by dre of onustees.com on 20 March 2012
No really… what?
As of March 20th, 2012… around 10:00AM EST… these are 5 Things… I just don’t get…
- The Trayvon Martin calamity… I largely remained silent on this matter because I truly believed a headline that said “Young Kid Shot Dead By Asshole” would quickly be resolved and justice would be served… then later when the headlines read “Teen Unarmed Murdered By Baffoon With a Record”… only reaffirmed the notion that there would be an arrest and the system would kick in… especially when the story grew to “Boy On Snack Run, Followed and Gunned Down By a Grown Ass Adult”… I sat back and waited for the type of punishment to be dished out… but nothing happened… each day just more information that SCREAMED… “HEY GUYS LET’S LOCK THIS GUY UP!?!?!”… still nothing… a young black male on the way home in a gated community was tracked down and harassed by a guy who was warned by the cops not to approach… somehow managed to wrestle, pin then shoot the youngster, Trayvon Martin… and claim “self defense”… even after the release of police tapes… witness reports and today the release of his ladyfriend’s account, who was on the phone with Martin just prior to the shooting… still nothing… It’s one thing for an asshole such as George Zimmerman to exist… but for a system to completely do nothing… as if frozen in 1955 is what I don’t get.
- FAMU’s Marching 100 hazing death, yet resolved… During my time at Howard, I was never enticed to join a frat… I understood why others did, but it wasn’t for me… My father wasn’t frat so I didn’t grow up in an household where that was discussed… my only goal set by Pops was to “have fun and finish…” …and from the look of friends who were pledging… that initiation period didn’t look like fun… I’m sure 99% of those who’ve gone through the hazing rituals would attest it was all worth it… However, beating someone to point of death is something I don’t get.
- Dwight Howard signs waiver for “opt-out” clause in his last contract year with Magic… It’s of no weight or concern… I’m not even a “basketball” fan… but this has been bothering me… Why would he waive the right to explore his options this off-season… Apparently, he wanted to show his loyalty… This only makes him more goofish* in my eyes… Loyal to who or what? Did he get paid to sign the waiver… or was it truly so the Magic administration can sleep better at night?
- Republican candidates being dead ass serious… yeah, I don’t get it…
- Zooey Deschanel… ???
Update: I also don’t get how I thought it was April 20th… and not March 20th… Shout out to those who alerted a brother…
by dre of onustees.com on 9 March 2012
Ok, I laffed too but the backlash ain’t as funny…
Wednesday morning, like many folks I watched the KONY 2012 video and spread the word, as I saw fit… by that evening it had already become internet fodder for ridicule… These are the 5 things folks have complained about Invisible Children’s effort to spread awareness of Joseph Kony…
- Why are they “all of a sudden” chasing Joseph Kony? Nothing happens overnight… nothing. I remember Phonte & Zo discussing on a message-board once that, a lot of the “new artists” the average consumer “discovers” are definitely not new… It takes 3-5 years before that artists reaches you… Translation… this is “new” to us… b/c we weren’t “in the loop” with their efforts when it started in 2003…
- But why Kony, there’s plenty other warlords doing the same, plus he’s not even in Uganda now? I think the 30 minute doc does a pretty good job answering this… Jacob. They met Jacob… and for whatever reason decided they were going to go after the guy that did this to him and his people… Yeah, it could have be any other cat doing the same… but they chose Kony… it was THEIR mission… Who’s yours? As for the “he’s not even in Uganda anymore”… does it mean since he moved onto other nations they should stop hunting him down?
