Heading into the 21st century, North Carolina was that model Southern state — tradition meets moderation, in everything from its manners to its politics. So what happened? Depending on whom you ask, the state has either lost its way or is finding it. It’s difficult to get anyone to agree about anything these days.
North Carolina Republicans try — despite themselves — to win minority voters
In North Carolina, Republicans see a prime opportunity for a U.S. Senate win in November. So national and state party leaders, anxious to broaden the base, are again turning to African American voters. The latest effort is a North Carolina Black Advisory Board “to strengthen the party’s ties with diverse communities and expand engagement efforts across the state,” the Republican National Committee said in a statement Thursday.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said of the 11 board members, “Their knowledge and roots in black communities across the state will be invaluable as we share our message of empowerment and expanding access to the American Dream.”
They have their work cut out for them.
Jun232014
Remembering Freedom Summer
It was a summer that saw a national spotlight turned on injustice, as more than 1,000 out-of-state volunteers joined activists who had been doing the work on the ground in Mississippi with a goal of teaching and registering voters. Just 50 years ago, for a black citizen in many Southern states, going to the local county courthouse to register to exercise the fundamental right to vote meant risking your job, everything you owned, and your life. Many took that risk and paid the price.
Jun132014
Good news in Sterling, Bundy racial rants? Could be
Believe it or not, something good might arise from the racist swamp of recent news cycles – the crudeness evidenced in Donald Sterling’s taped comments on guilt by black association and Cliven Bundy’s musings on the benefits of enslavement for African Americans.
You could sense some beyond skin-deep soul searching in the remarks of National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday. The NBA – protecting its brand and trying to lead, not follow, the news – banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Sterling for life, fined him $2.5 million and announced it is urging a forced sale of the team. It’s a disaster all right, shifting attention from exciting post-season action on the court.
“Sentiments of this kind are contrary to the principals of inclusion and respect that form the foundation of our diverse, multicultural, multiethnic league,” said Silver in a statement that, while admirable, simplifies power relationships among players and coaches, owners and fans that are complicated in an America that still has problems honestly confronting its racial history.
Whenever the weary chide me at a mere mention of the lingering legacy of racism, I tell them the truth: I never think about race unless I’m reminded of it — and I’m reminded of it all the time. No explanation has been needed recently, as Sterling and Bundy have proven my point quite nicely – or not so nicely. Their rants have the country talking about race, and unlike in the cases of young black men deemed suspicious and shot dead, all sides of the discussion seem to be in agreement.
Apr302014
Honoring beauty of Lupita Nyong’o is fine – but what’s next for her and other ‘dark girls’
It’s fitting that the journey of Lupita Nyong’o has come full circle. In her widely seen and admired speech at the annual Black Women in Hollywood luncheon earlier this year, she told her story of feeling “un-beautiful” until images such as model Alek Wek, actress Whoopi Goldberg and icon Oprah Winfrey filled the screen and the scene. Their success helped the lessons of Nyong’o’s mother – who valued her daughter’s inner and outer worth – finally sink in.
With her spot on the cover of People magazine’s “Most Beautiful” issue, little girls who claim the same kind of natural beauty, buoyed up by intelligence and compassion, might take heart. The documentary “Dark Girls” recorded the hurts, insults and very real discrimination they and their grown-up sisters have suffered. Nyong’o told People that when she was growing up she thought beauty meant “light skin and long, flowing, straight hair.” Now, like Goldberg, she has a best-supporting actress Academy Award. The latest magazine cover is icing on the cake.
Apr242014
Michelle Obama goes ‘Nashville’ – no twang needed
Starring Michelle Obama and Kellie Pickler? Casting the first lady in a television cameo with the country music singer may at first sound odd. But since her appearance on ABC’s “Nashville,” is to support military families, it’s all for a good cause. The setting of the episode, scheduled to broadcast May 7, is Fort Campbell, Ky., where, as part of the third anniversary of their Joining Forces initiative, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden were scheduled to speak Wednesday.
