The Year of the Underdog

So what your team didn’t make it to play in the Super Bowl yesterday =( You’ve got to admit, that was a great game! Great because two awesome quarterbacks (and a sexy Reggie Bush) went head to head, it was a damn good fight to the finish, and most importantly the underdogs prevailed. This is the year of the underdog!! This year all underdogs will be the cause of an upset. Like who, you ask? Glad you did:

Like…
Tom… he’s gonna catch Jerry and that mean ol’ bulldog will not get in the way.

Chris… there’s gonna be an episode that doesn’t end with the melody “Everybody haatteeesss Chrissssss”.

Ray J… he still can’t sing and after picking Mz. Berry, he will definitely need a season 3 (season 2 was kinda wack).

Baby mamas… not all, just the ones who are still trying to make a guy into a man and a father.

Middle children… got that Jan Brady syndrome.

Sitcoms… DORs …Death Of Reality shows.  Glad they still air Fresh Prince.

Derwin… if The Game comes back on the air, I hope poor Ding Dong gets it together.

Cablevision… won’t be suckered by any more networks acting like divas.

The bargain brand… commercials do the split screen and make the Name-Brand brand seem superior .. I’ve tried it, and you CANNOT wring out a Bounty paper towel.

Myspace… poor Tom… but let's all hope he can’t make a comeback.

Chris Brown… from top dog to straight DOG… this new underdog may never comeback from that (I do like that song he’s on for Juelz though)

Drake… yes Drake. Don’t seem surprised, he's the biggest underdog/star.  If this guy doesn’t get some stage presence, he will have to buy property in Wayne’s shadow.

Clothes that comfortably fit… super skinny jeans and spandex should die an awful death… it ain’t for everybody (or anybody, in my opinion).

Desktop PCs… if I drop my laptop one more time, I’m converting back.

Blue Ray Disks… they are trying hard but I don’t think people are feeling 'em (or is it just me?).

Land lines… the triple play deals are keeping these alive.

Real Hair… my bf told me today that all women are bald head (he was dead serious).

Obama… America thought they elected a magician… I just pray he makes it to a 2nd term.

Love… people give this poor thing a bad name…

And the biggest underdog of all is Black people and we cause an upset every single day!!  Go Black people, Go Black people!!

Congrats to the New Orleans Saints… no I’m not a fan, though I did cheer them on yesterday and I did buy my bf a pair of Saints Crocs for Christmas =)

As a matter of Fact!!
February 8:
1894 - Congress repeals the Enforcement Act
1968 - Child star Gary Coleman was born
1986 - Oprah Winfrey becomes the first African American woman to host a nationally syndicated talk show.
2010 - Woke up feeling great from the awesome Super Bowl party Kyle threw and blogged about underdogs... oh and the Saints woke up being Super Bowl champions their first time to the Super Bowl!

Doritos® - Crash the Super Bowl 2010 Aired: Underdog

I'm Mad Angry

Why are black people so angry? One big difference between black people and other races are the demeanors we portray. Yes, maybe it is because our struggles are significantly different. And not just the struggle of the history of the black race, but even our present day struggles affects our everyday lives. From growing up in single parent homes, our educational struggles, our struggle to find positive role models… to our struggles to get through college, find suitable careers and live fulfilling lives… all while dodging bullets. Well news flash, our present day struggles aren’t Black-race owned!  We are such a strong race of people that we must not let ourselves or our struggles cause our own setbacks. Right now, take a deep breath and SMILE!!

When are we the angriest?
In the club: Black clubs without the music would echo the sounds of mean mugs and ice grills. Keep it real, walk into a bar of other races, you’d hear giggles, excitement and fun bouncing off the walls. Blame it on the beer but at least they go out to actually have a good time. We go out to trash talk, to see who’s baby daddy was in some other girl’s face and to stand real tough on the dance floor in the way of the select few who actually came to dance. But after a few overpriced shots of henny or patron, we surely put on a smiley face.
Downtown Newark: If you want to have a bad day, walk downtown to have a stare down with the locals. You can find a slew of people awkwardly leaning with diluted eyes, people of particular religions ready to influence and persuade, hustlers with a cart full of what you don’t need but one thing you do, thieves, and of course high school and Essex County College students. And the one commonality is an angry face. Downtown Newark has so much art, history and culture, if those people were aware, maybe they’d at least grin.
In the morning: Ok Ok this was a stretch… everyone is angry in the morning. Everyone who hates their job, hates their living situation, or hates the person they wake up to. Leaving a small percentage of people who actually smile when they wake up realizing another day has been given to them.

