Guest Blogger: Our Princesses Have a Place in Disney

Welcome Tiffani - wife, mother of two, blogger, comedian, pop culture commentator, and younger sister of mine. She is here to share her thoughts on Disney's new animated film The Princess and The Frog, which you will find below. Show her some love.


I am not at all ashamed to admit my profound love of cartoons, movies geared toward school-aged children, and most animated films. I am fully entertained by Spongebob and all other residents of Bikini Bottom. I sing along to musicals about little orphan girls and newspaper boys. and I find myself drawn to Disney movies that include Princesses, Fairy Godmothers, and of course (*sigh*) Prince Charmings. So it is no surprise that I am truly excited about the upcoming release of the new Disney animated film, 'The Princess and the Frog." However, this Disney debut has some very unique (and long overdue) characteristics that make the occasion even more momentous to me.

Disney is finally releasing a film featuring an African American Princess and I am ecstatic about it. As a mother of a seven year old daughter I am well aware of how sensitive young girls are about their own self-image. I have painfully witnessed my daughter doubt her own beauty simply because of her darker complexion.

The way in which children develop an understanding of self-image is amazing. Children form their ideas of beauty based on what they see on movies and in television. They also base their ideas of beauty on they don't see. In child media, children of color are generally underrepresented. In fact, there are very few Disney characters that look like us. Until now, the only ethnic Princess offered by Disney has been Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. I admit, I do love that movie, but Jasmine's big oval eyes, caramel colored skin, and long hair have a certain ambiguity that could represent a wide variety of different races and ethnic groups.

My enthusiasm for The Princess and the Frog lies in the introduction of a princess that looks like my daughter. As a mother, it is important to me that my daughter is able to identify the "princess" in herself. Thus far, our daughters have been shown that only girls who look like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are worthy enough to be dubbed "Princess". This lack of diversity leaves so many children unrepresented. Every little girl should have the opportunity to find inspiration in a Disney Princess that resembles them.

My daughter is really excited to see The Princess and the Frog and while I am sure that she would be just as excited to see an Asian, Native American, or Eskimo princess, I'm glad it's her turn. I'm glad that we are being clearly represented (although permed and primped, but hey, one step at a time people). The introduction of a Black Princess will show my daughter that beauty isn't something found only in fair or lightly colored skin. She will see that her skin color is both beautiful and special, just like every other little girl that has been lucky enough to see a bit of themselves on the silver screen.

The Princess and The Frog opens in theaters on December 11, 2009. I say what a better way to celebrate than by taking our daughters, nieces, younger sisters, and God daughters out to support this film. Let's make this Disney Princess bigger and better then the ones before.

This has been quite a year...first a Black President and now a Black Princess.

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In The News: Home Based Child Daycare Teaches TV

In Black communities, where single parent households are not uncommon, reasonably priced child care is a necessity. Many fiscally mindful parents opt for home based child care as an alternative to more pricey day care centers. Unfortunately, recent reports have uncovered that children who attend home based child care are watching significantly more television than peers enrolled in day care centers. Of day care centers polled, 70% admit to television use during the day, some allowing youngsters to watch as much as two hours of TV daily.

Two hours of television during the day may not seem like a lot, however, when coupled with home television viewing, some children are spending as much as 33% of their waking hours in front of the tube. That's almost 4 times more television than the American Academy of Pediatrics suggest for youngsters.

Early child development and education plays a vital role in long term learning. Early academic encouragement has been found to greatly improve the potential of children. Malik Green speaks of the benefits of early child development in an article for AfrAmnews.com titled Benefits of Early Childhood Brain Stimulation and why it should be Implemented in every African American Community. The article discusses the Abecedarian Project, an educational research program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which has found that engaging young children in age appropriate educational games that emphasize cognition and language, has staggering beneficial effects on participants. Children who participated in the study were found to have higher IQs and performed better on achievement tests. The study also found that:

• Children who received the intervention scored 1.8 grades years higher in reading and math as young adults.
• Thirty-six percent of these children were more likely to attend a four-year college, compared to only 14 percent of the children who did not receive intervention.
  
• Twenty-six percent of the children who received intervention were less likely to have had their first child at age 18 or younger, compared to forty-five percent of the children who didn’t received intervention.
• Forty-seven percent of the intervention children were more likely to have a skilled job versus only twenty-seven of the children who did not receive intervention. (Read More)

With statistic such as these, the importance of proper child care is evident. Parents spending their hard earned dollars on early child care need to seek programs that aid in child development and foster a thirst for learning.

Make sure you're getting your money's worth - two hours of television a day isn't what you're paying for!

Properly educating the next genertion IS activism.

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Small Talk: Katrina: Army Corps Engineers Negligent

The Grio and the Examiner are reporting some good news for Hurricane Katrina victims. Federal Judge Stanwood Duval ruled that the devastating flooding of New Orleans 9th Ward was a result of human error. From the Examiner:

The judge sided with 6 residents and 1 business in a suit filed against the Corps. It is all based on the Mr. Go which stands for the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, which was built by the Army to allow for water traffic from the city directly to the Gulf of Mexico. The plaintiffs blame poor design and planning as negligence. In a 156 page ruling, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval said he was "utterly convinced" that the corps' failure to shore up the channel doomed it "to grow to two to three times its design width" and that "created a more forceful frontal wave attack on the levee" that protected St. Bernard and the Lower 9th Ward. Read more.

