Premiere Last Night: CNN Black in America with Soledad O'Brien

My colleague, the wonderful Cuban sociologist Ted Henken at Baruch College, got me and another wonderful colleague Johanna Fernandez (writing about Mumia these days) into to the special premeire of the series CNN Presents: BLACK IN AMERICA with Soledad O'Brien. Thanks Ted!!

I was struck by the SEGREGATION of the two reports: 1) The Black Woman & Family and 2) The Black Man. This is exactly why have this blog and host SUCCESS with the OPPOSITE SEX: GET RELATED not DATED. We need to get related to the facts and the realities of the ongoing SEGREGATION of the sexes in our communities and more importantly the representations of us as separate and not equal. Daddies and daughters: stop resisting being with one another. Fathers and Single Mothers: be accountable and respectful for what kinds of relationships we are creating for young people and teens not to mention TV and the world.

"The Black Woman & Family," investigates the disturbing statistics of single parenthood, racial disparities in education and HIV/AIDS as well as the progress of black women in the workplace and the status of the black middle class. Premieres in HDTV on Wednesday, July 23, 9 p.m. ET.

"The Black Man," explores black men and fatherhood; educational, career and financial achievement; black male incarceration and the achievements of black men and the importance of black fathers. Premieres in HDTV on Thursday, July 24, 9 p.m. ET

I didn't take pictures but met this lovely African sister. She asked a daring question after the 30 mins clip they shared with us. All the pics here are hers. She asked if Africans were featured in any way in this. Soledad said no. AIDS/HIV is focused exclusively on heterosexual experiences. Ms. Africa (Africa is her nickname) commented on the parallels happening with AIDS in Africa and here. That is truly a missing but it also is an opportunity to talk about it on the blogosphere as these special reports air next week.

This was an OCCASION for me. I really had to remind myself I belonged there. I am a prize-winning author and well-recognized college professor in my field and I know it seems insecure (I am sometimes) but it was a delight to have Michael Eric Dyson hug the hell out of me at the scene (we haven't seen each other for YEARS but I am featured in a book he is publishing about Nas coming out in Jan 09).

HIGHLIGHT: I met Cicely Tyson last night and was able to share my CD with her. She was extraordinarily gracious and loving. I told her SOUNDER (1972) changed my life as a child. I also gave Soledad a CD as well as Michael. BE THE TRUE REVOLUTION, baby!

What was missing for me that I would love to see more regularly with these kinds of event? An old fashion church-style introduction or new school "Who's in the house" roll call acknowledging all who came and letting all know who they can network with at the reception (not just Gayle or Cornell). It seems we have to watch TV, look good but never touch each other and get to know the real-world resources of networking in person in NYC.

Someone said they are tired of how the black community avoids education and she had decided to work with the young ones. We cannot afford to leave ANY one behind simply because they are resigned NOT UNLIKE the woman herself who made those comments about what's possible for black men, women and children today. AND we must begin to network THROUGHOUT the African diaspora here in the US and NYC in particular and even more abroad.

SO HOW WAS THE PREMIERE CLIP?
Rather conservative at first glance but I intend to watch the series online. Don't have cable. This segment on the website called "I AM" is much more avant-garde and distinctive. And it's social media and you know I LOVE social media and networking.

'It's one of the best kept secrets' 2:03
Take a good look at Marvin Perkins. You'll never guess what group he joined and why.
• Special Reports - Black in America

My Father's Secret 2:20
Bliss Broyard discovered something about her father that not only changed how she saw him - it changed everything she knew about herself.
• Special Reports - Black in America
• Bliss Broyard Site

Some men think nothing of making a living pimping women as bling

AMERICAN WOMEN & HIP-HOP (11/28/07)

Last November NBC Nightly News did a series called African American Women: Where They Stand. It included the video linked above. In it, Irv Gotti, a hip-hop producer/director argues that some women just can't help themselves on the video set and claims no responsibility in the matter. The head of The Inc (Formerly Murder Inc.) record label, Gotti says it's hard to market female emcees because they have to be good to look at, too, and he says he asks his 15 year old daughter to confirm if the women in his "scantily-clad videos" look hot. He uses her as a litmus test!! Train 'em young in the art of misogyny and women will keep the practice going -- that's hegemony at its best. Why they don't call me on these shows as an expert?!??!! I could say I don't know, but I am starting to realize it's because they don't know I am here. Press releases, baby! I haven't gotten my own word out in that realm. That's what 2008 is about - getting on the top of the roladex.

This past week, I finished a essay about misogyny relative to the music and videos of Nas for a book to be published in 2008 by Michael Eric Dyson. This essay might be my PR in this larger conversation about hip-hop, gender stratification, and power. Wanted to share some "axioms" I came up with the generate thinking outside the box. They are ratehr obvious but they are not generalizations in the manner we mostly here about misogyny.

Here's a sample:

Years ago, I read a chapter by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, a queer studies scholar, that had me question the limits of my available thinking about sexuality despite my expertise in the study of gender and the body. As a professor of hip-hop music, her writing left me with a provocative thought: What would help students interested in hip-hop question the limits of their own thinking about misogyny and its impact on women and men? Hip-hop discourse rarely steps away from cliché conversations about misogyny, so I created a list of axioms following Sedgwick's lead concerning Nas and masculinity in hip-hop. The list includes ideas most know but don't seem to consider in their analysis of hip-hop (cf. Sedgwick 1993):

• Sometimes Nas [and other male artists] spends a lot of time rapping about manhood and masculinity, other times not.
• Some male and female hip-hop heads, of all races and all classes, experience Nas's portrayal of masculinity as deeply embedded in a matrix of gender meanings and differences. Others do not.
• Many male and female heads have their richest mental/emotional/kinetic involvement when Nas rhymes about acts they don't do, or even don't want to do ("Understandable smooth shit that murderers move with" - "The Thief's Theme" from Street's Disciple).
• Sometimes Nas's performances are embedded in gendered contexts resonant with meaning, narrative, and connectedness to actual relationships in his life (e.g., brothers in hip-hop, his father, his wife, his daughter, to children); sometimes it is important that they not be (murderers, Mafia bosses); at other times, it may not occur to Nas, his audience, or his critics that they might be.

I want to get people to think about, consider, that there is little willingness in hip-hop to go to the edge of what's familiar and look beyond simply labeling songs and videos as misogynist to discover what drives not only individual misogyny, but the institutional subordination of girls and women relative to wealth (economic power), power (political power) and prestige (social status) (cf. Weber 1968).

Instead we often settle for what is widely accepted as true. Keepin' it real, which has fast become cliché in and of itself, is no longer expanding knowledge. It is limiting it. (Do no reprint without permission of the author, Kyra Gaunt © 2008).

Irv Gotti's logic escapes me but I've heard it before. Doesn't even matter what he said. What I am left with is how often men are asked questions about the misogyny in hip-hop and their answers tend to be cliché, accomodating, justified, and a rationalization at best. They have no compassion or sensitivity to the real lives affected by the subordination of women in rap videos.

“If is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it” - Upton Sinclair

This quote appeared in Al Gore's film AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH and it's so fitting relative to what this male directors are up to and up against.

Irv Gotti: "People with real jobs and real lives ...just want to be entertained!" You could say the same thing about when whites loved to gather around and watch black men (and in some cases women) being hanged. It was a social event and the murderous activity was also an incovenient truth back when. This is one of the things that is at the heart of the lack of intimacy, trust and generosity among the black youth and in our communities.