hot pepper, baby pops & the running man

You might know those terms in the title to refer to double-dutch moves, especially if you’re from New York ( and only if you’re real!). I wonder what kinds of tricks they pulled in the ropes in Chicago back in the day? Let’s ask Michelle Obama, shall we?

I find this terribly awesome and so very very Black. Pay no mind to what you see in those double-dutch competitions full of skinny lil boys and red-haired girls in French braids with matching t-shirts who call it ‘skipping rope’. I love D-D and it has always been a very Black, urban, around the way experience for me. I still remember the day I learned how to jump and the songs/chants we used to sing. I’m the chick who carried a rope in the trunk of her car up until last year just in case somebody wanted to get a quick jump in.

So yeah, I’m enjoying this way more than I think I should.

Bonus:

First dance

So remember how I was all womp womp about not being able to be in DC with all of you for the inauguration? Well, I’m still womp womp. Even more so after I had to go to bed last night knowing everyone stateside was just gearing up to watch everything (from the frigid Mall or gathered around their TV sets).

I woke up around 8:30am (6:30pm est) and watched a replay of the President’s oath and speech on MSNBC. I caught up on reactions via Twitter. I flipped through blogs and I skimmed photos. While I was glad for the Obamas and proud of the historical moment we are living through, I was kind of pissed because, well, it just didn’t feel like much. Folks on Twitter were talking about their tears and the shivers up their spine. They were all on and on about the electicity in the air, even while their toes froze off of their feet.

Womp womp.

Granted, I’m not much of a crier unless I’m going through my ever-3-months breakdown and I’m still like two months away from my next due date.

Then I got back on Google Reader and saw some more blogs. I came across Barack and Michelle’s first dance as President and First Lady, boppin’ to the beat of Etta James’ classic “At Last,” sang by a more restrained than usual (but still fabulous) Beyonce.

I might just be sitting in the study room on campus in Tokyo, JPN with my earbuds in, volume turned down low, but I was cheesing the whole way through. Right at the end, when Michelle threw her arms around her husband’s neck, I got that tingly, stingy feeling in my eyes like MAYBE I could have dropped a tear. I’ll take it.

You better work!

By now, I assume most of you have seen the card RuPaul did in Obama style. If not, see Exhibit A.

I’m not really going to go on about the photo except to say that I think RuPaul looks freakin’ fabulous as Michelle and pretty damn sharp as Barack too. Seeing the photo made me think of RuPaul who has been off of the radar for a minute. I thought about how cool she was and was inspired to blog about it.

RuPaul was doing her thing in the 90’s, no doubt about it. It’s weird because I feel like all kinds of people were accepting of RuPaul then or at least enjoyed her for the entertainment value. She was the world’s favorite drag queen. This short clip basically sums it all up:

BHurt On: Hip Hop. Manhood. Anti-Sexism.

Y’all know Byron Hurt? I’m late on homeboy, but he’s a filmmaker and an anti-sexist activist speaking out on gender violence prevention and helping to examine our ideas surrounding manhood – particularly Black manhood.

If you read my blog regularly, you probably know that I have an interest in this type of stuff (gender roles, gender violence, yadda yadda). Peep these clips from Hurt’s documentaries. The first one is pretty straight forward, an intro to Beyond Beats and Rhymes. The second is interesting because it “contrast[s] styles of manhood exhibited by Barack Obama and Rapper/Mogul Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent.”

I don’t really know how I feel about 50 being used as an example of how Black manhood is commonly viewed. I mean, I can see it, but it’s hard since a lot of my friends generally take 50 for a joke. However, I’m sure a lot of people out there do see him as the kind of guy who would run up in your crib and steal all your credit cards. *shrug*

Michelle isn’t losing anything

Reposting from Michelle Obama Watch where Gina points out Michelle Obama’s somewhat different, not lesser, role as First Lady.

We have another in a growing list of laments that somehow the fact that Michelle Obama will not be working for someone else and will be free to fill her time with the activities of her choosing is somehow a great tragedy and a setback for women. This time its Rebecca Traister in The National Post in an article called “Not Such a Long Way Baby”

Americans may be ready for a black president, but not, apparently, for a career-minded First Lady averse to the traditional domesticity of her role…In all the worrying about how Sasha and Malia will adjust to having their lives turned upside down, in all the fretting about how Barack Obama will move his Chicagostyle shop to Washington, why is there so little curiosity about how Michelle will adjust to the loss of her own private, very successful, very high-profile and very independent identity? How will Michelle Obama feel as she becomes what she has long resisted — an extension of her husband? The National Post

Can somebody show me a survey of Americans to support this statement about Americans rejecting the idea of “career-minded” women? Didn’t Lynne Chaney keep her job for the past four years and write a couple of books as well? Weren’t there concerns during the campaign about the role Todd Palin played in Alaska government?

