Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962), best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon.[1][2][3] His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Brooks’ integration of rock elements into his recordings and live performances has earned him immense popularity. This progressive approach allowed him to dominate the country single and album charts while quickly crossing over into the mainstream pop arena, exposing country music to a larger audience.[4]
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Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
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United States President Barack Obama makes Thanksgiving Day phone calls to U.S. military personnel from the Oval Office November 24, 2011.
I don’t even own a pet, but this touched me:
Too sweet and cute!
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Happy Thanksgiving, Dannie!
‘Uppity’ slur still haunts African-Americans
By Goldie Taylor
11:33 AM on 11/23/2011
First used around 1880, uppity was a word used to describe someone who was prone to “taking on airs” or “assuming liberties beyond one’s social station”. By the early 1900s, the term was almost exclusively used to describe black people who did not show the appropriate level of deference with whites.
Forgetting to address someone as “sir” or “ma’am”, or having the audacity to look a white person in the eye, were all signs that you were getting too big for your britches. Attempting to get an education or enunciating your words were also frowned upon. Blacks needed to step off the sidewalk, if need be, the let whites pass freely. Jim Crow is dead, but unfortunately some of those social constructs live on.
To have some tell it, President Obama is an uppity Negro too. For too many, he is an “elitist” with an inflated self-esteem who doesn’t deserve to live in the White House. First lady Michelle Obama has been chided for everything from her choice in shoes to the garden she planted on White House grounds.
Certainly, according to some, they aren’t worthy of the “luxurious lifestyle” that comes with being the first family. According to Rick Perry, President Obama is nothing more than a community organizer who has never had to work for anything in his life. NASCAR fans at the Homestead-Miami Speedway openly booed Mrs. Obama as she paid tribute to those who hire and train military veterans. The next day, Rush Limbaugh blamed it all on Michelle Obama’s “uppity attitude”.
Let’s be clear, the word “uppity” has become nothing more than synonym for a “ni**er” that doesn’t know his or her “place”. For me, it’s an ugly reminder of what America used to be and, in some quarters, still is. When they say they want their country back, it isn’t a silent dog whistle. It’s a demand.
Much in the same way that the customer in the pharmacy demanded that my grandfather keep his place even at the snap of a horsewhip, so then do some believe President Obama should be deferential and humble himself before them. It is no accident that a political pundit called him a “dick” on live television because he dared speak his mind on the issue of the day.
http://www.thegrio.com/politics/uppity-slur-still-haunts-african-americans.php?page=1
One of the funniest things EVER on tv related to Thanksgiving.
Video- Thanksgiving Classic: WRKP In Cincinnati Turkey Drop
Posted on Thursday, November 24, 2011, 7:30 am by Paddy
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2011/11/24/video-thanksgiving-classic-wrkp-in-cincinnati-turkey-drop/
Oh, So NOW Police Brutality matters?!”
Open Letter to Occupy Wall Street On Police Brutality
By: Black Canseco
Dear Occupy Wall Street:
Police brutality in America did not begin with you. It’s older than you, older than your encampments and older than your sudden awareness of it.
As one of the 99% you claim to champion, I for example, have seen police brutality firsthand throughout my childhood and my adult life right on to this day. As an African American male I have seen what happens when you occupy black skin in the presence of a police officer. I’ve buried friends who were shot by police despite having broken no laws. I’ve seen police batons and fists, backs of squad cars and squad car hoods used as weapons—not because I or my fellow African Americans were protesting or making any public statements, but simply because we were breathing and existing outside our homes.
As one of the 99% you claim to champion it’s my belief that Occupy Wall Street’s best hope of addressing police brutality is to first understand that police brutality did not begin with any occupation movement nor has it ever been limited to the parks, college campuses and gatherings where you are.
For every OWS encampment there have been hundreds of unarmed Black men have been shot by police—sometimes in the back for occupying little more than their own skin. For every OWS participant that has been pepper-sprayed there have been hundreds upon hundreds of African American who have been beaten by police often within their own neighborhoods. For every OWS participant that’s been zip-tied and carted off to jail legions of African Americans and Latinos have been unfairly prosecuted and excessively sentenced by local, state and even federal courts.
But until OWS protestors were exposed to police mistreatment it was a complete and total non-issue for the Occupy Movement. There was no outrage from current OWS supporters when even the most famous of police injustices occurred. Unfortunately it has taken the faces of victims of police brutality to become Whiter, seemingly more educated, seemingly more “mainstream” for police brutality and injustice to even register as blips on OWS’s radar. (And don’t think that this obvious and observable fact has been lost on the millions of people of color who have yet to join the occupy movement.)
In the days and weeks since many of the police vs. OWS confrontations I’m not surprised by the lack of calls to “#OccupyTheCops”, “#OccupyTheCourts” or “#OccupyThePrisons” as policing issues most OWS participants must deal with in their communities or daily lives beyond their OWS protest activities.
But let’s be clear: There’s no greater injustice than being so selfishly blind as to selectively claim suffering or fight suffering only when doing so benefits your agenda while willfully ignoring that very same suffering as it festers elsewhere around you. Police injustice is not something any one or any community should be subjected to. But there’s something distateful and alienating about seeing folk scream about something that we normally have to beg them to even passingly acknowledge.