This is a huge victory for Katrina victims. If the ruling holds up against appeal, it could give Katrina victims of the 9th Ward precedence to seek individual compensation for their losses. However, lawyers for the victims would ideally like to cease litigation and work on settlement arrangements with Congress. From The Grio:

Dane Ciolino, a law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, said that if Duval's ruling holds up on appeal, he would expect Congress to approve a federal settlement rather than going through individual trials. Total damages could reach into the billions of dollars.

The plaintiffs' lawyers hoped to head off more litigation by appealing directly to Congress.

"It's time to stop litigating and start negotiating," said Pierce O'Donnell, a Los Angeles attorney who was one of the lead lawyers on the case. "With Judge Duval's ruling, we now have a weapon."

The plaintiffs' lawyers said they would approach congressional leaders after Thanksgiving with a list of demands to settle the case. They said the federal government needs to compensate victims throughout the city, fix the region's broken infrastructure, restore the wetlands of south Louisiana and overhaul the way the corps operates. Read more.

I hope the people of New Orleans get what they deserve.

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Around The Web: Visual Map: Michael Jackson's Influence

I want to share this very cool visual map that I found while surfing today. The map shows paths between Michael Jackson's music and the people/music that he influenced. The original can be found on the creator's site Ethan Hein's Blog. On his site he gives some insight to his vision and also offers a visual map for The Jackson Five. Very cool.

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Just Something to Think About: Socially Leveraging the Recession?

By nature, nothing encourages equality more than like-circumstances. A large part of racism (and classism) results from a lack of empathy, a lack of ability to indentify and sympathize with people whose circumstances are so vastly unlike our own. Often the inability to empathize is not malicious, as the inability to understand life outside of your own experiences is widely psychological. Human nature makes it difficult to understand what does not exist on our own plain of consciousness.

Fortunately, as our experiences become more similar, our ability to empathize becomes more acute. One good thing that has come out of our current economic crisis is an increase in like circumstances. The recession has made economic struggle universal to the majority. As unemployment rises, joblessness becomes an American problem, not just a minority problem. As people lose jobs and medical coverage, social services become aid for Americans, not just minority aid.

Shaila Dewan explores just how the recession is affecting our cultural empathy in her New York Times article A Racial Divide is Bridged by Recession. Now is the time to leverage our like circumstances, before this unique opportunity to understand each other slips away.

Just something to think about...

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Idiots In The News

Here are my top picks for Idiots In The News this week. Now you can vote! Check out the poll below to vote for this week's Top Idiot. If your top idiot is missing from the list this week...drop me a line and let me know!

1. It's week number two for Joe Jackson here at Idiots In The News. It seems MJ's father cannot accept being excluded from his son's will. I thought having the court throw out his claim last week would encourage Joe to sit down and shut up, but it seems I was mistaken. Joe heads back to court this week to challenge the credibility of MJ's will, claiming that it was forged.
   
2. Arkansas police tasers a 10 year old girl this week. Really? A taser for a 10-old? Can the Arkansas police department be THAT mentally and physically out of shape?
   
3. Universal Studios caters to a racist international entertainment market. The entertainment giant has become notorious this week for altering a promotional image of their upcoming Couples Retreat movie to negate the movie's two Black stars.
   
4. Allen Iverson's brief stint with the Memphis Grizzlies is officially over after the egocentric manchild throws a tantrum he cannot recover from. Unhappy with his role on the team, Iverson departs with a fraction of his $3 million/1-year contract. That was one expensive tantrum, especially since the aging star's options seem to be running thin.
5. Antoinette Davis, egg donor (I respect the word 'mother' too much to use it here) of the recently murdered 5-year old Shaniya Davis, was charged earlier this week with human trafficking, child abuse and prostitution for selling her young offspring into child prostitution. The word idiot is a massive understatement.

Top Idiot Of The Week?
Can't Let It Go Joe Jackson
Taser Happy Arkansas Police
Racism enabling Universal
Tantrum Throwing Iverson
Egg Donor Antoinette Davis

View Results

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Social Commentary: Kids made to act like slaves, I'm not exactly mad.

It has been about a week since I first read the contreversial story about the South Carolina students from Rea View Elementary School who, while on a field trip to the Latta Plantation, were asked to participate in a slavery reenactment. Tour guide Ian Campbell, a Black man, selected three Black students to act as slaves for the demonstration. Each Black student was given a bag and encouraged to pretend they were cotton picking while their White classmates watched.

Since the trip, outraged parents, teachers, have called the incident insensitive and demeaning. They have lead an effort for public vindication, including calling for an apology from the Latta Plantation, and a inquiry into whether the incident is grounds for Mr. Campbell's removal.

