Twisted irony of this being a topic: "The Princess Boy"

Just last week I was having a conversation with an older black, closeted homosexual guy about this very topic.  He said one of the main reasons why he would never live in Atlanta was because of the overt over acceptance of  homosexual behaviors and in his words "dudes who dress in female clothing".  I responded saying, "I don't worry about what others do because that is their lives and I will live mine as I see fit.".  Now this guy is from Chicago originally, where he rear and lived until a couple years ago before relocating with his daughter to Birmingham for a job.  It's interesting that he mentioned that he thinks that "guys should exhibit any type of non-conforming behavior" yet he is a homosexual (another non-conforming behavior) and deeply closeted (also a "Praise Team" director at his church in other words he is a "church queen").

I digress, the story about Dyson Kilodavis of Seattle and his non-conforming behavior of dressing in female attire.  The 5-year-old black boy likes to dress in dresses and even calls himself "princess boy".  He and his mother Cheryl Kilodavis were on the NBC Today show on Monday morning discussing this and a book his mother wrote about similar behavior in children.  Cheryl Kilodavis penned her book My Princess Boy in an effort to have these larger conversations about acceptance.  The black and mostly black LGBT blogospheres have been talking about this all week.  Now I heard about and saw the interview with the Kilodavis' on local NBC station, WVTM, on Monday, but was too tired to say much about it.  However, after seeing how the black blogosphere's responses have fallen in other of the 3 catogories: ambivalent, supportive, or against it.  (See Bossip, Lipstick Alley, Living Out Loud with Darian, Rod 2.0, Pam's House Blend, Miss Jia) The majority has been against it (no surprise).  As Dr. Sheri L. Parks of the University of Maryland, College Park said,  

"Religiosity permeates African-American daily life more than any other population," Parks said. "When you look at evangelical Protestants they are the most concerned about gender role development and sexual orientation.  African-Americans are very emotionally involved in black masculinity. Masculinity is very highly valued, that's why some people come down hard on this little boy whose not taking his rightful place."

It's a damn shame because identity is one thing as an adolescent that is very hard to figure out and discover as it is, but the additional pressures that blacks places on one another for "conforming behaviors" just makes it even harder for young black males and some females when it comes to these things.  Hence, why I give folk the side-eye half the time because as a "group" (when need to used for subjective discussion), we talk out of both sides of our necks.  We want acceptance as people as whole in Western society, but refuse to accept individual members for their differences especially in they involve not falling in line with socially acceptable behaviors of being hyper-masculinity in males.

(h/t to the Grio for the links)

Somethings that are occuring in the Alabama Legislature...

I guess the now Republican-majority Alabama Legislature has all those who watch Alabama politics in a tizzy.  First, Alabama's outgoing governor, Bob Riley, decided to do a speech opening the special sessions for "ethics reform" at 6PM on Wednesday, and surprisingly the local Birmingham TV stations with news ops aired.  (Well, some of them like ABC 33/40, WIAT "CBS 42", and WBRC "FOX6").  WVTM, "Alabama's 13" (formerly "NBC 13") didn't air it at all, but did cover it during their 10PM newscast.  It seems like "media bias" to me because not once in recent memory have any of the Birmingham news media outlet felt it was pertinent to air anything from the State Capitol on live television.  ***SIDE-EYE***

Anyways, back to the discussion of the special session.  It looks like the Republicans want to pass 7 key items (of course on their terms):

• Code of Public Ethics and Accountability
• Legislative Double Dipping Ban
• PAC-to-PAC Ban
• Pass-Through Pork Ban
• Protect the Public Trust Act
• Restricting Political Activity on State Time
• Transparency and Accountability Act 

I know some of my fellow progressives like my buddy, "Mooncat", on Left in Alabama has expressed their grievances and agreements with the proposal.  Although others are just looking for a reason to "cause strife" between the "Riley camp" and the "Bentley camp".  Not that I disagree with looking for a counter tactic for  Democrats to use against the Republicans, but they had control of the Alabama Legislature for 136 years and did nothing but hold on to power.

The outgoing governor and newly elected state legislators are just a beacon of interesting ideas including newly appointed Senate Pro-Tem, Del Marsh, who has recommended legislative staff reductions.  The catch is that they might be bringing in their own as usual, who might get paid just as much...

