Howard Zinn: 1922-2010

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Howard Zinn: 1922-2010, Civil Rights, Anti-War, A People's History of the United States, Author, Acting White

#2 Blacks and Bluetooth

I think whoever invented Bluetooth, the technology that allows cellular gizmos to extend their wireless-ness, knows Black people in a scary way. Maybe it was Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

Starting from years back, when Motorola came out with the first $200+ versions, Black people have bought these things like hot wings. Something about not missing that call from that special lady/man just seemed to capture folks. But then, it got out of hand. I’m in a restaurant, grocery store, bank, movie, and blam! - someone is talking into his ear and interrupting the flow of everything around them. Now I understand if you are Jay-Z or Russ Simmons and you have been waiting for a call on a multi-million dollar deal, but please people, not during Avatar! If you listen in, it often goes like this, ‘whasup?, where you at?’, ‘what you eat’in? Really! Damn! Bring me some.’

Do people think that Bluetooth can make their average lives look more interesting, than if they were talking between two used soup cans, connected with a string? I was at the ATM the other day and a women was going on loudly into her 'tooth' about who she was sleeping with and whose business it was and wasn’t. It certainly was not my business, but she was making sure I knew every last, nasty, skanky detail. When she finished her banking she turned around to glare at me, whereupon I gave her my best Stevie Wonder imitation, as I don’t know how to feign deafness.

Deep-down, I blame talk-shows and reality television. This is where Hollywood placed a commercial value on people’s below-average, raggedy-ass, lives. With this, too many Black people lost all reserve for letting others see their self-jacked-up day-to-day struggles. Before that, people kept their business in the closet, like a special Uncle, and spent their evenings trying to clean it up. Today, everybody is looking for the chance to show their Jerry Springer ‘drawls’ to whoever will pay them two-cents, however shameless.

What really gets me is when folks are somewhere that forbids cell phone usage, like hospitals. Their retort, when approached by the staff is to say, “I’m not talking on my cell phone, this is Bluetooth (expletive optional)!” I just shake my head and do my Stevie – I didn’t see it, and I don’t want to hear it.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: #2 Blacks and Bluetooth, Uhuru, Star Trek, Manners, Cell Phones, Acting White

J.D. Salinger: 1919-2010

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: J.D. Salinger: 1919-2010, The Catcher In The Rye, Classic, Holden Caulfield, Author, Acting White

A Theory of Black Racism

A gay person can be homophobic. A Jew can be Anti-Semitic. But a Black person can’t be racist, either against others and certainly not against Blacks? Why does this belief exist? What is going on here? I have heard this time and again from all levels of educated Blacks, as well as some Whites. Does Black history make Blacks immune to racist behavior/accusation? Or is such behavior fair turn-around for the past?

Black racism is rarely discussed in the open, except to say it does not exist or that it is the dominion of Uncle Tom imitators. I submit that this is central to what holds back Black progress. Some people call it self-hate, but Black racism is the invisible ball and chain around the ankle. Granted, acquiescence to Whites, or anyone, because of their perceived race-based superiority is racism, not to be lessened. But, detrimental attitudes and behavior to one’s own ethnicity, because of race/ethnicity, is racism of equal depth. Whether Blacks discourage advancing behavior due to a belief that they are incapable, or that the group is best served, culturally, by preferring something less/different, the results are the same – loss of freedom and advancement.

Earlier, when Whites prohibited Blacks from advancing activities considered as ‘acting white’ (i.e. education), via Jim Crow laws, blacks had no trouble calling this behavior as racist. But when today’s Black students prohibit their fellow students from pursuing academics, via ‘acting white’ bullying, the racism tag is nowhere in sight. In the S. Carolina case (here), the school staff and district administration were culpable in denying a safe learning environment to the Black students in want of academic excellence. Similar events are brewing in Philly, with Asian students catching hell from Black students (here).

