Wednesday, August 26, 2015

PBS| Anchor Baby Underground: An Honest Discussion


Election time can take complicated issues and reduce them to myopic talking points, biased soundbites, and irresponsible rhetoric.  Courtesy of PBS Newshour, Doris Meissner of the Migration Policy Institute and Susan Berfield of Bloomberg Businessweek discuss the two types of so-called "anchor babies", and the legality of the practice.
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Thursday, August 20, 2015

Stealing Blackness - The Absurdity of Identity Politics


Pastor Shaun King (Photo: DLHughley.com)

Pastor Shaun King is under attack today for allegedly lying about his race.  A few weeks ago Rachel Dolezal was outed for doing the same thing and the response has been predictable.  My identity is something I protect fiercely.  It's something that I have no choice but to be proud of lest I sink to the doldrums of despair about the ills of being a non-white male in the USA.  I don't take kindly to people pretending to be something they aren't for selfishly asinine reasons like getting a scholarship or record deal or just for shits and giggles.  So should we be outraged that yet another person is being "outed" for pretending to be black?
(Photo: Telegraph.co.uk)

Absolutely not.

Our country is full of people who blur the identity line when its convenient or obliterate it completely when no one is looking.  Americans have been stealing cultural ideas from each other since its inception.  Moreover, the standard for what makes one "Black", "White", "Asian", or "Native" isn't universally accepted.  In the Dominican Republic black is synonymous with Haitian, despite the fact that everyone on Hispaniola would be considered black by American standards.  In Brazil, my wife and I wouldn't be considered the same race.  The President, who's father, of course, is Kenyan, has been hammered by Black Americans for years for "not being black enough" yet when Bill Clinton was in office he was both lauded and criticized for being "too black", mostly stemming from his love of jazz.  Tiger Woods dislikes being considered black so much he made up a word to describe his ethnicity, despite the fact that he continues to live in a country that invented and still tends to define blackness by the one drop rule.  Gov. Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (R-LA), Gov. Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley(R-SC), Former Florida Rep. Allen West (R), Justice Clarence Thomas, Herman Cain, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Dr. Ben Carson are considered the poster children for selling out yet Eminem, Macklemore, Yellawolf, and Action Bronson are considered "real."  Cultural appropriation (aka cultural plagiarism), through its intentional obstruction of the origin of philosophical concepts,  musical styles, mathematics, and even health care further blur the lines about what belongs to who and for how long.  Humans have been doing this for as long as we've existed on this planet so why is it only certain instances of line stepping are greeted with so much scorn, vitriol, and derision? Probably because the line steppers aren't stealing,  they're helping.

She lied, but she's been down for 20 years. (Photo: Today.com)


The people who define these terms, black, white, asian, liberal, conservative, libertarian, etc, etc, usually have an agenda to push.  Cable TV "news" has devolved from a service to keep the American people informed to a vehicle to push partisan propaganda.  Its designed to stir up your emotions by playing on your fears of being irrelevant, marginalized, and forced into silence.  They use every trick in the political playbook to get your ratings and loyalty.  They create controversies that aren't there, to play on your biases, stoke your natural human fear of "the other", and keep feeding you what you want to hear until you're so addicted to the echo chamber that everything else, no matter how reasonable sounds like white noise.  The website (I refuse to give them publicity by mentioning their name here) that allegedly outed King is the same website that slandered former Georgia State Director of Rural Development Shirley Sherrod and community outreach NGO ACORN.  Despite the fact the website's allegations were proven false both times, neither ACORN nor Sherrod's career survived the fallout.  You can read about the trumped up scandals in depth here and here.



Racial Hierarchy in Brazil
The real question we should be asking them and of ourselves, is why does it matter?  If King is white...so what?  Are we so hung up on identity politics that we can't accept his help?  If King lied about his parentage maybe that says more about who's opinion we consider legitimate if he and Dolezal had to lie to be taken seriously?  Does a person have to be black to speak out about black injustice?  Does a person have to be poor to stand against poverty?  Charities wouldn't exist if that were the case.  A great man once said his dream was that his children would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  It's times like this that we're called to put that mantra to test.  This is where the rubber meets the road and we need to let people know that it doesn't matter what your background is, your actions and the fruit of your works define what you are.  Shaun and Rachel have clearly decided where their loyalties lie.  That makes them black to me.

[Update: It appears they've gone 3 for 3 in peddling libelous bullshit]
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Sunday, August 2, 2015

UFC 190: Beautiful Monster

Ronda Rousey is redefining how to be a star athlete. In a sport so brutal, vicious, and bloody, the fact that a woman is headlining pay-per-views as the UFC's biggest star is nothing short of amazing. She is obliterating her opponents, silencing critics, and doing it all without sacrificing her femininity. Gina Carano, MMA's previous "it" girl, faced mostly substandard competition in the now defunct Strikeforce promotion and was driven from the sport after being brutally beaten by Cris "Cyborg" Justino in 2009. No one in the history of combat sports has finished fights as quickly and consistently on this big a stage and has looked as fabulous doing it. Mike Tyson, I hear, is a big fan.
Photo: Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images 
 She has captured that rare combination of beauty and talent that only a select few female athletes approach. Her closest analogue in the modern era is Serena Williams, a woman who own dominance has similarly pushed her to the top of her traditionally male dominated sport. Granted, Rousey doesn't have to deal with many of the racially motivated criticisms that Serena does but she has legitimately earned her spot among the UFC's and the sportsworld's elite.
Left to Right: Shafir, Rousey, Duke, Baszler Photo via mixedmartialarts.com

Her latest victim, Bethe Correia was undefeated before Saturday's bout, scoring decisive wins over 2 members of  Rousey's unofficial "4 Horsewomen" clique, Jessamyn Duke and Shayna Bazsler.  Correia wanted to make the fight personal, perhaps in an attempt to throw the champion off her game. By flashing the famous "4"  and lowering one finger after each victory, she clearly wanted to send a message.  Correia even crossed the line by commenting on Rousey's history with drug abuse and making light of her father's suicide. The message was received and judging by how quickly their fight ended, we can add "play mind games" to the list of things not to do if you want to beat her.


Cris "Cyborg" Justino  Photo: Esther Lin
The truly amazing part of all this is that she has managed to do this without falling into the pitfalls that many star athletes struggle to avoid. She has not been in trouble with the law, and though she has admitted past drug use, she has been sober for over 5 years.  She seems at ease in front of the camera, showing no fear of the spotlight. She routinely says exactly what's on her mind, most recently calling out boxing's pound for pound king, Floyd Mayweather on his domestic violence issues. The only thing that can seemingly stop Ronda at this point is Ronda. Even she has wondered if she can physically keep up the pace at which she takes fights. She has admitted that she may burn herself out as she did when she competed in judo. So far, however, she has shown no signs of slowing down.  Her next fight will almost certainly be a 2nd rematch with Meisha Tate, who Rousey has already beaten twice by armbar submission.  At best Tate is a place holder while the much anticipated superfight with Invicta Women's Featheweight Champion Cris "Cyborg" Justino is worked on. 

Despite fears that the UFC will run out of quality opponents for her to face, her legend continues to grow.  Previously unknown female fighters from every corner of the sport will look to boost their visibility by challenging Rousey and her story has crossed into the mainstream.  My wife, who doesn't follow MMA at all not only knows who Ronda Rousey is but when she's fighting next.  She's a joy to watch and her journey has our attention whether you're a fight fan or not.  Women like this aren't common.  Athletes like this aren't common.  She's in her prime, at the top of her sport, and that doesn't seem likely to change anytime soon.  Fight like a girl, Ronda.  
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