its not. It was about the power of the storm. How can they say that? Besides, if you all hadn’t been acting so scary and looting and such maybe we would have given a damn and saved you.

Black Folk: (fall silent)
Why do we bother speaking at all. No one ever listens anyway. Unfortunately, the fact that we are never heard is nothing more than insurance that things will never change for Black folks in America.

Go ‘head, go head Kanye, go ‘head, uh, go ‘head Kanye!
—Nicole

I Just Got A Few Questions...

September 15, 2005

Hey everyone. I know. Its just been too long. But you know how it is: teaching, meetings, trying to locate loved ones in Mississippi, my own academic and personal writing, working on the Raising Our Voices writing project and trying to squeeze in a fitness workouts in the midst of all the madness. So, its been a little bit crazy, but just having a day to stay in and get caught up with myself has been a blessing indeed.

Ok, now back to the most pressing issues of the year: Ms. Katrina. All I want to say is that I AM NOT FOOLED, MR. BUSH, MR. NAGAN, MRS. BLANCO and all of your cohorts. Someone has got to say it. You all can talk about draining the city and stalking looters on "Mogadishu Mile" (let’s keep on Africanizing this tragedy as often as we can)...and opening restaurants in the French quarter and allowing folks to come back to the city....BUT AIN’T NOBODY FORGOTTEN.

Hello, hello, ok, let me not say we, but I will speak for myself in through here. FORGETTING IS TAKING PLACE...HELLO...FORGETTING IS ABSOLUTELY TAKING PLACE. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DISPLACED AND THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS DO INDEED REMAIN:

---Has every refugee received the $2000 from FEMA or Red Cross? And if these monies are being placed in bank accounts, what impact does this have on individuals without the benefit of bank accounts in their new communities or in the communities impacted by the Hurricane?

—Where have people gone exactly? For how long? Under what circumstances?

—Are families who have sheltered survivors receiving aid for their support of new additions to their households?

—If individuals were shipped, flown or sent away, how do these individuals return to the area to assess damage, recover personal affects and figure out how to return to the cities. If we learn nothing else, we must be clear that the priveledge of those who were able to flee also allows them to return as assess their damages and begin the process of rebuilding.

—Its fabulous that the French Quarter is up an runnng, but what is the state of areas still devastated by water, mud and chemical sludge? How did the mayor decide on the numbers of people that will be allowed to return and who will not be?

—Is there any record of employment status for those who’ve been displaced?

—Is anyone concerned about increased gun purchases in communities where survivors are congregating being bought by local residents to "defend themselves against new arrivals"?

—Is there any concern about the environmental concerns for water, food, chemical and toxin exposure for those in a hurry to return to the sit and get back to business etc.,.
What no one seems to be concerned about is the fact that thousands of poor folks—in particular poor black folks have been scattered to the winds across this nation who had no resources to leave so how the hell would they ever be able to return?

I’m sitting here listening to Anderson Cooper conmplaining about what individuals didn’t do shortly after the disaster. But my concern is what is happening with or for those who have been displaced—how are they supporting themselves, are they locating jobs, housing, healthcare, basic necessities in new communities? Cooper just reported that the focus is on rebuilding the city and access of business and industry to the city which just does not bode well for what kind of access the most needy or vulnerable will have access to in this New New Orleans.

I just can’t help but feel that now that things are calmer, that the President, military and local government seem to act as if the slate has been wiped clean of pesky citizens and they can now be about the business of rebuilding the city per their specification...and by the way, I just wish someone would tell Mayor Nagan that his days are numbered. You cain’t cuss out them good ole boys and embarrass them nationally and think you are going to survive very long...especially with so few Black folk in the community to have your back.

Later on yall, later on!—Nicole

Raising Our Voices: Thinking Through the Katrina Disaster

Raising Our Voices: Thinking Through the Katrina Disaster

As we all struggle to come to terms with the hurricaneKatrina disaster, I know that we are all doing what wecan to aid these displaced Americans and supportrescue efforts at this hour.Furthermore, I am interested in creating an edited volume (working title: Raising Our Voices: Thinking Through the Katrina Disaster) for those who are writing about this national tragedy.