Interestingly, Black racism was not always so elusive, as displayed in Graham's "Our Kind Of People" (pictured). When Black social organizations like The Links and sororities excluded members, in the past and in part, because they were too dark, Blacks were able to ultimately see the intra-group racism at work. But when the former exclusion becomes cultural expulsion, via ostracizing, threats, and assault, it somehow ceases to be racism. Couple this thinking with the overall Black education results, including drop-out rates, and reduce levels of achievement, and we have a cause-effect scenario describing a permanent underclass.

Just as there are homophobic gays and anti-Semitic Jews, there are racist Blacks. They are not Uncle Tom’s, but rather a significant, un-policed group who give racist providence to certain behaviors of non-blacks, to the point of ostracizing their own who have the audacity to pursue those behaviors. This insidious racism is hiding. It is protected by school administrators, like those in S. Carolina, and by those who blindly attack even the thought that Blacks should question themselves.

It is tragically ironic that those same Black girls, in places like S.Carolina, who press their hair to look more attractive, would reject and assault their black schoolmate, as acting White, because of the books in her hands and a desire to learn.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: A Theory of Black Racism, Uncle Tom, Title VI, Kobrovksy, Hate, Acting White

#1 Blacks and Cocked Hats

Today, most people associate sideways hat wearing with rappers, counter-culture, and Black males in general, but where does it come from – and please don’t say Will Smith, Mr. Fresh Prince? It’s an important question because the style is also utilized by some authorities to profile certain ‘persons of interest’ – White-speak for Blacks and Latinos dressed like they’re getting ready to start something.

To be fair, I too have noticed that Black males, women too, like to wear their hats crooked, so I believe the fashion stereotype is true, but so what. My dad, who would be in his eighties, use to wear his hat cocked like another man, whom he was not fond of, Ronald Reagan. My dad and ‘the Gipper’, as well as others of that day, including Gene Kelly and Jackie Robinson, would tilt their hats to the side, but pops never allowed me to copy him. He said I couldn’t cock my hat until I was grown. There’s the clue.

If we back it up, hundreds of years ago in an all-White galaxy, far-far away, a cocked hat had two or three corners (bicorn/tricorn), resulting from the brims being folded upward toward the crown. When properly cocked, or placed, one corner had to align over the nose of the wearer, or in the case of the bicorn, the two corners could be exactly opposite the nose (Napoleon-style). Half-cocked, or cockeyed (lopsided) was the term for when the angle of placement moved the corner (the bill) out of alignment with the nose. Over time half-cocked became just plain ‘cocked’. Yep, you heard right, White men started this fashion move that is now getting brothers hassled – the irony sucks.

The key to this hat ‘cocked-ness’ was summed up by late crooner Frank Sinatra, who said, ‘angle is attitude’. Frank had it, Ronnie had it, Snoop Dogg has it, and Goober Pyle (pictured on the left) definitely is missing it. You see too much cocking of the hat says, ‘I’m a doofus’. Are you listening Flava?

So the next time you see a Black guy, with his Negro League baseball cap going all which-a-ways, getting detained by the cops for no valid reason, just for kicks yell at him to stop ‘acting so White’ – which will confuse the hell out of him and police too, hopefully giving them all pause to consider themselves.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: #1 Blacks and Cocked Hats, Snoop, Frank Sinatra, Goober, Flava, Acting White

Black-on-Black Racism: Part II

Recently, I wrote about the two black kids in S. Carolina that sued their school for racial harassment (here), at the hands of fellow black kids. The school district settled out-of-court for $150,000. In that post, I placed emphasis for the award on the retaliation taken by the school administrators against the family. The school initiated an investigation by DSS (Department of Social Services), as to the fitness of the mother/caretaker of the two girls, and one boy. Said investigation included false claims of beatings and pimping of the girls.