- “It’s flat-out propaganda bullshit…” I love this line because it provides the notion that the speaker of said line… is knowledgeable enough to know when there’s “bullshit” about… Yet, it couldn’t be further from the truth… When I started on.us.tees, there was a guy named Steve Jennings… I forget how we crossed paths… but he saw some of my t-shirts (Do Better Movement, Raise You Kids, Get It Crackin) and believed my intentions of selling “shirts with a purpose” aligned with his organization, zyOzy… a foundation that “creates and amplifies high impact cause initiatives, taking direct action to support sustainable; water, food, education, health, shelter”… from there I met Emmanuel Jal, co-founder of Gua Africa and former Sudanese child soldier… His organization’s goals are to “overcome the effects of war & poverty” in both Sudan & Kenya… The overriding theme for both of them was to spread, promote and publicize their cause… Which is something that the Invisible Children group has done a damn good job of doing… I’d hate to see the backlash for zyOzy or GUA Africa simply because they were successful getting their message across…
- “Invisible Children”, Really??? Oh, they’re invisible now!?!… Frank answer, Yes… Invisible = “unable to be seen, ignored or not taken into consideration”… Just like Kony… when most of us went to sleep Sunday night, I’m willing to wager there were few, if any, prayers for the kids of Uganda… however, I know folks were looking forward to what Apple was going to announce Wednesday… The name is completely appropriate for situation at hand… If we ALL had gave a shit about these kids a decade ago… then yeah… Invisible would be a bad choice… but since not many saw… then I suppose visibility of the situation was a concern…
- Where’s the money going??? How come most of the money doesn’t go to the child soldiers??? One… first understand non-profits… and realized this… majority of the leg-work going into these efforts are done by US citizens… It costs MONEY to pay US citizens to do shit… If it didn’t we’d be making iPads in the backwoods of Tennessee… there’s a reason why China is cranking out those wondrous $600 plus doo-dads for $2.50/hr… 10 hours a day… 6 days a week… Two… if I’m not mistaken the mission clearly states to goal is to arrest Kony through use of US & International diplomatic measures… If you think it’s costs a lot pay the average US non-profit employee… How much do you think it costs to get US congressman to do anything? There’s a reason why Warren Buffet’s company NetJets spent 2.5M on lobbyist to pass favorable tax legislation… Real change takes real change*… The Civil Rights Movement wasn’t free… they had to hit them in the pockets before they let us sit in the front… Lastly, if their primary goal is to get Kony out the way… don’t expect them to ship food and clothes… although I’m sure they do so in some regard… but that’s not their mission… There’s plenty other “propaganda bullshit” organizations with that aim…
There are a few other comments/topics folks have raised… but all in all… it comes down to this…
Before you question the actions and intent of others, big or small…
…what the fuck are you doing about anything?
– do better…
by dre of onustees.com on 28 February 2012
The Help – aka Sisters Keepin’ It Real in 63
After flipping between the Academy awards and the All-Star game Sunday evening… I figured it was time to see what the commotion was surrounding the movie about Black maids in Jackson, Mississippi… These are 5 things I learned from the film…
- Was this Forrest Gump for Black Maids??? Before any misinterpretation of my thought occurs… I am not suggesting that any of the characters suffered from any mental retardation… Clear? Good… The movie opens in with the voice-over narration akin to Forrest and historically events that are woven into the film also lends to that Gumpish feel… Each time Aibileen (Viola Davis character) narrated a scene I cringed slightly awaiting Tom Hanks to interject in the slow-witted manner from his film… the pace of the movie reminded me of Gump, as did the ending with the panning out of the southern setting and Aibileen’s stroll up the road…
- Viola Davis did a great job… but Octavia Spencer certainly stole the show… I could harp on the fact they both were doing a GREAT job in roles we’re accustomed to seeing on the big screen for Blacks… I’ll leave that out and give credit where it’s due… Each time Octavia’s character “Minny” appeared the anticipation was ramped up to see where the scene was going… Her delivery of the “insurance policy” was delicious… as for Viola… she was nice but she was even better as the snot-running mom in Doubt… for that she should have won an Oscar… I’ll check out The Iron Lady soon to see if Meryl Streep truly kicked ass as Margaret Thatcher…
- White actors / actresses do a damn good job playing bigots… Perhaps even too good of a job… In most of these “racial” flicks… there’s always 1 or 2 actors that just go, to use a term from Tropic Thunder, “Full Retard”… And going “full” is a GREAT thing for an actor… Denzel went all out as Malcolm… Jamie in Ray… Even Robert Downey as the brother in Tropic Thunder… But at no point did I really believe Viola Davis was a woman under throes of segregation in REAL life, no hate at all… However, Bryce Dallas Howard did an awfully good job as the racist-ass nemesis in the film… so, good that at times I truly felt she believed in her nature that Blacks shouldn’t take shits on the same toilets as Whites… Her execution as the character “Hilly Holbrooke” has unfortunately lumped her forever in the “oh, here come that heifer from The Help” category… she could be doing a musical on children rights in Uganda playing the protagonist who’s also cured AIDS and defeated hunger and I’d still look at the screen and think… “I know her from somewhere… oh yeah! THAT’S THAT EVIL ASS HEIFER FROM THE HELP!!!” …so, congrats to the daughter of Ron Howard… Good job!!! (Right?)
- Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote… Alright, alright, alriiiiiiiiight…
- Why did Minny’s husband have to go all… “You tole Harpo to beat me!” I’m not saying that domestic violence didn’t exist… but was it necessary for it to be in the film? I mean… the only redeeming brothers in flick was the pastor (who made up for his Red Tails contribution…) and the brother who worked as a waiter then sqaundered all credibility by bouncing on Aibileen after Medgar Evers was assassinated… The only good* part of the domestic violence they didn’t even show… I really wanted to see Minny go upside her husband’s head with a skillet at the suggestion of Celia… but without that… there wasn’t a need for the Chris Brown aspect… the antagonizing Whites were enough… plus, I don’t think any woman who’d shit in a pie… and serve it to a white woman and tell her to her face in 1963… would take any shit from a black man in 1963…
- Bonus # 1: For a woman who writes and speaks well in EVERY OTHER SCENE why did Aibileen have to speak in broken English to a damn 3 year old… “Youse kind, youse smart, youse important.” Really??? Come on, white people… She’s Obama in most of the scenes… but Jar Jar Binks in that one?
- Bonus # 2: Cicely Tyson, bless her heart, is forever old… In my brief time on this earth… I’ve only known her to play one role… that’s “lady old Black”… The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman was in 1974… and 38 years later she played this EXACT SAME WOMAN??? …truly, “forever old… I wanna be forever old…” …then in the same film, The Help, did a flashback scene and looked 50 years old… the woman is 78… Black don’t crack.
- Bonus # 3: I know both Blacks & Whites love fried chicken… but damn… you’d think it was DC Crack in the 80’s the way they were hankering for it… Ok… good fried chicken IS like DC Crack in the 80’s… my bad.
by dre of onustees.com on 13 February 2012
Rest & Thanks to Ms. Whitney Houston
With the sudden passing of Houston… the Grammys took a different tone, or should have, this year… These are 5 things I learned while watching the tail-end of the show…
- Jennifer Hudson did a wonderful job singing tribute to Ms. Houston… the ability to put on that performance in that window of time and mountain of emotion was dynamic…
- Taylor Swift made an odd acknowledgement to Black History Month… 1st by rocking that get-up from “The Color Purple” during her performance… then following that up with coming on stage in the Watch The Throne dress… Then again that could be my imagination…
- Rihanna… *deep sigh* like… I can’t even call it… most on my Twitter timeline were fans of her look… I just thought the non-singing child looked like she was attending a Tina Turner dress-alike contest and came in 274th place…
- Chris Brown… whenever I see him… I still see Rihanna… whom I don’t care much as a singer… but as woman, didn’t deserve this… and he certainly doesn’t deserve to be back or get an R&B Grammy for Fame… I only know of 2 songs off the album and neither one sounded like R&B… then again what does…
- God / Lawd Jesus / Sweet Baby Jesus / Jebus / Zeus / Buddha / Vishnu / Optimus Prime… forbid… If Stevie Wonder was to be taken away from this Earth… on the VERY day of the Grammys… the ENTIRE schedule of performances and award announcements need to be scraped for a 2 and half hour long concert in honor of Stevie Wonder… There’s no excuse for anything else to occur… just have folks lining up to sing their favorite Stevie song… while the ushers hand out the Grammy’s to the winners in the audience… No need for them to be announce… damn them… It’s all about Stevie… Some may think, foolishly, that this is overdoing it… However, I’d like them to remember his last name isn’t actually Wonder, it’s Judkins (or Morris) and he was given the name “Wonder” because there were 7 wonders of the New World… and he made 8… During a time when artists had names one could aspire to… Like being Supreme, a Miracle, Dramatic, or even a Main Ingredient… they gave him this name at age 11… and for 50 years he’s lived up to it… Not mention his Grammy raid from 73 to 76… when he had Paul Simon thanking him for not releasing an album… thus others had a chance… So, when his time comes… we better do the right thing… and spend the entire night singing his songs…