As I have surveyed websites, newspapers, televised news coverageand even celebrity talk shows, I have been struckprofoundly by how few perspectives I have heard fromartists, writers, academics, clergy andactivists----particularly individuals of color--- inregard to the events and their aftermath. So, Idecided to put out a call.

If you are interested in sharing your work, please submit the following kinds of pieces for review:
—Essays
—Poetry
—Journal entries
—Letters
—Position papers
—Proposals for future action
—Accounts from displaced friends, family and relatives
-Lectures/sermons to communities of faith
—Other forms of writing and reflection

Possible topics include:
—Personal reflections that discussloss/trauma/distress associated with disaster and recovery efforts for those in the region or in moredistant locales as well as coping strategies
—Media analysis
—Race, gender, class and regional dimensions of thecrisis
—Perspectives on relief efforts, the nation’s responseand relocation efforts
—Long-term planning and policy concerns
—Historical perspectives on the events
—Intersections between your own field of expertise andpossible applications to recovery efforts
—Patriotism and the role of public debate in times of national crisis
—Other proposed topics welcome

On a more personal level, writing has been one of myonly comforts through this, so I would like tounderstand how other writers, thinkers and activistsare examining these issues. I am also convinced that those of us who are in the“idea business” must be chronicling how this event hasimpacted us personally. Furthermore, I believe that we must also use ourtraining, expertise, and collective vision to bearwitness, acknowledge our concerns, document our varied
perspectives and strategize to aid displaced citizenswith short-term and long-term needs.

Again, submissions from ALL are welcome, particularlythose from people of color.

Please send a hard copy or email attachment of your submission to the following address by November 30,2005. Be sure to include a brief bio about yourself as well and your contact information for possiblefollow-up correspondences.:

Nicole Anderson Irvine Fellow/Professor of History
Occidental College 1600 Campus Road
MC-13
Los Angeles, CA 90041-3314
Office: 323-259-2775
email: diaryofayoungblackprofessor@yahoo.com

Bigger than Oprah!

Greetings all:

Just writing to ease off of an earlier posting a bit. I was fairly tough on African American celebrities. What I will now say is that I do believe that we ALL, we ALL, we ALL are in a PROFOUND state of shock, grief, concern, despair and quite rage...and I do beleive it affects those engaging this in strange ways.

For some, we are silent and praying, for others---like myself---I keep busy trying to think and work and keep pace with the developments AND SO MANY OTHERS ARE DOING SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH to heal, aid, soothe and offer assistance to these Americans in crisis.

So what I want to say in advance of seeing Oprah's show today, I just want to say that I apologize is I expected too much from a woman who always does so much. Clearly, one of the blessings of this is that the crisis is resulting in EACH ONE OF US DOING SOMETHING and not relying on the wealthy or the powerful to take care of things.

Maybe Oprah just stood down, so the rest of us could stand up and act. And that we've done.

Talk to you soon!

---Nicole

CNN Reporter and Law Enforcement Analyst Admit to Police Looting

This morning in a conversation between CNN Reporter Kyra Phillips and Howard Robinson (9/5/05 at 10:25 am) discussed that fact that police themselves did indeed loot during the Katrina crisis in order to survive. "These officers who did not want to abandon their posts and evacuate the city HAD TO LOOT TO SURVIVE AND REMAIN IN THE CITY."

I just try to document these things that seep out that we may not hear again as the story changes and the govt spin goes into overdrive. Let us watch and see if the prosecutions promised against looters is also applied to law enforcement as well.

Eyes and ears open!

---Nicole

Where did everyone go...searching for Black celebrities in the post-Katrina frenzy

Where did everyone go...searching for Black celebrities in the post-Katrina frenzy 9/4/05 11:46

Evening everyone. Again, always writing in the interest of clearing my head and still struggling to make sense of this thing...this Gulf Coast tragi-drama unfolding in the middle of America and in the middle of our lives. I’m telling you, I’m sitting here in my home with newspapers sprawled on couches that I can only read in bits and pieces as the reach of the events bleeds across the country with the displaced arriving in cities and states nation wide.