As it turns outs, the uncle who testified (as reported) on behalf of the girls is the ‘boy’ mentioned above. He was a 15 year old student in the same district as the younger girls and was also subjected to verbal and physical abuse by the black kids. The attorney for the family, Lawrence C. Kobrovksy, read my post and sent me the full transcript of the boy’s testimony. Suffice to say, it was heart-wrenching and amazing testimony. The treatment of the family, both by students and administrators, can only be characterized as brutal.

The name-calling and assaults were, without doubt, racism, but the kind that is allowed to remain protected within the black community. The offending black students saw the three black kids as white, and treated them with all the hate one could muster for someone of another color. The label of ‘acting White’, preceded constant threats, assaults, and finally, the attempt to break-up the family by the district. After my reading, the $150,000 settlement seemed a pittance of punishment to the school district.

The boy’s testimony presented a transference of hate for whites and their behaviors, in this S. Carolina community, onto any blacks who are perceived to ‘act White’, by (in his words) pursuing academics, rather than using/selling drugs, getting into trouble with the law, and other 'acceptable' behaviors. He described that there were no whites in the public schools, as they would suffer a similar, but worst, abuse. The boy’s description of his stand against these people and their abuse is compelling.

Inasmuch as the ‘Black Belt’, that concentration of Blacks across southern states, remains intact, the experience of these kids in S. Carolina is probable. Addressing Black racism, be it against whites, or against blacks, needs to come out of the closet. It should be no more acceptable than white-on-black abuse, or vice-versa. This is the only way Blacks can gain a foothold in getting at those of the group left behind in the shadow of advancement.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Black-on-Black Racism: Part II, S. Carolina, Title VI, Kobrovksy, Hate, Acting White

Haiti: Orphan of West

Rushing to the aid of earthquake devastated Haiti is a no-brainer. The out-pouring of grief and support for the poorest of the poor in the western world is as it should be. It is only right, despite what the ilk of Pat Robertson or Rush Limbaugh might say. But what happens after we have delivered water, food, and medical help during this emergency? How do we really help them long-term? Is it possible? The knee-jerk answer is yes, but what do we rebuild, and for what reason, really? This is a much more difficult question.

Haiti represents the worse of all that went wrong with the Atlantic Slave Trade. Displacing these people from their African birthplace a continent away, enslaving them under a sketchy government – the French – only to abandon them to their own limitations on a tiny island. And finally, saddling them with a cost of their freedom which guaranteed a bad start and no-win future. This is Haiti.

At the base of the country’s economic tale of woe is a population size that slams its diminishing agricultural base. The population density of the country is 10X that of the US. Ten million is too many people, half of them illiterate! Haiti is a prime example of ‘ecoside’, or suicide by a plunder of one’s living environment. The country has been deforested, over the past 200 years, to the point where living off the land is impossible, and they have no other means of trade. With no exports to trade for petroleum as fuel, they have consumed their forest for heating and cooking, and left themselves no escape route.

So, the world can respond to the current devastation, but only via an indefinite emergency-type aid scenario, where we provide the basics year after year. They are wards of the industrial world, orphans. There is no infrastructure to rebuild, no economy to repair, no confidence to bolster. If the reparations-extracting French had any moral backbone, or true patriotism, they should be ashamed for this mess of a country created in the wake of their colonial exploits. But hey, they are the French.

Anyway, what to do? Our thinking needs to get crazy. Haiti needs to be recognized for what it is, a malnourished ecological/economic/political orphan of colonial Europe and the west. The G7/8 need to collectively take it over, install a provisional government, tear it down and build it back, as if they were freed just yesterday. The French and US - those who blockaded the fledge-ling nation for nearly 60 years, owe them and need to pay up first, and pay big, including paying French-speaking Africa to accept, voluntarily, as many of the ‘too-many’ inhabitants as possible. The population density must be reduced immediately. This may all seem heavy and nut-zo, but drastic is called for, otherwise we should get ready to continue witnessing, from our top-side front-row seat, their annual devastation, punctuated by disaster, accompanied by expensive, high-tech, band-aid rescues.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Haiti: Orphan of West, France, Slavery, Population, Disaster, Acting White