Nothing in the world is so bad that you can’t smile or at least do the smile with your eyes thing Tyra Banks talks about.  You don’t have to be a bubbly, energetic, extrovert, so high on life, just to show the world that you are happy to be alive. Perception is everything (or is it, Perception is nothing and thirst is everything… Sprite aight). Well whatever it is, black people get a clue that life is more than living beyond our means, wearing Gucci and going to Miami for Memorial Day. Black people we got a Black prez for goodness sake… it’s time we move forward, with big smiles and say YES WE CAN!! **This is where the crowd cheers** =)

As a matter of Fact!!
1820 - U.S. Blacks emigrate back to Sierre Leone
1867 - The Peabody Fund for Black education in the South was established.
1945 - Bob Marley, Jamacian reggae star is born.
1993 - Tennis player Arthur Ashe dies. Ashe was the first African American to win at Wimbledon.
2010 - Watched a whole season of ANTM and blogged about turning frowns upside down =)
 
These are some happy Black people we ALL love

Is Light Skin Still In??

The light skin vs dark skin phenomenon will forever live on. I remember being in 7th grade being in love with the light skin honey with the light eyes and curly hair. (Elijah get a facebook) And when he kissed the girl that I used to call my sister (not cuz we were super close, but cuz people thought we had similar features), my love for the light skin brother ended. Sounds like unfair shade-ism but I had every right to turn my back on the very shade that I call my own.


Why Light Skin isn’t in (especially when you’re already the cream in the coffee)
Light Skin = Conceited and soft
Light Skin + Light Skin = an invisible baby
Photos come out with a background, some other people, and an explosion of light in the center.
In a relationship, one, if not both, will think he/she is prettier than the other. And that much vanity in one relationship is not cute.
You spend the whole relationship fighting for your love cuz someone of darker skin wants your boo. And everybody knows dark skin people are better fighters.
You can’t smack a light skin person cuz that red hand print across their face will put you in jail.
Light skin-did people are liars:
Average Joe: You have very fair skin, you must be mixed.
Light Skin Liar: No the hell I’m not… 100% black, baby!!
Light skin with nappy, peasy hair seems like an oxymoron that is often confronted with baby hair brushed and gelled to the forehead.
Research shows that lighter skin blacks are treated better and in turn get better jobs. Then when said light skin person opens his/her mouth, reciting urbandictionary.com, the boss realizes he made a mistake.
A light skin person who takes a week off from shaving turns into Big Foot.
Light skin people get tattoos on their necks to appear tougher… something else the boss realized too late.
If light skin people realize they really do get ashy, Jergens would be rich.
A smidget of too much makeup turns cute light skin girl into someone you hire to do face paintings and wear a red nose at ya kid’s birthday parties.
Everybody light skin ain’t cute!!
The list goes on…

I hope no one took offense to anything stated… and if you did, you’re probably light skin. All in all, I love dark skin, brown skin and any other skin significantly tanner than my own. (Love you KR). Be sure to check out the video below… sooo appropriate with the topic.

As a matter of Fact!!
February 5
1934 - Henry "Home Run King" Arron, baseball superstar was born
1950 - Singer Natalie Cole was born
1990 - Barack Obama became the 1st African American named president of the Harvard Law Review (you thought I was about to say of the US lol)
2010 - I did a brave thing and trash-talked blogged about my fellow light skin-dids

Def Jam Poetry - Michael Ellison "Light Skin Did"

I Represent Them

"I didn’t have to fear my own community. I represent them. I’m their ambassador to the world. They would never harm me, they would never rob me, they would never do me wrong."

- Tupac Shakur

This Pac interview speaks volumes about the African American community. It’s like he’s saying we are ALL the outcast, the scorned, the shunned… how can any one OF US be AGAINST US? How can we behave as crabs in a barrel? And I believe the only source of this type of “betrayal” is jealousy and greed.

Pac represented the thugs, the n*ggas, the ghetto, the underdog. He had power that stretched through the sound waves of his music and swooped up his audience and embraced them. This man was more than a musician, he was a movement. And you didn’t have to be a fan of his music to be touched. Just like you don't have to be a fan of him as a person to understand the symbolism behind his words.
Our parents reminisce on the times where there was only one barber shop in the neighborhood, one corner store, one laundry mat. When the Black dollar stayed within the Black community and everyone broke bread from that single buck. Then somewhere along the way the next man, our brother, got hungry… maybe even greedy. Yes, we live in a dog eat dog world but at some point the next man’s progression has to be somewhat as important as our own.  We joke around with the greeting, "Hi hater."  And we look at it as if someone is simply jealous of who we are.  But it's so much deeper than someone wanting to be us or wanting what we have.  It's a matter of what the ruthless will do to take it away from us.  "Hating" is a disease rooted with HATE, one of the most dangerous emotions grounded in destruction.  And I'm not insisting we light a bon fire, hold hands and sing Kumbaya.  I'm just trying to bring light to the fire that holds respect and love for humanity... especially within OUR community.

