Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Lani Guinier's Take on the Skip Gates "Mini-Drama"

From TheRoot.com
By The Root Brass | Posted: July 27, 2009 at 11:03 am


A Beer Bromance at the White House? Can Obama's beer fest do anything to improve the relationship between black people and the cops who arrest them? Or does it waste valuable presidential time?

I applaud President Obama’s willingness to step into this debate. Frankly, however, the conversation that needs to happen goes well beyond the one between President Obama, Prof. Gates and Sgt. Crowley. The president is in a position to use this encounter to engage the country—and not just the participants on the now infamous porch scenario—in a thorough vetting of the multiple ways that race still interacts with gender and class and power in our society as whole. Both the police officer and the professor, unfamiliar with each other, were nevertheless playing out longstanding clashes between town and gown. Fighting it out on that porch scene were the expectations of respect that come with privilege and property against the expectations of respect that come with a badge and a gun. Pitting these two powerful narratives against each other was a legacy of racism and social control from a time in our history when blacks did not own property; they were property. At the same time, we have a contemporary criminal justice system that exercises outsized control as the major urban policy instrument for controlling the poor.

The conversation might begin with the hope of figuring out what each man should or could have done differently to de-escalate this situation. But the ultimate goal of the conversation should be to explore the encounter as a potent learning moment for the entire country. The mini-drama that occurred on a porch in Cambridge is much bigger than the encounter between Prof. Gates and Sgt. Crowley, in other words. This is a story of America that we ignore at our collective peril.

—Lani Guinier

Monday, July 13, 2009

African Voices, Yvonne Bynoe, The Harlem Book Fair, and Me

I've been asked to speak at two events for this weekend's Harlem Book Fair...both this Saturday, back-to-back.

The first event, with African Voices magazine, is about how to use the Internet to sell your books. I have a popular email marketing service company (www.putonblast.com) and it houses over 30,000 subscribers. We service alot of authors and other independent creative people. That may have something to do with why friend and colleague
CAROLYN BUTTS extended the invitation :-).

The second event is with client
YVONNE BYNOE, right after the first panel. She is the editor of a book about motherhood (among other books). I am the editor of a book about fatherhood. Together, we will chat about our experiences on delving into this chapter. Her unique experiences as a mother, and my unique experiences as a daddy's girl navigating through stories of fatherhood should make for an insightful exchange.

Both events are free and open to the public! See details below...



DOIN' IT: PROMOTING & SELLING YOUR BOOK ONLINE
Date: Saturday, July 18, 2009
Time: 1:30 noon - 2:45pm
Location: Auditorium at Countee Cullen Library
(located at corner of W. 136th and Malcolm X Blvd., NYC)

African Voices magazine will host a discussion on the resources available for authors to successfully use new technology to promote and sell their book online. Guests will include a panel of publicists, authors, and other professionals who specialize in Internet marketing - everything from blogs, e-newsletters, social media networking, and the use of mobile phones will be covered in this exciting presentation. Learn how to get the word out about your book without having a multi-million dollar marketing budget!

Maitefa Angaza, the managing editor of African Voices and author of "Kwanzaa from Holiday to Every Day," will moderate the panel. There will be a question and answer session and the event is free and open to the public.

Panelists:
Lisa C. Moore, founder and editor of RedBone Press, which publishes work celebrating the culture of black lesbians and gay men and promoting understanding between black gays and lesbians and the black mainstream.

Marcia Pendelton
, founder and president of Walk Tall Girl Productions, a New York-based marketing and group sales company that makes the performing arts accessible to racially and culturally diverse audiences.

Jeff Rivera
is one of the most sought after Black-American speakers on New Media and Publishing. Jeff is an expert on New Media and is on the cutting edge of the new digital direction of publishing.

April R. Silver
(see bio on this blog site)

-------------------------------------------------------------

Author Talk with YVONNE BYNOE
with Special Guest APRIL R. SILVER
Date: Saturday, July 18, 2009
Time: 3:30 - 4:30 pm
Location: Thurgood Marshall Academy
200 W. 135th Street ~ New York, NY 10030-2802
(at Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.)