Campbell has responded to community and media disapproval by saying he only meant the reenactment to be historically accurate. His defense is getting mixed reviews.

A spokesperson for the Union County school publicly recognized Campbell's lack of malicious intention in her public statement:

"We just thought that was terribly inappropriate," she said. "I don't think any ill will was intended at all. It was just a bad decision for him to have made. It was an uncomfortable situation for our children and our staff."

While the president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg chapter of the NAACP responded to the incident with obvious criticism, stating:

"There is a lingering pain, a lingering bitterness, a lingering insecurity and a lingering sense of inhumanity since slavery. Because that's still there, you want to be more sensitive than politically correct or historically correct"

The blogosphere (including Siddity and Field Negro) has been alive with commentary about this incident for several days now and while I understand the fervor, I must admit that I am not remotely outraged over this unfortunate faux pas. I do not believe in my heart that Campbell was influenced by any racist motivation in his improv direction. I do not believe that he meant harm by his actions, nor do I believe that his motivation was base on anything other than historical accuracy. Moreover, I think the outrage over the incident is emotionally extreme.

There is a difference between racial insensitivity and racism, and when we chose to attack innocent acts of racial insensitivity instead of using them as teaching moments, we miss opportunities to enlighten. Conscious malicious intent must be the standard by which we decipher between a racial faux pas and an act of racism, whether the offender be Black or White. If you feel that Campbell should have reenacted the past more diversely, which is your right, then the case should be made with an understanding that his intentions were good natured.

Personally, I don't understand why so many people are disheartened by the accurate depiction of slavery these children witnessed. I wonder if people have asked themselves whether the despicable nature of slavery can be truly experienced without acknowledging the truth in its entirety. Is not shame a relevant part of slave history? Can one really understand slavery without exploring the relevancy of race? I don't think so.

I've given myself a week to get as incensed over this incident as my blogging peers - it hasn't happened. I'm still rocking with Mr. Campbell on this one.

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Small Talk: Despite media implications, Blacks value education the most

How much of your opinion regarding Blacks and education is biased by the media? Most likely, a lot. It seems constant negative reinforcement will do that to you. The mainstream media seems to thrive on the negative promotion of Black culture. Consequently, because so much of our information is acquired by sensationalized news and entertainment characterizations, Blacks suffer from a skewed ethnic image.

Algernon Austin, director of the program on race, ethnicity, and the economy at the Economic Policy Institute, challenges the bigoted notion that Blacks undervalue education in his Daily Voice Article, Why Blacks Value Education More Than Whites.


Before we change the way others see us, we must first change how we see ourselves.

Engage. Inform. Discuss.

Getting to the truth IS activism!

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In The News: Obama meets with NAACP re: Unemployment

The New York Times has reported that several minority advocacy groups, including the N.A.A.C.P, the A.F.L-C.I.O., and the National Council of La Raza will meet with President Obama tomorrow to discuss a rededication of resources aimed at fighting unemployment.

Good job minority advocates!!

For the first time since 1983 the national unemployment rate has risen above 10% and while these unemployment stats have affected people across all ethnic populations, American minorities have been hit the hardest.

Earlier this year an article titled Blacks Lose Ground in Job Slump in the Los Angeles Times stated:

Black unemployment -- which tops that of other racial groups in the best of times -- has reached levels not seen in decades. The average annual unemployment rate among blacks in California was 12.5% in February, compared with 7.8% for whites and 10.4% for Latinos, whose jobless rate has grown faster than that of other groups because of a heavy dependence on construction jobs. These ethnic group data are compiled as moving averages of unemployment rates from the previous 12 months.

Nationally, the picture for blacks is even worse. The overall unemployment rate for blacks in February climbed to 13.4%, while the rate for black men reached 16.3%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"Last hired, first fired" is an old adage in the African American community. Factory hands and the unskilled have long been whipsawed by the economy's downturns. Now layoffs are beginning to reach a once fast-growing cohort of black professionals, managers and government workers, including many who overcame discrimination and limited economic and educational opportunities to win quality jobs.

Ok so maybe you minority advocates are a bit late…but I suppose better late than never!

These trends are not surprising. Last year, Algernon Austin, a sociologist of racial relations, published What a Recession Means for Black America, a short paper outlining the unique struggles facing Black Americans during times of recession. He states:

Even when the national unemployment picture is good, the black unemployment rate is more than twice that of the white unemployment rate. This means that in what looks like good economic times nationally, most of black America is still experiencing a recession. When white America is in recession, black America is in an economic depression.

Damn the truth can hurt sometimes…

Blacks and other minorities groups may feel the effects of this recession for years, perhaps even decades to come. The recession is affecting the ability of middle class Black families to grow wealth, specifically because Blacks are losing their homes and changing/putting off college plans – two of the best tools available to blacks wanting to jump up a class.

Let’s hope the meeting goes well tomorrow…

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Show Your Support: Events: Coctails for a Cause

As usual, Social Angst is here to encourage you to engage in simple acts of social activism.