To that end, I strongly encourage those in the Occupy Movement to take a long hard look at the issues of Police brutality not just as it relates to OWS, but as it continues to impact the 99% you so proudly fight for.
http://www.hustleknockin.com/hustleknockin/2011/11/oh-so-now-police-brutality-matters.html
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Left Colorblindness and White Democracy
Many thanks to Chauncey DeVega for pointing me to an article titled Whiteness and the 99% by Joel Olson. So much of what Olson says applies not only to OWS, but any progressive organizing in which we might be involved.
First of all, Olson defines “left colorblindness.”
Left colorblindness claims to be inclusive, but it is actually just another way to keep whites’ interests at the forefront. It tells people of color to join “our” struggle (who makes up this “our,” anyway?) but warns them not to bring their “special” concerns into it. It enables white people to decide which issues are for the 99% and which ones are “too narrow.” It’s another way for whites to expect and insist on favored treatment, even in a democratic movement.
Then he summarizes the historical development of “race” in this country as a way for the 1%ers to maintain power.
Race was created in America in the late 1600s in order to preserve the land and power of the wealthy. Rich planters in Virginia feared what might happen if indigenous tribes, slaves, and indentured servants united and overthrew them. So, they cut a deal with the poor English colonists. The planters gave the English poor certain rights and privileges denied to all persons of African and Native American descent: the right to never be enslaved, to free speech and assembly, to move about without a pass, to marry without upper-class permission, to change jobs, to acquire property, and to bear arms. In exchange, the English poor agreed to respect the property of the rich, help them seize indigenous lands, and enforce slavery.
And thus was “white democracy” born.
As this white race expanded to include other European ethnicities, the result was a very curious political system: the white democracy. The white democracy has two contradictory aspects to it. On the one hand, all whites are considered equal (even as the poor are subordinated to the rich and women are subordinated to men). On the other, every white person is considered superior to every person of color. It’s democracy for white folks, but tyranny for everyone else.
After covering how that white democracy still exists today as is catalogued in the disparities we see in almost every system of our culture, Olson demonstrates how the issues faced by people of color are not divisive – but central.
The roots of left colorblindness lie in the white democracy and the distorted mindset it creates. It encourages whites to think that their issues are “universal” while those of people of color are “specific.” But that is exactly backwards. The struggles of people of color are the problems that everyone shares. Anyone in the occupy movement who has been treated brutally by the police has to know that Black communities are terrorized by cops every day. Anyone who is unemployed has to know that Black unemployment rates are always at least double that of whites, and Native American unemployment rates are far higher. Anyone who is sick and lacks healthcare has to know that people of color are the least likely to be insured (regardless of their income) and have the highest infant mortality and cancer rates and the lowest life expectancy rates. Anyone who is drowning in debt should know that the median net wealth of Black households is twenty times less than that of white households. Only left colorblindness can lead us to ignore these facts.
This is the sinister impact of white democracy on our movements. It encourages a mindset that insists that racial issues are “divisive” when they are at the absolute center of everything we are fighting for.
And then he tells us how we can be successful in organizing the entire 99%
The only thing that can stop us is us. What prevents the 99% from organizing the world as we see fit is not the 1%. The 1% cannot hold on to power if we decide they shouldn’t. What keeps us from building the new world in our hearts are the divisions among us…
Creating a 99% requires putting the struggles of people of color at the center of our conversations and demands rather than relegating them to the margins. To fight against school segregation, colonization, redlining, and anti-immigrant attacks is to fight against everything Wall Street stands for, everything the Tea Party stands for, everything this government stands for. It is to fight against the white democracy, which stands at the path to a free society like a troll at the bridge.
I wholeheartedly agree with Olson. And as I was reflecting on this, it struck me once again how the election of Barack Obama shook this white democracy to its core. Contrary to what folks like Cornel West say, the President doesn’t need to talk about race at every turn. Its in everyone’s face every time they look at him and his lovely family. Their very presence in the White House and his position at the pinnacle of power takes the whole issue of race to the center of its existence and threatens to completely undo the foundation of white democracy. When we forget this, we lose sight of the basis for the kind of resistance he’s facing when it comes to left colorblindness and white democracy.
Posted by Smartypants at
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2011/11/left-colorblindness-and-white-democracy.html
BRAVO!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone !!
I’ve been thinking about Mama and Daddy today. Be thankful for the family you have near and dear.
Amen!
I was thinking about my sweet little mother & daddy this morning. How I miss that precious time with them. I miss their hugs, I miss their touch. I still love them with all of my heart!
I am so thankful for my family. I love them deeply & fiercely. I am so thankful my brother is cancer free. No more treatments. God is so good all the time! I am so thankful to wake up every morning knowing President Barack Obama is our President. Thank you, Lord, for being so gracious to us.
LOL!
I do love Charlie Brown & Snoopy! Here is one of my favorites…
this is one of my favorites too
BWA HA HA HA This is a classic scene.
A Surprise Call From The First Lady
Good Morning, Ametia, Rikyrah, 3 Chics, Friends & Visitors!
Finally, a chance to get online and holla.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING SG2 & EVERYONE!
Happy Thanksgiving!
My Turkey & Dressing is done. Hallelujah!
I have to do the candied yams, & green beans. Oh, but am I tired!