Teddy Pendergrass: 1950-2010

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Teddy Pendergrass: 1950-2010, R&B, Harold Melvin, Paralyzed, Ballad, Acting White

Berkeley HS Knuckleheads

When I first heard about this I did not pay it much attention, as the person ranting about it sounded like a ‘sky is falling’ alarmist, but I was wrong. Indeed, dropping science classes, deemed ‘too hard’ by some at Berkeley HS, is the plan. This effort, which would also eliminate science teachers, is part of a remedy to academic disparities between Whites and Blacks/Latinos (here), and is just as stupid as trying making ‘ebonics’ a recognized language in the Oakland School System, back in 1996.

So, let’s get this straight, Berkeley wants to close the gap by holding back the high achieving students, who happen to be disproportionately White/Asian. Of course the Black AP students will also get held back, so in the end all high achievement takes a hit so that the trailing ‘train-load’ of kids can ‘look’ smarter. And this is not a competition for education resources, as the science labs in question are funded separately from special bond monies vote in for music, art, and science.

The R-word is appropriate here (as with Bill), because what we have are racist liberals who do not think Blacks/Latinos can/should be expected to stretch themselves, in the same manner as Whites/Asians. Let’s lower the bar for excellence and punish the brightest, most diligent students, and send a strong signal to rest of the kids that school is all about mediocrity and the PC ‘show’.

So, after they have kicked the White/Asian kids and the voters in the teeth, they will punch the hardest working, highest achieving, Blacks and Latinos squarely in the eye, and say there is no support for them and they need to stop ‘acting White’, ‘acting Asian’, or whatever other knucklehead-descriptor there is for trying to do your best.

Finally the less-achieving kids, the needy throngs, will get tutors to help them turn off their video games, pull-up their pants, show-up to class, pay attention to the teachers, turn-in assignments, and otherwise act like they are in school to get an education. Go Berkeley!

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Berkeley HS Knuckleheads, Science Lab, Layoff, Advanced Placement, Disparity, Acting White

Stupidity + Race ≠ Racism

In the interest of helping us bridge the divide of race, we need to clear something up. We are burying ourselves in racism accusations. Just because someone says or does something stupid, related to race, a racist does not this make. This is important because there is much more stupidity in the world, than racism.

In ethnically diverse surroundings such as ours, the probability of a person of one race saying or doing something stupid concerning race, which in turn is seen, heard, or felt, by someone of that or another race is pretty good - nearly a sure thing. Many comments about race can be either true or false, and stupid, but not racist. People – we really need to resemble this difference.

Being Black, and growing up around Black people has allowed me to hear stupid comments about race from Blacks, but without concluding the people or the comments are racist – perhaps just stupid. I assume many non-Blacks have experienced the same. As well, I have experienced Whites discussing race and spouting tremendous silliness, but with no honest call to use the R-word against them.

So whether we are talking about KFC soccer ads in Australia, or Nevada Senator Harry Reid talking about a ‘light-skinned Obama who speaks ‘Negro’ when he chooses’, or millions of others we interact with each day, we need to become more discerning about what is racism and what is just good old honest stupidity. Oh yeah, sometimes comments about race (that some might not like) aren’t even stupid, but hey, baby steps.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Stupidity + Race ≠ Racism, Harry Reid, Obama, Racism, Apologies, Acting White

Acting White: TWA (Tiger With Attitude)

The February edition of Vanity Fair features Woods on the cover (pictured) looking, perhaps, more like an angry Black man straight out of Compton, rather than a We-Are-The-World Caliblasian. Anyway, given the troubling marital and professional spot he has placed himself, the timing of the cover is bound to create controversy – and this is exactly what VF is counting on.