Today's suggestions: Go out and have a drink in the name of educational advancement!!

I read about The Opening Ceremony: Cocktails for a Cause fundraiser over at Jack & Jill Politics today. The event is being given by the Academic, Cultural, Technological - Scientific Olympics (Olympics of the Mind) organization, aka ACT-SO.

A brief overview of ACT-SO:
ACT-SO is an academic and cultural enrichment program that provides high school students an opportunity to enhance their skills in over 26 categories spanning the Sciences, Humanities, Performing and Visual Arts. This national program was founded by award winning journalist and civil rights activist Vernon Jarrett in 1977 to help destroy the cycle of low expectations and low achievement that plagues minority youth. Today over 500,000 minority high school students participate locally in over 500 branches throughout the country. Local winners go on to compete in the national Olympics of the Mind Competition. Famous ACT-SO alumni include John Singleton, Jada Pinkett, Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, Roy Hargrove and Anthony Anderson.

If you are interested in supporting the efforts of ACT-SO and are available to come out tomorrow, head over to Tillman's. See what your $40 donation gets you at http://www.theopeningceremony.eventbrite.com.

For all you single Angsters, this sounds like a nice place to meet some like minded individuals...

For those of you unable to make it, don't forget you can donate without attending!

You want easy social activism? I say it doesn't get much easier than this! :-p

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Small Talk: Live Longer - Increase Intercourse!

More sex.
More sleep.
More vacation.

Nope, it's not dad's Christmas wish list.

It's actually three very simple things you can do to extend your life.

Short article. Big benefits.

Enjoy!

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Blog Snatch: Silent Night

Snatched from AverageBro.com (one my personal favorite places to stop daily). He posted this video a few days ago in a post titled Do Rappers Watch The News? Totally snatch worthy.

From the Youtube page:

With so much going on all over the world, how come nobody's rappin about it? Silent Night (Do Rappers Watch the News?) was produced by Religion and Directed by Paradise the Arkitech of X-Clan.

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Small Talk: "Feel Good" News in Black Entertainment

I have mixed feelings about covering entertainment "news" here on Social Angst. However, this has been a good week for Black entertainment, so I offer you these stories under the guise of "Feel Good News":

• Darius Rucker, well known frontman of Hootie & the Blowfish, became the first Black performer to win a Best New Artist CMA.

• Halle Berry is also a winner. The actress has been selected to receive the prestigious Sherry Langsing Leadership Award for her ground breaking contributions to the entertainment industry.

• Maya Angelou brings the audience to their feet at the annual Glamour Women of the Year Awards.

• Morgan Freeman will be honored for career achievement at the upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival.

• Wanda Sykes and George Lopez bring a little diversity to late night. Mo'nique debuts her own late night show as well.

Enjoy!!

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Around the Web: NPR's The Decade In Music web exhibition

The Decade In Music
www.npr.com

If you love music, you can't miss NPR's new web exhibition: The Decade In Music. Host Carrie Brownstein takes her audience on a interactive trip down memory lane recounting the most relevant happenings in music over the last 10 years. There is much to do as you peruse the exhibit. Visitors can:

• Espouse about the innovative offerings of Outkast,
• Sound off your choices for the most influential songs, albums and artists of the decade,
• Discuss what your last downloaded song is worth,
• List your top excuses for not paying for music,
• Play with an interactive timeline,
• and much more!

It's a nice way to waste some time. Plus, adding a little diversity to the polls and surveys helps to broaden everyone's ideas on music!! It's easy fun activism...just the way we like it!

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Celebrating Black Veterans Happy Veterans Day

I want to begin by sending a Happy Veteran's Day shout out to The Man. After celebrating the 234th birthday of the Marine Corps yesterday he is happy to join his brothers across all the armed services today as we thank them for their service.

Though we thank all those who serve in our honor, Social Angst would like to highlight the efforts of Black serviceman today. In that spirit, here are a few Veteran's Day inspired offerings:

Black veterans: a complicated past and an unsung present: Cliff Albright over at The Examiner details why Veteran's Day inspires a range of mixed emotions within him.

Gallery: Famous Black Veterans: News One uncovers 10 well known personalities, with little known service records, Bill Cosby and Ice-T among them.

Black soldiers continue to fight for country and equality: The Grio contributor Mac William Bishop takes a historic look at prejudice in our armed services.

Enjoy!

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Idiots In The News

Top Idiots In The News picks for this week:

• Katt Williams: Parlaying a pimp persona is enough reason for me to view the comedian as an idiot, but I'm working on not judging. That said, getting arrested on a burglary charge definitely qualifies.
  
• Tracey Morgan: The SNL fan favorite stunned his audience with a sexually explicit comedy set earlier this week.
• Joe Jackson: The pseudo famous father of the late great music icon Michael Jackson argues that, though he was specifically left out of MJ's will, he has a legal right to portions of MJ's estate
• Beanie Seigel: The former "friend" of Jay-Z disses his "mentor" and eagerly announces his intention to sign with G-Unit - perhaps too eagerly - since 50 goes on record to say that no deal has been finalized. Beanie may need a business course of two.