Not much more needs to be said on this point because in that 26 second clip, Pac said it all. I REPRESENT THEM. Very powerful three words!  Try to live by them.  EYEListen.

SB: That daggone strike of midnight keeps forcing my daily post to the next calendar day.  Let's pretend 12am didn't happen yet and today is still Feb 3!! =)

As a matter of Fact!!
February 3:
1903 - Jack Johnson became the first Negro Heavyweight Champion
1981 - The Air Force Academy drops its ban on applicants with sickle cell trait.
1989 - Six time All-Star Bill White was named president of National League.
1999 - Cyber-Youth Network Launch
2007 - Jashan Ali Decosta was born... he's my godson and an important fact to me
2010 - I blogged about my favorite rapper, Tupac Shakur
Who knows this stuff: BlackFacts.com

Where do the Regular Blacks belong??

When you're born in a country, you are born a citizen of that country. And by birthright you should be proud of the country you call home. But what about African-Americans born in America as descendants of African slaves from 450 years ago?? Do you really want to take pride in a nation built on the blood, sweat and tears of your oppressed ancestors? Oh hell naw! Not particularly.

Regular Blacks are something like a lost cause. We go to the West Indian Day Parade and play innie-meenie-minnie-moe to pick a flag to represent. Or we say to ourselves, my boo is Trini, so I guess I’ll rep that. Regular blacks often bare the features of some other ethnicity but hastily deny any affiliated blood line whether it’s Haitian, Spanish or white… and collectively chant, “Regular Black… Regular Black.” It’s like we deny that inclusive pride because we’ve been denied. Regular Blacks hang around the other Blacks, be it Bajans, Nigerians or Jamaicans and feel the desire to sound just like them, so we subconsciously imitate their accent. But truth be told, we can barely understand a thing that’s being said to us. Then we get real ignorant and say things like, “Oh he’s cute for a Haitian” or “She’s pretty to be African.” And that’s only because we’re brainwashed by ideas of beauty. All in all, we are just a lost cause.

Many issues plague Black Americans with Caribbean and African descendants included. We collectively suffer economically, educationally and socially but regular blacks seem to sit uncomfortably at the bottom of those barrels. Nevertheless we’re excessively proud to see black faces in corporate America, in the highly ranked health fields, and any other positions of power… even when those numbers become slim for Regular Blacks. Is it because our minds remain enslaved? Do we have no sense of cultural pride, no sense of where we came from? Or are we still suffering from what Black Panther, Stokely Carmichael, coined as institutionalized racism? **shrugs** (Not shrugging cuz I don’t care… shrugging cuz I don’t know… do you??)

SB: I take pride in being Regular Black because I'm proud being BLACK!!
 
As a matter of Fact!!
February 2:
1862 - District of Columbia abolishes slavery
1897 - Alfred L. Cralle invented the ice cream scooper
1962 - 11 people arrested after sit-in
2010 - I blogged about being Regular Black
Got this stuff from BlackFacts.com

Black History in the USA: Banned Cartoon

Quotes To Live By

"At the end of something difficult, you like to come out on the winning side"

- Joseph McNeil, Greensboro Four

Let The Good Times Roll: Black History Class is in Session

Happy celebration of the first day of the month acknowledging the very thing we, MY BLACK PEOPLE, acknowledge everyday of our lives.  Today begins the first day of 28, and 29 when we're lucky, of Black History Month.  So here on my personal space, I want to do my due diligence and pay homage.  So get ready for some Power To the People, some right on you jive turkeys, some whopping and running mans, some Lift Every Voice and Singing, some My name is Kunta... Kunta Kente, some my momma used to make me pick the switch off the tree to beat me with, some yeah I'm black and I can swim lol... just a bunch of everything we share as a people, ya know.  I especially want to touch on some issues we still deal with everyday... interracial relationships, my president is black, health issues targeting our race specifically... I even want to talk about homosexuality (watch out now)... so without further adieu, a tip of this month's iceberg.

For those who skipped history class, no worries cuz they skipped OUR history:

Check out this article on the sit-ins and how they all began.  In short, 50 years ago on this very day (Feb 1), four brave black men sat at the lunch counter of the whites-only Woolworth in Greensboro, NC.  Becoming known as the Greensboro Four, these men began a revolution recruiting both blacks and whites to follow suit with these sit-ins.  Spreading across the south and beyond, that Greensboro lunch counter desegregated their establishment in July of that same year.  This was an important catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement!!

As a matter of Fact!
February 1:
1902 - Poet Langston Hughes was born
1926 - Negro History Week begins
1952 - Rock/Funk singer Rick James is born
1960 - Sit-in Movement in Greensboro, North Carolina
1967 - Poet Langston Hughes dies
1974 - TV Show Good Times premieres
1997 - First 24-hour Black Movie Channel
Source: BlackFacts.com

Coca-Cola Black History Timeline