An AUTHOR TALK with Yvonne Bynoe, editor of anthology "Who's Your Mama? The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers" (with a Foreword by Rebecca Walker). Special Guest: April R. Silver, editor of the anthology, "Be A Father To Your Child: Real Talk From Black Men on Family, Love and Fatherhood"

DESCRIPTION: "A lot of books about motherhood have been written over the years, but they've been mainly about affluent, married White women. The picture is bigger than that. Author and life coach, Yvonne Bynoe will discuss her anthology Who's Your Mama? The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers, a collection of essays about motherhood from a racially and economically diverse group of Hip Hop generation women, single, married, partnered gay and straight. Bynoe is the author of Stand and Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership and Hip Hop Culture and the Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture. She is also the founder of SophisticatedWomanandMama.com, a company dedicated to empowering working mothers."

As an extra bonus Yvonne and April will discuss how the Hip Hop generation fathers and mothers are changing our country’s narrative about parenting and partnering.

Friday, July 3, 2009

The BET Apology: A Good Thing, But Short-Sighted

This morning, allhiphop.com reported that BET has denounced the Lil Wayne and Drake performance at the award show earlier this week. Here is an excerpt from allhiphop.com:
BET has expressed remorse over a performance by Lil Wayne, Drake and Young Money Records that involved underage girls during songs "Best I Ever Had" and "Every Girl."

The songs, which have overt sexual references, were performed during the Sunday BET Awards '09 show as a bevy of young girls danced on stage. The group of girls consisted of Lil Wayne’s daughters and her friends.

In an exclusive statement, BET has responded to the criticism and the public outcry over the segment.

“BET Networks deeply regrets the performance by Young Money at the BET AWARDS ’09 (featuring Lil Wayne, Drake, Gudda Gudda and Mack Maine),” a BET representative told AllHipHop.com exclusively. “Elements of the performance were unplanned and should not have happened.”

In the aftermath of the show, many have expressed outrage over the outing by Young Money, which was set amid a show dedicated to the late Michael Jackson.

Activist and filmmaker Byron Hurt lambasted the network earlier in the week in an open letter to Debra Lee, the President and Chief Executive Officer of BET Holdings, Inc.

“In a culture where one out of four girls and women are either raped or sexually assaulted - and where manipulative men routinely traffic vulnerable women into the sex industry - it is not okay that BET allowed this to happen,” Hurt said. “BET owes its entire audience - particularly girls and women around the world - an apology for its failure to intervene.”

A representative said generally the company has found such opinions useful.

“We value and appreciate the feedback from our viewers and have edited Young Money’s performance for all BET Awards ’09 encore presentations.”

An edited version of the show will re-air on Monday July 6. The BET Awards saw a 61-percent increase in viewers this year fueled by the sudden death of Michael Jackson. Ten percent of all turned on television sets watched the show Sunday, a remarkably high number.

It is a good thing that BET Networks apologized for the performance. It’s also very important to highlight the fact that they “value and appreciate the feedback from…viewers.” I am happy to read that BET is listening. That is the basis of any meaningful, productive exchange.

Since BET’s antennas are now up, this is a great opportunity to remind the network about the context of the public outcry that exploded around the Internet this week. The uproar was not merely about a single performance.

Judging from the massive, far-reaching response to my essay alone, one can see that the uproar was targeted at BET’s history of programming. Millions have argued - this week and throughout the years - that, as a general rule, BET programming does not powerfully dig at some of the dreadful realities that exist in the Black community. Some of those realities can be seen in the lives affected by these stats: Seventy percent of all Black children in this country are born to parents who are not married; sixty percent of all Black children are growing up without their fathers; one out of sixteen black males will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime; the same is true from one out of thirty black women. There is a mountain of other verifiable data that could be inserted here.