Not being an idiot IS activism...

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In The News: Kareem Abdul-Jabar's Leukemia Diagnosis

NEW YORK — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is being treated for a rare form of leukemia, and the basketball great said his prognosis is encouraging. The NBA's all-time leading scorer was diagnosed last December with chronic myeloid leukemia, he told The Associated Press on Monday.

The 62-year-old Abdul-Jabbar said his doctor didn't give any guarantees, but informed him: "You have a very good chance to live your life out and not have to make any drastic changes to your lifestyle."

Read the full story at Huffington Post.

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Review: Precious - Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

From a cinematic standpoint, I have nothing but admiration for Precious. Many fans of the novel thought it would be impossible to bring the gritty, dark, dysfunctional life of Precious Jones to life but screenplay writer Geoffrey Fletcher achieves near technical precision with his purist adaptation of Push for the big screen. The story is translated seamlessly under the watchful direction of Lee Daniels, who never strays very far from the essence of Push. Daniel does wield some creative license (notably the addition of several fantasy sequences) however, it is used sparingly throughout the film and only as a means to balance the tense subject matter.

Casting is another highlight of the film. Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe is casting perfection as Clarice Precious Jones. On first appearance one might assume that Sidibe is simply the result of hollywood type-casting. The dark skinned, overweight actress, is a visual doppelganger for the Precious character, however that is where the similarities end. In reality, with beautiful dark skin, small but expressive eyes and larger than life confidence, Sidibe is the actually the antithesis of Precious; yet on camera and in character she convincingly captures every impotent, frail, and painful moment Precious must struggle through. Sidibe tackles the emotional peaks and valleys of her character like a pro and her audience is left with a tremendous sense of empathetic understanding because of it.

Surrounding Sibide is a truly commanding ensemble cast. Mo’nique gives a powerful performance as Mary, the wildly abusive, deranged, miserable wretch of a woman who gave birth to Precious (I cannot in good conscience call this character a mother). Fueled by self-hatred, Mary molests, mangles, and drains the soul out of Precious at every given opportunity. Two other strong performances come from Paula Patton as Ms. Rain, an alternative school teacher who helps Precious find self-worth, and Mariah Carey as Mrs. Weiss, a social worker who helps Precious face her circumstances.

The film has near perfect pitch. The characters are easy to identify with, root for, or alternatively despise. It is alarming, humorous, empathetic, raw, and disarming all at once, making for true cinematic achievement.

Yet, Precious is not perfect.

There are several aspects of the book that are lost in translation from page to screen and these subtle misinterpretations rob the film of some authenticity. First, moviegoers are cheated out the chance to truly delve into the world of an illiterate. The novel Push was published in unedited broken English. Through the grammarless dialogue and phonetic spelling, readers are able to see just how sadly underdeveloped Precious is academically. The movie is far less successful in that area (so much so that the audience around me laughed while witnessing a class of 16-year olds learning their ABCs – completely oblivious to the socioeconomic hardships and systematic devaluation of illiterate and uneducated individuals).

The depiction of sexual abuse was also disappointing. The unholy acts of incest that were graphically detail in the book were replaced in the film with far less explicit visual elusion. As a result, the audience can only vaguely identify with the trifecta of abuse that Precious endured.

Yet, even with the slight creative changes, Precious is a truly worthwhile endeavor for movie patrons. Audience members have the opportunity to learn a lot about themselves as they watch the film. Precious will challenge your own biases – about poor people, overweight people, uneducated people and people without mainstream aesthetic appeal. For those who believe that ignorance is a personal choice brought on by bad decisions, this movie will also challenge you to see that some people – people who want to learn, work hard and thrive - are born into bad circumstances that are impossible to escape without help. But most importantly, Precious will hopefully challenge you to see how neighborly love and philanthropy of spirit can change the lives of those around us.

Social Angst encourages you to see the movie...and then read the book!

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CNN Presents: Black Men in the Age of President Obama

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In the News: Stories of Interest

Greetings and good day all.

Here's a list of stories/op-ed pieces from around the net that may interest you. You can also follow me on google reader where I share my favorite blog posts from around the 'sphere and anything else that tickles my fancy.

• Obama Inspiring Black Men to Step Up. John Blake. (CNN)
• Colin Powell Speaks on African American Men Volunteering. Don Lemon. (CNN)
• Democrat Disappointment Tempered by Key African American Wins. (Tri-State Defender)
• 'Post Racial' America, One Year Later. James Holmes. (Huffington Post)
• Revised Formula Puts 1 in 6 Black Americans in Poverty. (Blacknews.com)
• Foodstamps used by 90% of Black Children. Lindsay Tanner. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Interview: Oprah Pushes Precious by Wilson Morales. (www.BlackVoices.com)
  

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RE: Talented Tenth?Guest Blog: Superiority Complexes

For the last week I've been floating high; my Talented Tenth post was received warmly and with the exception of my parents using the opportunity to inquire about my future plans (plainly put: why are you wasting your life? (thanks Belle)) I've been absolutely delighted with my return to the blogosphere.