On this night, I am waiting to hear from Wynton Marsalis (one of my favorite New Orleanians...ok, I admit one of my favorite people/thinkers in the world) on CNN as Dr. Phil provides the opening act offering support and comfort to families in the Astrodome. See, this is a part of the dizzying, numbing, burning nightmare. Dr. Phil has indeed been on of the few voice of compassionate reason. His posture from the space is indeed that of a professional standing with the people---as opposed to reporters gobbling up their experiences for the latest footage frenzy.

But I have to ask: Where is Oprah? Why, through all of this, have we not seen Ms. Winfrey anywhere on the scene.

Clearly, the media frenzy and the expectations for her would be overwhelming so early in this situation. But we needed the Black wealthy in the place, commenting, raising questions, rallying to the defense of those stranded, using their outrage to make things happen. Yet, not a call in to a network, not a statement issued to the press...just cold, bitter, frightening silence from the Oprah Winfrey camp. It is an absense that I cannot explain. There is something profoundly eerie and rank about it. It stinks of something I can’t yet articulate.

And clearly as an outsider, I don’t get it. Maybe a call went out to Black Hollywood that said "Don’t say a word, keep your mouths shut, don’t get involved in this???" So Oprah emails Denzel and Denzel text-messages Halle and Halle IM’s Latifah and Latifah pages Jada and the word went forth that on this... "...even though this is one of the most significant tragedies to impact African Americans this century, you all keep your got-damn mouths closed and don’t utter a mumblin’ word about any of this."

So much has been illuminated in this situation. Most revealing of all has been the powerlessness of Black voices---both individuals and media organizations--- in this hour. And that is clearer and clearer with every hour of news coverage. And even though CNN trotted out damn-near all of its Black journalists to add some color to the proceedings this weekend, clearly dealing with "race" makes Larry King shit his shorts and wrap up any segment where guests express real feelings on the issue.

I just don't know. Maybe our Black glitterati are so clearly filled with rage and disdain and shock and despair that they have no language for this moment. Maybe someone will have some words prepared for them by the next telethon?

But didn’t you feel good down inside when Kanye went off the paper and freestyled for a moment?!

Even Wynton tried to bring his disappointment and fury to the table, but all Larry King needed him to do is look pretty and play his horn.

Perhaps the celebrities have right. What is the point of weighing in when a hefty check will suffice?

Clearly I need to sleep this confusion off...things just can't be THIS bad???

—Nicole

Superdome Blues, Los Angeles Style

Superdome Blues, Los Angeles Style 9/2/05

Something is different now
Something is indeed different mired in frustration and complexity now
It hard to shake
Hard to put to rest

I am so blessed to have so much
But I can’t rationalize it...I have to think about it, deal with it, it is my life these days
Thinking each day about the babies, mothers, elders left to die
Fend for themselves
Wait on help and suffer
It’s Darwinian I swear it
It’s as if those who couldn’t leave deserved their fate
It’s as if being poor and old and young and black and female and female means you deserve such trauma

And I just can’t shake it
I feel like I’m in a long distance stooper
Where I have sun and peace and food and security, but this can’t really be real
I can’t really deserve to sleep easy when so many tonight can’t sleep at all

I swear to you.
My house is a bit unkept
And my mind a jostle
And my spirit just feels trapped in all of this.
Am I to go or stay or write or cry or fly somewhere to tend to the sick or dying.

I just feel changed
and weary
and undeserving
and lonely
and confused
and like my worst fears about America have been realized and confirmed
Those stranded in New Orleans have lives that aren’t worth saving for our government.
And I know that my life looks just the same to them.

Thank you for visiting/commenting!

Just a note to those who have visited this blog recently and left messages. I really appreciate your feedback and positive responses. I glad the site is useful and informative for you.