To be clear: There is no expectation from viewers that BET is able to fix problems that it didn’t create. We understand that the original seeds of materialism or sexism, for example, were not planted by BET. Yet because we live in a country where Black people are unhealthier, less educated, disproportionately incarcerated, and more likely to be brutalized by the police than most any other racial group - because of these facts, then so many of us expect BET to be more forward-thinking and progressive with its programming. Millions of people believe that when BET pushes an abundance of programming that focuses on sex, fame, glory, and money and that same programming grid is lacking in news, history programs, financial literacy shows, social justice investigations, or similar kinds of shows, then BET is helping to unravel the fabric of our community. A saturation of shows that celebrate the most surface aspects of who we are is like having unprotected sex: it might feel good in the moment, but it’s not good in the long run.

BET, if you are listening sincerely then take note that millions of outraged people (which include your loyal viewers, former viewers, and secretly, even some of your employees) have never really been offended by any one single performance, but more offended by what the network refuses to do. The outcry is for the network to epitomize the kind of programming that includes a more balanced look at African Americans. At the very least, the outcry is for BET to invest in more than just videos, reality TV shows, and awards. People are still critical of the network for cancelling Teen Summit and BET News.

What’s glaring here is the fact that there is more to Black people than what meets the eye. We are a complex collective. A network that recognizes the diversity of Black people would be a welcome shift to millions. While we can expect ignorant racists to put Black people in a box, we don’t want to fight that battle with a network run by Black people. If a country like the United States, with its history of hatred toward Black people, can elect an African American to the White House, then surely BET can expand its mission beyond its narrow view.

And it saddens millions of us that when the world wants to turn on television to learn about the history of African Americans or about how our humanity has changed the course of history, then viewers must tune into other networks. It’s the other networks, like PBS and HBO (with all their shortcomings), who find the foresight and the financing to tell our stories. It’s the other networks that consistently provide specials on Black luminaries ranging from Josephine Baker to Jack Johnson; from Roberto Clemente to Sweet Honey in the Rock; from Ida B. Wells to Marcus Garvey.

And so, BET, while an apology is good, it’s simply not deep enough. It’s as surface as most of the programs the network stands behind. If there was a monitoring of this week’s backlash and the only result was a statement that denounced a single performance, then it seems that BET still doesn’t get it.

But perhaps millions of us expect too much. A Viacom-owned company, BET is a business and its business is entertainment. It operates to make a profit, not to heal a nation. It did not have to issue an apology, but when that all it did, it reminded millions that the uproar should be directed to those who advertise with the network.

BET Network Apologizes

From AllHipHop.com
By Houston Williams
Friday, July 3, 2009

BET has expressed remorse over a performance by Lil Wayne, Drake and Young Money Records that involved underage girls during songs "Best I Ever Had" and "Every Girl."

The songs, which have overt sexual references, were performed during the Sunday BET Awards '09 show as a bevy of young girls danced on stage. The group of girls consisted of Lil Wayne’s daughters and her friends.

In an exclusive statement, BET has responded to the criticism and the public outcry over the segment.

“BET Networks deeply regrets the performance by Young Money at the BET AWARDS ’09 (featuring Lil Wayne, Drake, Gudda Gudda and Mack Maine),” a BET representative told AllHipHop.com exclusively. “Elements of the performance were unplanned and should not have happened.”

In the aftermath of the show, many have expressed outrage over the outing by Young Money, which was set amid a show dedicated to the late Michael Jackson.

Activist and filmmaker Byron Hurt lambasted the network earlier in the week in an open letter to Debra Lee, the President and Chief Executive Officer of BET Holdings, Inc.

“In a culture where one out of four girls and women are either raped or sexually assaulted - and where manipulative men routinely traffic vulnerable women into the sex industry - it is not okay that BET allowed this to happen,” Hurt said. “BET owes its entire audience - particularly girls and women around the world - an apology for its failure to intervene.”

A representative said generally the company has found such opinions useful.

“We value and appreciate the feedback from our viewers and have edited Young Money’s performance for all BET Awards ’09 encore presentations.”

Drake has apologized and taken responsibility for the performance, admitting it was in poor taste...

An edited version of the show will re-air on Monday July 6. The BET Awards saw a 61-percent increase in viewers this year fueled by the sudden death of Michael Jackson. Ten percent of all turned on television sets watched the show Sunday, a remarkably high number.