There may be upsides for all: more attention to those who serve and to their families and some buzz for a television show that hasn’t exactly been a breakout hit.
The “Nashville” appearance is also a chance for some curious speculation, and not just because the juxtaposition of a first lady with actors and singers on a scripted nighttime soap is hard to picture.
The country’s first African American first lady is going country, a genre not usually seen as particularly integrated among its practitioners and fans. And she’s doing it in a Southern setting that lives and embraces the music – if not the Obama administration. Although politics is part of it, racial rhetoric can be found in some signs – literal and otherwise — of that rejection.
Apr222014
Powerful yet vulnerable black women: A contradiction rooted in history
A recent study on black women in America delivered a mixed, even contradictory message. The report from the Black Women’s Roundtable found that while black women in the United States are making strides in education and business and affecting political trends with stellar voter turnout numbers, they remain more vulnerable to health problems and violence than any other group. Their strength at the polls is not reflected in elected positions. So, the situation is — at the same time — hopeful and frustrating, many steps forward with persistent, historical hurdles still blocking the way.
What is at first glance confusing makes perfect sense, though. Despite the reality show image of sassy, in control and intimidating black women taking charge and needing no help from anyone, the American story is consistent with the study. It is a tale of black women as invisible, misjudged and resilient through it all –integral and nurturing, yet set apart. They have survived, thrived and led, in spite of obstacles that have often kept them vulnerable, a term seldom used to describe black women.
Apr022014
No justice for Jordan Davis, more worry for parents of black children
Lucia McBath said she would pray for Michael Dunn and continue to wait for justice. She stood at the microphone, reacting to the news that a jury had deadlocked on the charge of first degree murder of her son, Jordan Davis, who would have celebrated his 19th birthday on Sunday. She was distraught and destroyed, but more composed than I could ever be.
When it was his turn, Jordan’s father, Ronald Davis, said it wasn’t in his nature to be stoic, but that his calmness through anger and grief honored the memory of his son. Then he reminded everyone that the son who was killed when Dunn shot into a car full of teenagers returning from the mall was a good kid. That he had to say out loud that Jordan Davis’s life mattered to a country that seems as undecided of that fact as the jury was also a crime.
Feb172014
What Does It Take to Be the Black ‘It’ Girl?
In some ways, Lupita Nyong’o fits the fashion-plate standard of beauty that’s changing, ever so slowly, but still frequently looks for a certain type: She’s thin and sculpted, with regal cheekbones and bearing to match. And her accent doesn’t hurt, either, in an America that’s still New World enough to be impressed by such things.
In a word, she’s gorgeous.
But in other ways, she’s something apart from the blond icons—from Jean Harlow to Marilyn Monroe to today’s ubiquitous Jennifer Lawrence—whom Hollywood normally presents as the ideal. Nyong’o—the 30-year-old, Mexican-born Kenyan who stepped out of the Yale School of Drama into fame and an Academy Award nomination—is dark-skinned, with a short, natural haircut, and no apologies.
Feb132014
Why Amy Chua’s book on the exceptional gets civil rights all wrong
Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld know a lot about at least one thing. That would be marketing. Their new book, “The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America,” arrives Feb. 4 amid a swirl of controversy and publicity, and from the rather self-satisfied look on their faces in the twin New York Times portraits that accompany a recent profile, they couldn’t be happier.
Chua skillfully traded in stereotypes with the “Tiger Mom” opus that publicized her strict parenting practices laced with a smattering of self doubt and made her a household name. Now she and husband Rubenfeld – both Yale law professors – are coming back with more, much more of the same. I’m not mad at them, though the couple’s scholarship and language, with countless anecdotes and caveats, sound more self-help than Ivy League. I’m writing about them, too, because the scene they’ve created is impossible to ignore. Who could miss excerpts of “The Triple Package” and stories by and about the couple? I read about as much as I could.
Feb042014