They know that some vocal, hyper-sensitive, misguided souls will claim racist intentions, just like with that murdering OJ Simpson on the cover of Time (here). But, does the media really owe Tiger any accommodation? I think not – there’s been too much of this already. Besides, people who will jump to the all-Black-men-are-bad conclusion will do so regardless of whether Tiger or OJ claim, or are depicted as, Black and/or angry. Fear of the PC police should not dictate that any celebrity gets a fish-bowl pass.

The upcoming controversy reminds me of how after actress/singer Vanessa Williams won Miss America in 1984, pornographic photos of her showed up (here), forcing her out. Some called it racism, but it was clear that the pictures became immensely more valuable because she won the title, at all, not because she was the first Black woman to do so. Serial philanderers are not nice people, so why should we not expect people, even photogs of Annie Leibovitz’s caliber, to dig out their just-waiting-for-him-to-show-his-behind pictures.

Digressing one more level - in high school, certain white classmates were known for ‘aiming’ racist newbies at me, by falsely telling the marks that I, the near singular 'docile' Black, had disparaged white people. My denials would generally go unheard, forcing me to fight my way out of these ‘race-honor duals’. I never thought my white friends were racists for these set ups, rather they just got their juvenile ‘jollies’ from inciting a ‘can of whup-ass’ on their willing and gullible white peers.

Vanity Fair is not racist, just opportunistic and sleazy. And yes, I stopped playing that ‘whup-ass’ game a long time ago, and got some better friends.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: TWA (Tiger With Attitude), Vanity Fair, Tiger Woods, Racism, Philandering, Acting White

Acting White: Black-On-Black Racism

I wanted to do a little extra digging into this case before commenting. The headlines seem a bit far fetched. Two Black kids, in S. Carolina, get $150,000 for being accused of ‘acting white’ by other Black kids? I certainly believe it happens, and there can be damage, but what role does the school play in policing this behavior, and how did they get to monetary compensation.

Well, as I suspected, there is more to the story than the headlines. At the heart, this is a case where Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, barring racial discrimination in programs that receive federal funding, was applied against the behavior of Black students and administrators, in an all-black Williamsburg County elementary school/district, who abused or allowed the abuse of the plaintiffs for ‘acting white’, or displaying academically advancing behavior. Story here.

The uncle of one of the plaintiffs seems to have delivered credible testimony as to life in rural S. Carolina and how the races live separately under different rules. "You see, it's a crime to act white, or it's a crime to be white," the uncle testified. Harassment, he testified, made him feel that "we are just dumb, we're just not people, we're undergraded [sic], we're degraded, and we're not even supposed to be in this world."

The complaining students were subject to verbal and physical abuse to a point where they had to be home-schooled. But the twist in the saga was an additional complaint of retaliation against the family by school administrators, whereby the County Department of Social Services (DSS) was asked to investigate the home of the plaintiffs.

So in the end, the $150,000 settlement was a way for the school system to cut their losses after first not protecting these kids from an intra-racially hostile learning environment, and then making matters worse by calling in DSS to look for bad parenting in their home. Quite a commentary on what can happen inside a Black community when families are aggressive at getting an education.

I’m only sorry that the settlement released the offending Black students and administrators from the official charge and finding of racism, as they certainly looked and acted guilty from this distance.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: Black-On-Black Racism, South Carolina, Title VI, Racism, Intra, Acting White

Acting White: Homeland Insecurity

The Nigerian who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound flight a few days ago surely got everybody’s attention, but now what? Homeland Czar Napolitano was correct when she said, initially, that the ‘system’ worked. Huh? Actually the system did technically work, however, a minor detail, the people, failed miserably. Bomb-guy did everything to draw attention except ask the flight-attendant to give him a match.