Keep visiting, help where you can and take good care during these harrowing times.

---Nicole Anderson

Apologies to those suffering in the South after Katrina

Copy of the Message of Hope I posted to the Essence Magazine site 9/2/05 10:27 p.m.

Beloved brothers and sisters,

I am reaching out to you this night. I have few words to communicate to you my feelings of love and concern and worry for your condition.

We in other states only have the media to count on and we have to trust that they are communicating the truth of your situation to us. I regret all that we lack---plane, boats, rescuers, the national will and commitment to your lives.
Most importantly, I wish we had not let you down. I wish we'd loved you more. I lament your suffering.

We are praying, praying, praying...but I am also racking my brain trying to come up with ways to help in the short and long term. Know that we tried and we are trying and each day we are striving to reach you...to save your lives. And we so apologize for all that we were not prepared to do.

We apologize to you and to God for your the pain you suffered before Katrina ever struck...and now your suffering has come to symbolize the suffering of a conflicted nation.

Seeking God's heart for answers,

-Professor Nicole Anderson, Los Angeles

Special escort from the K-Zone!

Hey,

I just want you to know that Mrs. Phyllis Petrich---who were stranded at the Ritz Carleton with a group ofdoctors and other business people in NewOrleans---were rescued by a fleet of helicopters onyesterday.

She said, LESS THAN 2 hours after she put in her callto CNN, they were escorted by armed guard from theRitz and a fleetS of buses and armed guards to safteyon last evening.She said there were so many helicopters that came tothe hotel to rescue them that they were buzzing aroundlike swarms of flies.Mrs. Phyllis and her husband and a group of 40+ others were escorted with security to a Baton Rouge hotel and received warmly with food, provision and clothing. She and her husband are now home and safe in Baltimore grateful to CNN for aiding them with their rescue. She said their escorts even "commandeered" medicines and antibiotics from a local Walgreens to give them medications to take/treat themselves once they got to safety.

Let me repeat again, when the folk at the New OrleansRitz put out a call, THEY got a flock of helicopterswith security and escorts to rescue them IN THE SPACEOF TWO HOURS. She mentioned NOTHING about officers fearing for their safety to come and rescue THEM.

We thank Mrs Phyllis for reminding us of what itREALLY requires to get some assistance to get the hellout of dodge!!!

Remain vigilant!---Nicole

Pulling Media's Coattails

Pulling Wolf Blitzer's Coattail:

I have been watching CNN's coverage today and I have to say that Wolf is doing a really a poor job of exacerbating the issue of violence and security in the city.

My concern is that Wolf is putting so much emphasis on what looting and lawlessness, but WHAT ABOUT THE VIOLENCE THAT IS BEING LEVELLED AGAINST THE PEOPLES IN NEW ORLEANS---WHO ARE IN OVERWHELMING NUMBERS POOR, FEMALE, YOUNG AND BLACK---WHO HAVE NO AID, HELP OR SUPPORT.

Yes, I understand that you need to report on the danger in the city, but why the hell can't you emphasize some of the factors behind the hopelessness that is leading to violence in a situation being so poorly managed by the US government.

I'm sorry but as a Black woman and professor watching this unfold, its hard for me to cry salty tears for the folks who have some provision---though limited---staying at the Ritz Carleton.

The bottom is---rich, poor, Black, white,---if the folk at the Superdome can't get help then folks at the Ritz are going to have to suffer a bit as well.

Stop reinjuring these Black folks by making this a story about Black folk "wilding out" in New Orleans.

Exasperated,
Nicole Anderson,Professor of History and Media
Occidental College

Troops Arriving to Restore Law and Order...Or Fanning the Flames of Frustration???

Just got through listening to the governor of Louisiana report that over 12,000 National Guard troopers who have been sworn in and given arrest powers in the state of Lousiana.