This whole situation with this party shift is a mess, but many (including myself) warned the Democrats of their antics of doing nothing would come back to haunt them sooner than later.

NPR fired Juan Williams ***YAWN***

I am so over the talk about National Public Radio (NPR) terminating Juan Williams position as a political commentator for their organization.  He opened his mouth and said something quite derogatory towards Muslim Americans, and he paid the piper with his job.  If I had a job as a political commentator with organization A and then went on a national news network or propaganda organization (You Decide, hint, hint) and said that all the white people involved in the T.E.A. twats gatherings made me uneasy because I know they are aversive racists then I got terminated from organization A.  Well, I would deserve it, period.  I wasn't being an objective commentator on politics anymore because I felt the need to explain my personal feelings and insulted an already controversial group on national television.  Clearly it's a conflict of interest as NPR ombudsmen Alicia C. Shepard elaborated in her column on Williams' termination.

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and rest of the vindication for their bullshit crowd are harping about stripping the federal funding from NPR because of this.  Yet, NPR receives less than 2% of funding from the federal government.  This is a textbook example of hypocrisy on the part of the socially conservative and narrow-minded faction that exists in this nation.  Nobody was saying a peep about the antics of the commentators of the mostly socially regressive Clear Channel syndicated talk radio shows or NewsCorp (FOX's parent company) founder and CEO Rupert Murdoch donating millions to the Republican Governors Association.  Instead, it's oh so convenient to pick and choose their controversies and battles of "objectivity".

Now, NPR might appear a little left leaning, but that's because most of the time they do objective reporting of most major news stories that occur regardless of political ideological stances.  If that is considered "liberal" or "left-leaning" then I guess the assumption of the "liberal mainstream media" does exist. (only in the minds of the paranoid and eurocentric oriented social conservative individuals)...

The Trifecta of Fuckery: Eddie Long edition

WELL, WELL, WELL, WELL, WELL!  THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST AND HAS CROWED 3 TIMES!

The messiness, foolishness, and sheer madness of this whole situation has brought me out of my work/career hiatus to post. (I hope to regularly post in general)  Hypocrisy, homosexual behavior, and the black religious fold.  This is PURE UNADULTERATED FUCKERY AT IT VERY BEST!  Now where do I start. 

I've been saying for years (pre-bloggging days) that foolishness ALWAYS finds it source.  Well, Eddie Long has a history of being involved in anti-LGBT foolishness from helping campaign for Georgia to ban any same-sex unions or domestic partnership in 2004 to his silly ass march in the winter of 2005 in Atlanta against same-sex unions to his rabid homophobic ranting in a good chunk of his "sermons" (if you want to call it that).  This man has been the walk body of the stereotype of homophobia in the black religious community.  Yet his stupid ass brought himself down over lust for another man, the irony.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the 3 plaintiffs (whom names I won't repeat since they are already is there for the world to see on most sites, just Google it) have said basically the same thing, Eddie Long likes to be called "Daddy", took them on lavish trips around the world, introduced them to celebs (or "popular people" in my vernacular), slept in the same bed with him, and sexual acts including masturbation, oral sex were engaged.

Now I'm going to speak on some stuff I allegedly now in vague terms since this is an ongoing case.  There are also allegations that Long has been doing this mess since the early 1990s when he first came popular in Atlanta and the black religious circles.  Things of such involving such as him taking those boys to the Atlanta Hawks basketball games and etc.

Art Franklin, New Birth's spokesperson is a former Birmingham news anchor has allegations about about him and his sexuality too (especially considering the allegations surrounding his divorce).  These are among some of the reasons why he allegedly left WBRC "FOX6" to go to Atlanta to work on his music and writing then later wind up at WBRC's former sister station, WAGA "FOX5" and now at New Birth as the spokesman. 

All I'm going to say is this mess is destructive and revealing the bed of hypocrisy involving some black folks especially in the religious and church circles.  That's why I've been giving most of them the side-eye for awhile now because it shows that folks need to leave the LGBTs alone like the racially bias need to leave people of color alone...