Yet today, I'm even happier.

One of my biggest motivations for starting Social Angst was to inspire activism (personal and communal) through dialogue. So I was both excited and gratified this morning when I read a piece by A Smith over at The Oulook, entitled Superiority Complexes. In the piece Smith uses a portion of the Talented Tenth post as a springboard to discuss the innocent and unintentional development of superiority complexes. The piece is both candid and insightful and I have posted it below for your enjoyment.

Don't forget to stop by The Oulook and show Ms. Smith some love!

---

About A Smith (in her own words):
I'm a part-time blogger and full time thinker. I blog because I think and need somewhere to put it down in hopes that other people will read it, identify with it or not identify with it, start thinking themselves and share their thoughts with me.


SUPERIORITY COMPLEXES
BY A SMITH

This morning it occurred to me that I may be developing a “you don’t know who I am” complex. It’s because of where I work. Many people here have that complex. I work with/around some of the most powerful people in America. Some of these people have the type of clout to get folks fired from jobs they’ve held for years, just because they want to. One swift e-mail from some of these people could put lots of money into your organization, or strip it all away. As a result, many people here have a “you don’t know who I am” complex. That is, small gaffes like mistaking them for someone of “lesser” importance can piss them off enough that they find it necessary to prove to you who they are by somehow negatively impacting whatever organization or group you represent. I’ve seen it happen.

It’s a complex born of an environment that thrives on clout, capital (of the non-tangible kind), and typically manifests itself worse among people who’ve never had power before. Power is and can be a very dangerous thing. I’ve heard many people, like the recently convicted former Mayor of Birmingham, AL, say that power is a dangerous drug. I hate the people around here who take their power for granted and too far and I’ve tried to be careful of developing this complex, but I see many of the seeds have been planted.

A few nights ago, I had an especially mentally stimulating conversation with a friend. She told me she was ashamed of herself for thoughts she had and assumptions she made with regards to a student she was tutoring. It’s worth noting that she and I have similar backgrounds. Both are black, female, and the only child of a single mother. We both graduated from private high schools and we both attended the same university. We are almost the same age (less than a year seperates us) and we have similar (not the same, but similar) interests as it relates to the types of ideallic things we do/wish to do. When she told me she wondered if the education we recieved at our elitist undergraduate institution had somehow lent itself to making it easier for us to have some of the same negative thoughts about low-income minorities as some of the ignorant individuals we dislike so greatly, it sort of struck a nerve with me.

I immediately thought of a post I read by a guest blogger on A Belle in Brooklyn. The title of the post was “Why The Talented Tenth is failing the black community” and written by Brandi, author of a blog titled Social Angst. I specifically remembered this portion (quoted here w/out permission, but be sure to check out both the post and her blog via the links provided):

The most pressing issue of Black America is the growing divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” Those who have access hoard it. And the talent of lower class individuals is being both unrecognized and unsolicited by the top tier of Black society. We are not meeting our obligation to nurture those who have less access. We are failing ourselves and it is starting at the top…

If you are not actively seeking out and pulling up the deserved, can you truly call yourself part of the Talented Tenth? Without commitment to the covenant aren’t you just simply elite? And, if you are simply elite, is your impact on Black American culture benefitting anyone other than you and your insular circle of friends?

I mentioned this post and specifically the general idea of the quoted portion to my friend. I highlighted how many of our friends in undergrad tutored low-income students for community service. I wondered, aloud, for how many was it about helping these students or looking good to and for various organizations. I also wondered how often we really paid attention to the students we tutored/mentored. How often did we try to bring out and foster their talents? How much time did we spend getting to know them and so what sort of impact did we actually have? Were these students truly any better because they knew us — were we truly fulfilling our purposes, or was it all self-serving? It’s sad to say, but true I think, that it was, for too many of us, self-serving and because of a superiority complex.

I talked about my own beginnings in community service; how I was drawn to it because it was amazing to me that I worked with students who were like me in every way. They were black, from single parent homes and my age (sometimes older) but that the lone thing that set me a part was the opportunity I had been given to attend a prestigious private school. I can still remember the moment it occurred to my 14 year old brain that there was almost nothing that seperated me from these students and yet they looked to me for help. I asked my friend, “what does it do us when we’re always the ones helping? How do we process that, ultimately? How do you not develop a superiority complex when people are always looking to you for help and in that, why would we ever really work to “actively seek out and pull up the deserved?”

I was burned out on “helping the kids” by the time I was 17. Between 2000 and 2004 I accrued well over 800 hours in community service; recieved the President’s Service Award more than once and had all types of plaques and accolades; however, I was totally over it all and for various reasons. One part of it was, quite frankly, I was developing a superiority complex.

Compared to high school, I did almost no community service in college. I wasn’t burned out anymore (even though that’s what I kept saying), but I still had remnants of the superiority complex. I had lost sight of why I had done community service; it wasn’t about the prestige it garnered, the plaques, the hours, the accolades, or how good it looked on my college application. It should have always been about the students I tutored and the connections we made. It’s hard to quantify what all was involved in the complex, but when you understand why you’re helping people it makes it harder to not help them. It’s when you think you’re “too good” for that or “too important” or “too busy” that it’s easy to avoid doing it.