My only question is...is anyone focused on bringing food in, medicine in, aid in and assistance in...NOT JUST ARRESTING FOLKS??? And yall, know, the longer it takes for military help to come---especially if they are primarily white boys jumping off trucks with guns---the more volatile their reception will be. People are angry, tired and feel they have been forgotten about. I just pray that you law-and-order good ole boys come in, guns in holster, ready for the pain and frustration they may receive. We have a really poor history with law enforcement on good days; how then will a confrontation go down in these harrowing times???

I just got a note from one of my favorite mentors and friends, Pastor Vance in Chicago, concerned about many things, but especially hotel-gouging and the use of the terms "refugee" in regard to those American citizens who have been devastated by this.

My concern echoes his own and continues to be the way in which the media, reporters and government officials seem to be treating these displaced folks as foreign refugees to be contained, not American citizens in need of priority assistance!!!

Both Presidents Bush and Clinton just got off the TV making tons of promises as the mayor cries out for aid and says people are planning to march for the Superdome in search of help!

Standing in the gap between platitudes and pain of the people!

Pray on' yall, pray on!

---Nicole!

Pressing Media and Politicians To Do All They Can

Let's keep the pressure on Homeland Security to make sure that aid is not suspended, but is getting to those in need. These aren't the ones that have been published, but for the Black and poor, we have to be ever vigilant that aid can reach folk as our government continues to withhold aid instead choosing to focus on "law and order".

Homeland Security Information

202-456-1111---Comments Line
202-456-1414---Switchboard
email address: comments@whitehouse.gov

I've also written other black politicians to ask them to remain vigilant about these isues including Barak Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus (202-226-9776)

Let's keep pressing for those who have no way to communicate for themselves, defend themselves, even feed or help themselves today.

---Nicole!

Lessons Learned from Katrina: The Pain of Procrastination

One of the Lessons: I Never Got To Visit 8/31/05 9:22 P.M.

Laying here tonight, television off, air conditioning churning, trying to give myself a break from some of the Gulf images, I just got this tight wincing feeling in my stomach. And I finally realized what it was about. I never got to visit New Orleans.

New Orleans is a place that I have been longing to visit for the last several years. Professional conferences have been held there. I’ve looked at jobs there. I’d even gotten on their tourism bureaus mailing list and had been fantasizing about visiting one sultry holiday with my sweetie. All I could ever imagine was the food, the jazz, the history of the place. And one of the things that I believe is happening to me as I get older is that my fascination is growing for the things of my parents, the places and haunts of their memories, their childhood, their coming of age in the South. So, this week, in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, when my mother speaks of the Biloxi she knew or my aunt recalls just how many times she’d been in and out of New-awlins, it was hard to hold back the tears.

I am a daughter of that netherland, that middling space between North and South...between the city and the country...between mama’s house and nana’s house...the Chicago-New-Awlins-Jackson, Miss connection was just in the blood. We lived our lives in Chicago, but Mississippi was always present in their speech and stories and memories or plans for the next visit to see Unka’ John. The thing that I feel more plainly now than ever is how important, how central, how defining the South was for that wave of young educated blacks who came north in the late 1950s/early 1960s. In Chicago, Mississippi or Alabama or Louisiana and at time Arkansas and Texas were always in our ears, on our plates, just under the surface of city living.

So, in all the emotions that will continue to come up over these next days and weeks and months, I will mourn—there is indeed so much to mourn: the massive loss of life, the displacement, the uncertainty for all of us as this thing unfolds, the grim events yet to unfold...as the water recedes and reveals what Katrina really cost us as bodies and momentos and shards of lives collect in mounds on the sides of roads.

But most of all, I will mourn the things I took for granted. I spent my time visiting intriguing locales in Africa and Europe and the Middle East. In my procrastination, I boasted smuggly, even snidely, that "there weren’t many places of interest in the US." I somehow kept putting it off and saying, "oh, I’ll get there" or "I’ll go there next time". Never did I imagine that a storm would take New Orleans from us so quickly, so dramatically, so completely.

Is it possible to mourn a friend you’ve never met? If so, I do indeed mourn you for a while, New Orleans, you were the stuff of legends... mm—mm----mm.