After boarding in Lagos, he flew to Amsterdam, and on to Detroit. Before landing in the motor-stalled city he attempted, but failed, to ignite an explosive device he had been able to smuggle onto the plane. Maybe they thought all that powder was just numbing drugs destined for needy Detroiters. Just as incredible, his father had, a month earlier, reported to the US authorities, in Nigeria, that junior had taken a turn to the extremist side, and should be profiled. Whatever assurance those authorities provided now turns out to have been worth squat.

Less than a month ago I went from Oakland to Denver, and back, on Southwest. On the return it took me nearly one half-hour from first scan to exit TSA/Homeland Security (DHS). Something about me got these folks mighty interested in my belongings. My carry-on was scanned three times, with a manual search between each scan. My physique was patted once, plus a healthy dose of wand-waving that surely doubles as a passive electro-vasectomy. My offense turned out to be deodorant, which they dismantled into a sweet-smelling/BO-killing mess. (Keep it guys, I’ll buy another one).

So what were the Dutch doing? Nigerian Dad says sonny-boy is off the deep-end, but the USA skips the no-fly list and a chance at one less black man. Then the Dutch miss the no-check bags and skimpy shoulder-bag on the way to freezing, busted-ass Detroit. What giveth?

The lesson here is that society is living, or trying to live, way above our pay grade. Inept bombers; Inept security; Inept politicians. Hey, even inept bloggers! Not to speak of inept pilots, who fly hundreds of miles past their destination while doing only God knows what in that thing called the cock pit. Never liked that term cock pit. Now I like it even less. Oh yeah - I checked Google, and for today, the iPhone does not have an app for this. But there’s always tomorrow.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: Homeland Insecurity, Nigeria, Terrorist, Detroit, Bomb, Acting White

Acting White: Obamacare

I wish that I could say that I am happy with President Obama’s impending health care bill, but in truth I am rather agnostic and a bit against it. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for everyone being covered, but it is the type and philosophy of current coverage that, when combined with universal-ness, will quicken our health care collapse, and maybe the collapse of the country itself. Perhaps this collapse is a good thing, because it will hasten a replacement, but not without calamity of untold proportions on our way of life.

If the old adage is true, the health care headache that whites experience means many more blacks are going to die. Too often, racial disparity in outcomes is miscast when it is the case that our entire health care system is off-track. Very simply, our system is designed to let our health break and then perform a miraculous come-from-behind save. This is a very profitable model for doctors and the health care industry as a whole, as it exploits the human tendency to procrastinate and offload self-responsibility and diligence. What is offered as preventative care most often means early detection, rather than true prevention. Why is this so?

Doctors visits make money. Drugs make money. Diagnostic equipment makes money. DNA therapy will make tons of money. Snatching people from pain and/or death, after a lifetime of neglect and indulgence, is very, very profitable. People taking care of themselves, and a health care system demanding that they do so, is cost effective, but not very profitable. Although we know of ways to cut our health care cost drastically, for example by boosting our deficient immune systems with cheap vitamin D3 supplements, there is no rush to do this, as this would decimate the cancer industry, from researchers to big pharma to mega-fund raising organization like the American Cancer Society.

So our entire approach to wellness and health care is an evolution that encourages people to do, or not do, just what they want, and then go to the doctor when ‘keeping it real goes all wrong”. The president has chosen health care as a show case of ‘yes we can’, but I fear that what it really is going to show, with sedentary lifestyles and obesity creeping down the age ladder, is that ‘no we can’t’.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: Obamacare, Healthcare, Vitamin D, Obesity, Collapse, Acting White

Acting White: Black Men Series – Hair-Club Brothers

Note: By popular demand I will look at attraction issues and black men. But understand going in, there is scant research on the subject.

Everywhere I look I see walking and talking advertisements for hair restoration – from plantings to comb-overs. When it’s restored the hair does not seem quite right (pictured). Often the geometry is the give-away, or the non-randomness. However, except for a few bad celebrity ’rugs’, who shall remain nameless, I rarely see a black man who has had his former follicle glory artificially restored. In contrast to white men, the approach is to cut it all off – summoning the ghost of Isaac Hayes. So, why does it make more sense for black men to try to hide bad hair rather than risk poor restoration?