As my friend and I continued talking we discussed a class we’d both taken in undergrad. The class discussed the plight of the low-income student in America (and included a “community service” initiative). Too often, we realized, “low-income” was connected with “black” or “minority.” Not only is that because for the most part that’s the case, but it’s also exactly what we were shown when went out into the community. My friend told me about a class she’s currently taking that seems to do the same thing. I expressed concern that not enough well-meaning professors give otherwise ignorant students the right tools.

Back to high school, my CS director required all new and returning tutors to participate in what eventually became a 2-day orientation discussion. She wanted to “prepare” these wealthy white kids for the stark reality of “life in the hood.” Unfortunately, it seemed more like an attempt to present the saddest “snapshot” she could. I remember sitting in the orientation my Senior year (I’d skipped it in the 2 years prior because I was a “site leader” and had ongoing commitments; I had to be there my Senior year as a “senior board member”) being utterly disgusted with how extreme her stories were. She claimed some of the kids were going hungry, some of the kids had no clothes, some of the kids were light years behind their peers in education; she made them sound like those starving African children you see on late-night tv. The truth was, these kids were not that different from us when we were that age. Sure, some of them lived in less than desired situations but not all of them. What her extreme representation of the situation did was to send these still-ignorant yet otherwise well-meaning wealthy white kids into a community that they didn’t understand and wouldn’t understand what with all the presupposed details. I found myself having to be frank with my tutors: “We expect nothing less than the best from these students. Their excuses are just that: excuses and we will not allow excuses to stop us from getting the best we can…”

My friend and discovered how far left of center we’ve come. How we assume things about individuals who are just like us. She shared that she’d assumed that the student she was tutoring came from a single-parent home and that none of her older siblings had attended college. Neither assumption was true and as my friend considered why she’d thought those things, she realized there was no reason, except that for the past 2 years she’s been bombarded with all the facts that say low-income black children are from single parent homes and don’t go to college. This is despite the fact that we are both proof that those “facts” don’t apply across the board and we have plenty of friends and associates who also disprove those “facts.”

The strength of a superiority complex is astounded when considered, here. I hate when people assume they know everything about me based on the color of my skin; more often than not, they aren’t correct. How outrageous, then, is it for me to make assumptions about someone who is just like me? Ultimately, though, the blame doesn’t lie with our education. The blame lies with us. It’s almost comical how these complexes have taken hold and I hadn’t thought about it or noticed it. How do you become ignorant and not notice it?

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Social Commentary: Where's the Villiage?

I’m getting old.

I find myself saying things that old people say:

“I remember when you couldn’t walk down your street acting a fool because you knew one of your neighbors would check you and report your misbehavior to your parents. For that matter, I remember when the word neighbor meant more than the guy occupying the house next to you.”

Oh how times have changed.

Last school year, one of my best friends, a teacher at a middle school, told me this story:

A student at her school, a miscreant of sorts, purposefully decided to cross the street in front of a moving car. The male driver of the car, a parent of another student, stopped short not to hit the kid. The adult driver rolled down the window to reprimand the child (middle school students are children) and was met with a disrespectful “f*** you”. The child then proceeded to assault the driver’s vehicle. Having had enough, the driver exited his car and grabbed the child. The scene ended with police escorting the driver (in handcuffs) and the child to the local precinct.

My friend and I had a rather candid discussion on the incident. There were so many fascinating elements to the story. Did the driver overstep his bounds by laying his hand on the child? Was the assault of his vehicle justification for his behavior? Do you let a 12 year old disrespect you in front of your own children, and if so, what do your children take away from that? Does whooping the behind of a disrespectful child benefit society at large? Is whooping the behind of a disrespectful child worth going to jail? Would you be upset if someone laid a hand on your disrespectful little brat?

In all honesty, I champion the actions of the driver. I am a firm believer that it takes a village.

Fast forward. Last week, a 15-year old girl was beaten and gang raped outside a school dance – while twelve people watched. The two hour long incident was witnessed by a dozen bystanders, none of which offered any help to the young victim. No help – no intervention, no call to authorities, no attempt to get involved - at all.

How did we get here? How did we get to this place of total indifference for our fellow man? My Uncle Ernest, Aunt Dorothy, and Grandmother would blame the disconnect between the Black community and the church. My mother and godmother would argue that Black parents aren’t parenting – partly because they are ill equipped and partly because family economics (i.e. check chasing) leaves children to parent themselves. My father, a retired NYPD detective, would insist that we have allowed the government to dictate how our community rears our kids. He would say that fear of litigation and prosecution keeps citizens from reprimanding children other than our own. Of course, they are all right.