Another chapter in black politics (actually just social issues): THE BOONDOCKS

Yeah, just by the way this post sounds somebody will read it and roll their eyes almost immediately.  However, the Aaron McGruder-created series is quite realistic in a satirical and parodist manner about how society is.  I've been a fan since the beginning, but isn't exactly a fan of the overt usage of the n-word though understand the context of its usage.  

The Boondocks speaks upon many things that black and white Americans does in such a foolish manner yet doesn't realize how crazy it is from another perspective.  In particular, the ongoing theme of the show's first 2 seasons were racial issues involving black and white Americans in suburban areas.  You would have the already established white citizens living in that area then the influx of non-whites into the neighborhood with the sudden suspicion that there is "unwanted elements" arriving.  Interestingly enough, those non-white formerly "new arrivals" become suspicious of more non-white new arrivals to that same neighborhood they were just looked down upon because of their difference in lifestyles.  It's just a vicious circle, yet McGruder exploits this for the world to see in his now-defunct comic strip and current TV series.  

McGruder ridicules the ostentation nature of intimacy involving interracial relationships such as the character "Tom", who epitomizes the idea of an "uncle tom".  "Tom" has a white wife, who is wild for any good looking black male.  The point of the satirical representation whom is "Tom" isn't interracial relationships itself rather the idea that being in one removes one from the issues involving race in our society.  That's far from the fact because there are many situations where "Tom" would fall back into the web of issues associated with being black although he has an interracial familiar unit.

Another thing, McGruder exploits in particular in the second season of his series is hip-hop and its surrounding urban culture.  He focuses on  obsession with the hip-hop and urban culture by suburban whites.  McGruder shows that although these youths listen to and attempt to imitate such cultural icons and quirks (although most are only figments of fantasy and exaggerated by the media), they don't suffer the consequences of their actions as would black when they exercise such behavior.  He made quite clear that although these youths are truly aren't malevolent in intent with their actions, they can get away with these antics.

In addition, McGruder focus on the hypocrisy within the hip-hop on homosexual behavior.  He points that out with a rapper in the series who denied to the very end that he wasn't engaging in homosexual behavior although it was proven time and time again.  It goes to show that some will engage in such behavior and still live in denial.  He also satirizes the foolishness of some rappers like 50 Cent, Fabolous, Busta Rhymes, and such on the glorification of being shot various times and obtaining "street cred" from such incidents.

The current season of the TV series parodies the bandwagon effects of black Americans.  He pointed out with the election of sitting president Barack Obama, many blacks felt that was a "game changer" in the state of race relations and the idea of "one of us" in the White House.  However, the storyline revealed this to be far from the truth with the notion that 2 of the main characters were rejected access to the inauguration and following festivities.  Another character, Huey, knew from the beginning this was far from the fact, but it was displayed that his ambivalence was "outsider behavior" and "treasonist" in nature by many black characters in the episode.  Now this isn't saying that all black people have group mentality, but it is obvious that many exhibit such even in my past postings. 

The most recent controversies the series has pointed out is the foolishness of now Viacom-owned BET.  The BET network executives pushed to have the 2 episodes ("The Hunger Strike, "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show") satirizing the network's poor representation of modern black culture.  The parodies of the network was quite accurate since there is practically no news, public affairs, or informational programming in its line-up since Viacom acquisition in 1999.

The most recent stir-up is the recent episode "Pause", where McGruder satirize the plays of Tyler Perry and his "Madea" character, and consistent message of the works.  He also exploited the alleged culture that exists behind the scenes with Tyler Perry's professional and personal life.  This includes the exploit of Perry being a closeted homosexual who uses his religion and usage of Jesus to deflect the discussion of his personal life while furthering the allowance of homophobia amongst black religious circles.  There are a number of works by Perry where he has ridiculed LGBTs, particularly black males in his plays and films.  Especially while in character as "Madea" mentioned black LGBT males as "tambourine players", but the irony is "Madea" is black male dress in women's clothing also "drag" himself.  

