Mondays 'IN' The Undergroundrailroad
Key Lime PieHello everybody and welcome to
Mondays IN The Undergroundrailroad. I hope everyone had a marvelous weekend and I'm here to jump-start your week ahead. So how is everyone feeling as we get closer and
closer to the Iowa caucuses ? I really think it's great that we have a community, our DU community, that allows us to discuss the candidates and the debates. Just think, in less than 10 months we will elect a NEW President! It's getting exciting!
For newcomers to
Mondays 'IN' The UGRR I will roll out the
red carpet just for you! We are a fun loving "bunch" and I want you to feel comfortable here and speak your mind.
Our dessert for today is
key lime pie. It is very easy to prepare.
Tavis Smiley, Extraordinary TalkAs I hear
Tavis Smiley speak, I think to myself, 'WOW, listen to his voice, what a beautiful thing!'. I mean
Tavis Talks! And the
MORE you listen to Tavis, that intellectual "blue" light comes on in your head and the next thing you know, you find yourself on your feet stompin, dancin, and jammin. Oops! I mean, stomp-ing, danc-ing and jamm-ing. Sorry, I lost myself for a moment there. Well, so what!
TIME MAGAZINE has named Tavis Smiley as one of America's "50 promising young leaders" and
NEWSWEEK profiled him as one of the "20 people changing how Americans get their news", so my hallelujah moment continues,
STOMPIN, DANCIN, AND JAMMIN! First, the show,
The Tavis Smiley Show is a result of an ongoing collaboration between
NPR and a consortium of African-American public radio stations. Tavis challenges his listeners with a program of high-profile guests, many whom are African-American legends and a "bling-bling" of straight talk. Tavis speaks his mind with insightful conversation and
dares his listeners to look BEYOND the status-quo and experience reality. Sometimes that "reality" is painful, ugly, frustrating, tragic and terrible. But when you listen to Tavis having an extended conversation with his guests, some African-American, some not, you hear vivid accounts and experiences that link you, the viewer, to Tavis and the
everyday experience of life. Check out
Tavistalks.com that has an interactive feel. There are links to the broadcast in your area, his bio (graduate of Indiana University, and was previously a top aide to former Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley), dates/time for his speaking tour titled,
"PASS THE MIC", and his foundation (
The Tavis Smiley Foundation - mission is to enlighten, encourage and empower youth by providing leadership skills that will promote and enhance the quality of life for themselves, their communities and our world).
Tavis is also an author.
Doing What's Right : How to Fight for What You Believe--And Make a Difference and
How to Make Black America Better : Leading African Americans Speak Out. Both are excellent!
This sister is especially grateful to
PBS for hosting the
TAVIS SMILEY SHOW. We need to HEAR the voice of Tavis Smiley loud and clear. It is so important to understand the extra weight, heavy weight that discrimination imposes not only on blacks, but everybody who interacts with blacks on an everyday basis. Do you NOT interact with blacks on an everyday basis? Well, you can start by turning on your radio to
NPR TAVIS TALKS. And yes, he does it so very VERY well.
Maria Celeste Arraras Lester HoltBROWN/BLACK PRESIDENTIAL FORUM I would like to thank the award-winning journalist
Maria Celeste of
Telemundo and MSNBC Anchor,
Lester Holt also an award-winning broadcast journalist, for the outstanding job they did in moderating the
Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum. I make no judgments on who won, who lost. It is with great persistence and patience, being an African-American voter, that the words
"BLACK"/"BROWN" are being introduced into a Presidential Debate. I think all the presidential candidates facilitated a powerful sense of issues that are important to the African-American, Latino, Native American, and yes, the BROWN/BLACK skinned people of America. I would think specific instances of discrimination in public schools (NO, they are not equal), neighborhoods (yes, segregation still exists), jobs (unemployment rates for Brown/Blacks are higher), businesses (job incentives for Black/Brown entrepreneurs), and finally, how Black/Brown Americans contend with everyday discrimination. WE MUST focus in detail, how does America deal with issues of diversity and confronting bigotry.
There are so many issues that are unique to Black/Brown Americans. I'm sorry to say we do live in 2 Americas. We need a sophisticated repertoire of methods and tactics that can help overcome racism. I listened to just about all the candidates invoke the name of
Dr. Martin Luther King during the debate. Suddenly, I became very sad, even emotional. My goodness, we
STILL have such a long way to go. Actually, the classification, the term, "Black/Brown" is so appropriate in our American of today. We are a melting pot of many different races and it's time to start adapting our America to LOOK like that. My thoughts are, yes, recognize racism, recognize discrimination, and try to deal with it as we pursue our goals in this country. We can start with recognition. START! Blacks/Browns have been mistreated long enough and it's time for a careful assessment of what needs to be done in this country, that impacts the many issues of
BLACKS/BROWNS/WHITES.Yes, that sounds so much better.
THE BOONDOCKSSo the Boondocks are OUT at The Cincinnati EnquirerOK, this is the "pink" slip given to Aaron McGruder, creator of
THE BOONDOCKS, from
Sara Pearce, Assistant Managing Editor/Features of THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER:
And for those outraged that the low-rated Doonesbury survived while Boondocks didn't, we made the decision to drop Boondocks because we did not want to keep publishing a comic that we regularly needed to censor. During the past year, Boondocks was substituted a number of times because it was deemed inappropriate for a family newspaper. And not just this family newspaper. Editors across the country were making the same decisions.
Our policy is that we publish a comic strip or we don't. Once we start pulling specific strips, as well as entire weeks' worth, it is time to drop that strip. Although Boondocks has its fans, many of you were uncomfortable with it, and at times we were, too.
<snip>
To the hundreds of readers who will be writing me during the next few weeks, I offer this bit of advice: give a comic a six-month tryout, and then let me know whether you still hate it or love it. Sara Pearce
Assistant Managing Editor/Features
The Cincinnati Enquirer
312 Elm St.
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Fax: (513) 768-8330
spearce@enquirer.com
So
THE BOONDOCKS were "deemed inappropriate for a family newspaper". Excuse my emotion-con language but :wtf:
Aaron's Boondock characters always seem to provoke thought, thought from the perspective of Aaron's Black heritage, his love of the hip-hop culture and his studies at the University of Maryland. He graduated with a degree in African-American studies. Aaron decided to take his activism to another level and the result was a cartoon strip, a story about a group of African-American city kids adjusting to life in white suburbia. So BLACK/BROWN people "talking" in an intelligent manner is
SHOCKING! and inappropriate for a "family newspaper". It's SHOCKING, I tell you SHOCKING, to discuss Black/Brown culture in our culture, SHOCKING! So let's HIDE the Black people, let's hide the Brown people and all forms of intelligent conversation protected by our constitution. Thanks goodness for the Internet which means you can have access to
The Boondocks 24/7.
Without further ado and with MUCH pride, I bring to you, the readers of
MONDAYS 'IN' THE UGRR, our weekly feature,
THE BOONDOCKS. Oh, and by-the-way, we ain't going NOWHERE.
THE BOONDOCKS will
remain as the brilliant editorial art form that it is. And yes, Virginia, there
are Black/Brown people who look, talk and act like
The Boondock characters.
The Boondocks by Aaron McGruder
Questions of The Day1. Favorite Chinese Food Take Out?
2. If a movie were made about your life, what would the theme song be?
3. We see many signs each day that say No Smoking, No Trespassing, No Pets, etc. If you could put an original "No _____" sign on your front door, what would it say?
OK, I'm OUTTA. I will see you in two weeks, January 26, 2004, same time, same place 'IN' The Undergroundrailroad.