There was a time when raising children was a collaborative effort and the byproducts of that village mentality were respect, shame, and responsibility. Children who are brought up with village mentality are mindful of their behavior because someone could be watching. That is a fear we all benefit from. Unfortunately, many parents are uncomfortable with other people reprimanding their children. If their child acts out, these parents want you to call them so the issue can be resolved between parent and child. The problem is that when parents become the sole motivation of fear for their children, they also become sole authority figures; leaving teachers, neighbors, and family members robbed of communal authoritative power in the process.

So, how do we go about reinstating the importance of Black community? Baby steps I suppose. Introduce yourselves to your neighbors. Exchange email address with your child’s teacher, principal and school security officer. Then, be ready to face the truth about your child (for undoubtedly, he's no angel) and remember that if your child misbehaves, he has a responsibility to apologize, publicly, to those he offended.

If that fails, don’t worry, I have a plan that will allow everyone to get involved...

What are your thoughts on our lacking sense of community?


Whooping a child's behind IS activism. Getting involved IS ACTIVISM.

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Small Talk:Michelle Obama's Mentorship Program

"...When I was starting my career at a big law firm, it was the first job I had out of law school. I went into a big, fancy law firm. And I really was excited. I thought I had made it, you know, because I’m making a salary that was more than both of my parents’ income combined, and I was, like, 24 years old. So I was, like, I made it.

But the interesting thing was that I worked in Chicago on the 47th floor of this beautiful building, and it looked directly south into my neighborhood. So everyday I’d go to the 47th floor in this big, fancy office with a secretary and I’d stare right at my neighborhood. Every day. It was sort of ironic because it reminded me that there are so many kids that but for the grace of God they could be here, they could be in my shoes. There were kids who were just as smart, just as funny, just as capable, but they missed an opportunity by a hair. You know, maybe they didn’t have the right parent. You know, maybe they just didn’t have that teacher who pushed them. You know, maybe it was money.

But it’s such a small set of possibilities that could make the difference between me and thousands of other kids. And I realized that when those opportunities don’t come, that gap just gets wider and wider and wider." - Michelle Obama

Monday, November 2 - Thirteen female high school students and 18 female White House staffers were in attendance for the launch of Mrs. Obama's East Wing mentorship program, an initiative aimed at matching local area female students with White House mentors. It is expected that about 20 female sophomore and junior high school students will be selected for the life skills oriented program. Student participants of the program have been selected by their principles as students who would benefit most from the opportunity.

The West Wing of the White House will follow suit with a mentorship program aimed at young men later this year. Mrs. Obama was visibly moved as she spoke to the crowd about the White House's commitment to the development of all children. Watch the clip below to see for yourself.

(At work and want to read the transcript? Jack & Jill Politics has it.)

Social Angst Commentary:

News of Michelle Obama's mentorship program made me smile. It is very "Talented Tenth" of her. Her humbling self portrait, in which she recognizes that her circumstances could have been very different without the mentors in her life, is deeply touching and (hopefully) equally inspiring. If the First Lady can manage to mentor - even with the Secret Service at her heels - all of us can make a little time to improve the lives of someone less fortunate than us.

Sources/More Information:

1. Jack & Jill Politics: First Lady Initiates Mentor Program
2. Politico: Michelle Obama Launches Mentoring Program
3. Associated Press: First Lady launches White House mentoring program

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Show Your Support Precious: Based on the Movie Push

Calling all patrons of the blogosphere.

THIS IS AN "INVITATION TO AN IDEA"

On Friday, November 6th, 2009, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, in conjunction with Lionsgate films, will be releasing Sundance Film Festival award winner Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.

Precious has received critical accolades since it's initial January debut at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. In a review of the movie for Variety Magazine, John Anderson writes:

An urban nightmare with a surfeit of soul, “Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire” is like a diamond -- clear, bright, but oh so hard. To simply call it harrowing or unsparing doesn’t quite cut it; “Precious” is also courageous and uncompromising, a shaken cocktail of debasement and elation, despair and hope. Everyone involved deserves credit for creating a movie so dangerous, problematic and ultimately elevating. Marketing will be a problem because the shorthand description is so unpalatable. But this is, for all its scorched-earth emotion, a film to be loved. (Read more here)

The subject matter of the movie is heavy. The novel Push (from which the Precious screenplay was adapted) is the true story of Precious, an obese, illiterate victim of physical and sexual abuse, who is struggling to make something better of her life. It is a tale of hopelessness, self-hatred, and ultimately the redemptive qualities of (neighborly) love. An all star cast including Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz and Gabourey Sidibe as Precious, give voice to an important story - one that is too often silenced and ignored.

This opening weekend we have an opportunity to be heard.

Through our collective dollars we can prove there is an interest in serious Black dramas. Let's prove that our interests reach further than comedies featuring cross-dressing matriarchs. This weekend we can get together with our best friends, moms and mentees to support the inspiring story of Precious by hosting Precious themed Girls Nights Out all across the country. Celebrate sisterhood with drinks and a movie! (We did it for Carrie, now let's do it for our own!)

Visit the www.weareallprecious.com to find a theater near you and purchase advanced tickets.

Remember: Participation IS Activism.

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