If we back up, testosterone and its signaling to women works the same for all ethnicities of men. Attractive young men have longer, thicker hair. Aging men have thinning and/or graying hair, indicating less male youthfulness. Young women like young men and are less attracted to aging men, on a strict physical level. In response, old white guys hide the gray and/or purchase length and thickness at the Hair Club. Old black guys, similarly inclined, hide the gray by cutting everything off, and pointing to Michael Jordan. But there is a reason this works for black men. In the black male trick bag for getting sex there is back up - ‘the rap’.

The rap is the understanding and ability to speak to a targeted woman in such a way that she thinks more highly of you than your looks otherwise merit. So rather than spend money they barely have on surgeries and plugs, black men fall back on their raps, with verbal sexual gamesmanship. A dude may look like Kermit the Frog, but if the words out of his mouth sound like Billy Dee Williams, the black equivalent to Cary Grant, he will get sex. I knew white guys in college who struck bargains with certain black class mates to ‘learn’ how to talk to women. It seemed pathetic, until I watched it work for Orville from Turniptown. The real problem with the rap is that it is most often disingenuous – a ruse to get sex.

Now if what a guy wants is the most attractive females of his age range, even as he ages into his own diminishing attractiveness, it’s the rap that he must work on. This is really just accepting that women are both physical and verbal, unlike men. However, if what the guy wants is a young hot babe, he’s got to fool her into thinking he is younger, or stinking rich if she a gold-digger, neither of which is easy to slide pass your average hottie, with a discerning eye for such men.

So to answer my own question, there is no real difference between black and white men, except that Hair Club guys mostly want young and hopefully-hot women on their arms, while too many black guys just want women, of any age, that they don’t merit. Ignoring the Hair Club rap-masters, if a higher percentage of black men take the rap/ruse approach (and I believe they do), then we have yet another reason why black women have such a hard way to go in the mating game. If a man, of any color, simply wants his fair equal in a mate, then a shower, shave, and decent duds, along with honest dialog seems the way to go.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: Black Men Series – Hair-Club Brothers, Plugs, Michael Jordan, Sex, Mating, Acting White

Acting White: Racism on Stage

H/T: Stuffwhitepeopledo

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: Racism on Stage, 911, Thugs, Profiling, 20/20, Acting White

Acting White: What’s Next For Tiger?

A friend asked me what I thought Tiger should do, given the mess that he’s got himself into, when he was suppose to be just a boring family man. We did not know he meant the whoring kind of boring, not snoring. While I’m at it, why is it that women are called whores, and not men? Somebody needs to explain that one to me.

Anyway, I’m not sure he can salvage his marriage/family. Neither Tiger, nor his Swedish wife Elin, seem to be deep-rooted folks – a prerequisite for weathering these knotty emotional storms. They are both missing real educational experiences that would have accelerated maturity. Sure, Tiger went to Stanford for two years, but you can bet most of that time was spent on the links, not growing up. I have found no record of Nordegren ever attending college; rather she au-paired her way into the pro golf crowd, and into Wood’s life.

In fairness to both of them, the golf crowd is not deeply-rooted either. Golf, like baseball and tennis, is a hand-eye coordination game requiring early and fanatical dedication, leaving little time for outside development. It doesn’t seem that Earl Woods spent enough time growing up the man, as much as he did the golfer. I think a hard look into the elder Woods’s will tell more of the story of the boy who would grow up to be Tiger. These are the skeletons whose existence is now in evidence, via Tiger’s man-boy sexcapades. Earl, Katilda, get ready for your proctologic exam, and rest assured that the conclusions ain’t gonna be pretty. I have already seen sleazy questions of how Katilda, a Thai, made her way to Vietnam to meet Tiger's father, Earl, during the war. Nasty stuff is coming.