According to the Los Angeles Times, Perry apparently is furious with Turner Broadcasting, who owns the Cartoon Network and ironically parent company of TBS where he airs his 2 sitcoms.  The execs at the network are now trying to coddle Perry to keep him from possibly pulling his shows off the TBS network.  However, Perry knows other networks would give him the time or day with his corny ass shows though.  Most critics (including myself) sees most works of Perry as examples of the sanctimonious nature of some black folks,

To sum it up, the Boondocks depicts the issues surrounding the black people and to certain extent society itself...

The 2010 BET Awards

I have to give it up to BET this year since they decided to give us some decency rather than usual fuckery.  This year's award show was in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium.  First off, Chris Brown was able to finally give the well deserved tribute to Michael Jackson and was finally forgiven by the public.  The moments of the night for me were Monica's duet with soul singer Deniece Williams of "Silly", which was sampled by Monica's current hit song "Everything to Me".  The next moment was the Queen of Facial Expressions, Prince's mega side-eye towards Trey Songz as he failed at singing "Purple Rain" (as since above) in an unofficial tribute attempt.  I was LAUGHING MY ASS OFF at this incident.  Prince is A FOOL, but I would have been with him on the side-eye.  The majority of his official tribute conducted by Janelle Monae, Alicia Keys, Esparanza Spaulding, and Patti LaBelle was pretty good. 

Also there was a Teddy Pendergrass tribute lead by model/actor/singer, Tyrese, but it wasn't that good in my opinion... Then there is the foolishness of everybody on stage for the gospel number with the exception of Yolanda Adams.  Aubrey "Drake" Graham and Nicki Meningitis bring 35,000 nobodies on stage from Young Money on stage with them when they each won their tokens from EBT, I mean BET.

Somebody needs to find a cure to that audio/visual disease known as Nicki Meningitis aka Nicki Minaj because that bitch has no talent at all...

To sum it up, it was better than the last 3 years BET Awards, but not to the level of the first 3.  I guess happy 10th anniversary, BET Awards...

Time for one of my random thoughts about places involving media...

Well, when I think about places across the South, mainly the cities, I always who is the dominant and most reliable outlet of information in that region.  Like in Atlanta, it's a given that its the Cox Media-owned ABC affiliate, WSB-TV "Channel 2", who has been the leader of the region since literally the beginning since its the first TV station to come on air in the South (according to them).  While growing up, I used to think it was so funny that WSB-TV would have all this local programs in an era where local programming was going out of favor because of corporate ownership of media choosing syndicated programs over such.  However, Channel 2 would air "Close-Up with Monica Kaufman", who is legendary in the Atlanta region and those who are familiar with WSB-TV since she is the station's longest serving anchor to-date and one of the nation's longest serving female newscast anchors (35 years).  Also their airing of the nation's largest Independence Day parade on July 4th called "Salute 2 America" along with the "Macy's Great Tree" at Lenox Square shopping mall.

What so sad about the whole situation in Atlanta is the closest competitors, NewsCorp-owned WAGA-TV "FOX5 Atlanta" has half the ratings of anything WSB airs, which I know somebody at NewsCorp and FOX is pissed about consistently in a major market like Atlanta. 

The local NBC-affiliate WXIA-TV, is my personal favorite, but it has been fighting for years to remain #2 in the market with "FOX5 Atlanta".

What's so funny is they had been so dominate with their identity and signature "Action News" product of WSB-TV is that stations in other portions of the South have immolated them like WMC-TV in Memphis with similar logo, news products, and simplification of identity.

The station that has immolated WSB-TV is WMC-TV 5, which is the leading station is arguably the leading news station in Memphis.  The Raycom Media-owned NBC affiliate of the market, which was formerly owned by Atlanta-native, Bert Ellis, who was a huge fan of WSB-TV and used it as a benchmark to create the current look of WMC-TV.

Also Atlanta is one of those dubious markets where the other stations had to shuffle network affiliations due to because WAGA-TV was originally a longtime CBS affiliate until 1994 then it wind up on longtime independent station WGNX, now WGCL-TV.  Since WGNX/WGCL-TV has been hobbling along without a solid identity for years since its days as 'WGNX 46' then owned by Tribune Broadcasting, but now known as "CBS Atlanta" and owned by Meredith Corporation.