Regardless, Tiger’s option seems clear, get back on Nicklaus major’s record trail. Pursuit of Jack is Tiger’s only savior. For now, he will need to accept that the endorsements will shrink. He will probably want to sell the yacht to cut expenses. Only winning will bring everyone back to the time of galleries looking for miracle shots and fist pumps. Winning brings forgiveness, deserved or not; otherwise Tiger is that slice of Caliblasian bread that got itself stuck in the toaster, when he thought nobody was looking.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: What’s Next For Tiger?, Golf, Whore, Sex, Elin Woods, Acting White

Acting White: Black Women Series, Education and Attractiveness

Education, unlike hair, weight, waist-to-hips, and other estrogen-signaling attributes, does not show itself instantly. However, one could argue that its presence is still nearly immediate, once people meet. It’s hard to hide smarts.

Education shows in how we dress, speak, and behave. So with this, it is more than fair to consider education, its impact on attractiveness, and disparities in Black female relationships.

As I said, when I began this series, Black women have a hard way to go, and nowhere is this more apparent than with those highly educated. Researchers present that [educated] “Black women are increasingly less likely to marry and have children; if they marry, they are more likely than any other group to marry lesser-educated men; and if they have children, they are more likely to do so while still in training, with potential consequences for educational attainment and career formation.” (here)

No physical attribute can compete with the power of education. An educated Black woman is in the formidable position to tell any man harboring unappealing male-centered notions exactly where and how fast to go with those notions. Couple this with fewer available educated Black men, and Black women are left with limited choices for finding a mate.

Either she can marry a less-educated, working-class black man and hope that they can make it/keep it interesting and harmonious, or she can consider a non-black man closer to her education level, an understandably difficult choice for many. Lastly, she can go it alone, having and raising children as a single parent.

I am not really sure why Black women outperform Black men in education, except to consider that lesser versions of the same distractions that lead to high drop-out rates, incarceration, unemployment, violence, drug addiction, and other maladies in Black men, are also driving down performance in school and the resulting education attainment.

Just as political and economic power is an aphrodisiac for women, with respect to men; it can be a turn-off in the other direction because women with overt power are not congruent with evolution and the male status quo. Black men are adapting slowly, but in the meantime this leaves Black women little choice but to either look beyond them for mates, or go it alone.

James C. Collier

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Weekend Pointillism: Ali & Frazier

Sports Illustrated photographer Walter Iooss Jr. captured these two greats, and I could not resist committing them to my dots./JC
(Click on drawing for a close-up)

Acting White: The Bottom Line on Sex

Whether it's Tiger and Elin, or Joe and Suzy Plainbread, the issue of sex, and all that follows is the same. For women, sex is mostly a means to an end. For men, sex is an end unto itself - momentary pleasure. This is evidenced in our memories. Men can barely remember sex five minutes after having it, hence the relentless search. Years later, a woman can tell you every detail, and how each occurrence advanced an objective (love, marriage, children, security, gifts, etc.) Woman will forgo sex if there is no end to justify it, while men pursue it constantly since they can't see beyond it.

As long as men and women remember these governances, they are okay. However, if either forgets, as Tiger did, all hell is going to breaks loose. He did not make this rule, but it applies to him all the same, whether he is the world's number one golfer, or its number one idiot (or both).

With sex, as with other challenges, success demands working together. Men need women to continuously remind men that there is more to life than sex, while providing it nonetheless. Alternately, women need men who are humble about their own genetically baked-in forgetfulness.

Lastly, if you are wondering how you are doing with your mate. Women should ask themselves how often you surprise him with a 'roll-in-the-hay-fest'. Guys should ask themselves the same question, but make it a 'cuddle-fest'. If either of you says never, or not recently, you had better check those cell phone logs because someone else might be taking up the slack in your game. Straight-up asking is OK too, if you understand that everybody lies.

James C. Collier

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