When applying that knowledge to here in Birmingham, well there isn't a leader because it is a market where corporatization took away any sense of locality for any of the stations.  The closest station to be "local leading station" was WBRC, but the whole NewsCorp-New World Communications deal back in the 1990s like WAGA-TV in Atlanta, took away that and made it into a FOX-owned station until 2008.  Now its back in the hands of the Alabama-based Raycom Media, but it's just lacking because the station has maintained the "FOX6" name for over a decade.

The other stations here like formerly NBC-Universal-owned NBC affiliate WVTM, which is owned by the god-awful Media General corporation is joke, and WBMA/WJSU/WCFT "ABC 33/40", the combination ABC affiliate is such a small town oriented station.  Whereas, WIAT has resurrected from the decade of ownership by Media General and now owned by New Vision Television, but it is immolating what WBRC and WBMA/WJSU/WCFT have been doing and that is create this "small town mindset" which is so counterproductive to the region as a whole in unification around Birmingham. 

Yeah, even the media here sucks...

Oh how, oh how did WXIA-TV do it?

It's seems that Atlanta's NBC affiliate and Gannett-owned station WXIA-TV "11 Alive" was the only news operation in that market that kept up with the numbers of the mayor race from minute-to-minute without receiving information the Associated Press (AP) like the other news ops in Atlanta.  Well, apparently Radio/TV columnist, Rodney Ho of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, discovered that WXIA-TV used some 80 station employees and volunteers out in the field throughout Atlanta to cover the individual precincts. 

Not a bad idea, I always knew there was a reason why I like them better than WSB-TV in the Atlanta market.  Too bad in Birmingham everybody is too damn cheap to do such resourceful and accurate things to cover the elections in the Birmingham area.  It would alleviate some of the confused and inaccuracies that I've noticed that all of our 4 news operations in the Birmingham market make during election times.

The Queen B redeems herself with me...

She told the truth about Sarah Palin.  She has juju beads for brains and everybody knows it, but you betcha that some white people don't care because you know in their eyes "white is right!"

YAWN! The AMA last night...

I thought it was going to be good, but nope!  Although I could care less for Sean "Jay-Z" Carter, his performance with Alicia Keys of "Empire State of Mind" was the apex of the night.  Even my girl, Janet, was boring and lacklaster last night with her opening performance. 

Rihanna, well, was OK, but the hype of bigger than the performance.  I'm going to have to take a line from T-Boz and Jazzy Phae, who were sitting in for Ryan Cameron on V-103 today, Rihanna needs to get with Divine Stevens and get it together performance-wise.  She has beaten Beyonce in the hits category, but if you really want to become a BIG NAME like her then you gotta step it up on the live performance tip.  Otherwise, she'll be like Mariah Carey, just a sit-and-watch artist when it comes to performance like her music.

Other stuff, the whole granddose intro for Keith Urban as a "sexy man and half" was EXTRA to Carrie Underwood pretending to be major when she should know her lane by now.  WTF was the Black Eyed Peas doing?  I love me some B.E.P., but they should have SAT DOWN with that crap.  Jennifer Lopez, SMDH, I hate to say this, but J.Lo your time in the music spotlight is up!  The rest was alright from Kelly Clarkson (who has gone back to her natural size and I'm proud) to Sharika give one of her best with the Timbaland-produced hit "Give It Up to Me". 

Oh yeah, I changed the channel on Adam Lambert's so-called contraversial performance because I was bored with the AMAs and the news was on by then.  However, I saw it and it was forced and lame.  It's cute that you are open about your sexuality Adam, but you could have tried to let it occur naturally like most contraversial performance rather than hyping it up to be one...

Martha Stewart is a Bitch with a capital "B"

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/martha-stewart-takes-aim-rachel-ray-abc-news/story?id=9116891

In a recent interview with Cythnia McFadden on ABC News' Nightline, where she basically derides Rachel Ray for her imperfections on air and style of cooking.  Here's an excerpt:

"Well, to me, she professed that she could -- cannot bake," said Stewart. "She ... just did a new cookbook which is just a re-edit of a lot of her old recipes ... and that's not good enough for me. I mean, I really want to write a book that is a unique and lasting thing. Something that will really fulfill a need in someone's library."

She is a BITCH, but I can respect her for being one regardless since she is able to admit that openly unlike some...