Now during the campaign, I was annoyed with the “Michelle Obama Needs a Makeover” meme that the New York Times pushed tirelessly. I didn’t see anything wrong with her that needed to be made over. All of that “First Mom” business got started to combat the “She’s too STRONG” meme. I reject them both. I reject the notion that MOMs are somehow weak and powerless. HA! You haven’t met my Mama.

Second, I reject the notion that accomplished women are inherently “STRONG” ( good or bad). I know plenty of accomplished, “driven” people who are miserable and crazy. I think both sides of this Mom vs Career argumant are equally annoying because they assume that each is mutually exclusive and one is inferior to the other. It assumes that Michelle’s brain will suddenly stop functioning and she will place all of her talents in a box and hide them away for four or eight years.

Whooooooooooooooo!!!

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! I have no voice. I was screaming that all night. Yes! Victory! This is some crazy shit, yo. BONKERS!

courtesy of The Black Snob

I was sitting in my girl’s crib, surrounded by friends, new and old. We took a break from playing Taboo (the greatest game ever) as the results of key states started to roll in. All of a sudden, CNN threw up a bar on the bottom of the screen that said Barack Obama Elected President. The reactions were all some form of, “Wait, wha?”  “No, really?”  “Yes.”  “We’re reading it.” “Turn the channel to FoxNews. They hate Obama. If they say it, it’s gotta be true!”

It’s true.

DAMN! I looked around and between opening more beers and screaming off of the balcony on South Street, I noticed folks taking their own moments to soak it all in. Quiet and pensive. Reflective and introspective. We got up and turned on the music, dancing around the apartment. Screaming at people on the street who hadn’t yet heard. At first, people didn’t believe us. I understood. Even though days before I had already claimed this victory for Obama, I was still stunned. I guess we had all been burned before, had victories snatched away from us before right when we had it in our grasp. We know “they” cheat. But this morning at 8am, it’s really real.

I don’t even KNOW the Obamas

but I think it’s super cool that today’s their 16th wedding anniversary. Maybe I just love this photo. I don’t know. *Cues up Tony, Toni, Toné.*

Lightskinned is Back/Barack!

This Democratic National Convention is the very first DNC I’ve ever watched. Not that I haven’t been involved in the process: as soon as I turned 18 I was voting. However, I always thought the DNC was some snooze-worthy event for the press and old political fogeys. Not anymore. This has certainly been an EVENT. I can’t tell you how many people hit me up asking where the viewing party was at. Emphasis on party. As I watched Barack Obama speak, I was still reeling from sangria and ‘ritas. Still, the alcohol didn’t cloud my hearing/understanding. I listened and was in awe. I was struck by the gravity of the moment. So many times you hear older people talk about American and Global milestones. This is ours. I’m trying to soak it all in, not just because I am personally interested in politics and personally invested in the course this country will take, but because I feel it is my responsibility to live in the moment for my children and grandchildren. Live this moment for those who came before me, allowing me to witness such an event.

Lightskinned is back, but hell, BLACK is back. We got our swagger back, yall. Obama is stirring up pride and patriotism within us all, something we haven’t collectively felt in a very long time. And Michelle Obama… wow. She is inspiring Black women from coast to coast. We are in awe of her composure, beauty, strength and ability to be a powerful woman while standing by her husband’s side.

Just knowing that so many people were watching the same thing, hearing the same words I was watching and hearing tonight was a good feeling. When I got home, the speech had already started and I could hear my downstairs neighbors’ television blaring that familiar Obama voice. As I put my key into the door, I smiled a bit. I think my neighbors are crazy and weird beyond weird, but for a moment I felt a little bit of kinship. They might be freaks, but they’ve got their heads on straight when it comes to political priorities. Oh, check the text of Obama’s speech here, swiped from Ta-Nehisi.

I don’t know what the Republicans are going to do with their convention, but I’m sure it will fall short. Severlely. I certainly won’t be watching. I don’t want to be bored out of my mind or inflamed to the point of rioting in the streets. I’ll just catch the pertinent points from the various political blogs I check. I’m really just mad they went and commandeered the elephant as their symbol. How can I love the elephant as a symbol so much, yet hate it when associated with the Repubs?

So call up Al B. Sure! Call Christopher Williams. Tell Chris Brown to stop huggin up on Rhianna and get out there. The time is right to trade on this lightskinned business Obama’s stirred up.
Hopefully upwardly mobile Black men will start looking for Michelle’s to make their partners. See, Obama’s having such a positive influence already!

Live in the moment, y’all.

Truthfully, I was watching and thinking, “Man, Barack is foine, yo.” To be certain, he’s not the type of man I would normally characterize as “foine”, even though he is good looking. I think it’s the same kind of thing when people from Uzbekistan go see Michael Jackson perform and start crying hysterically, being carried out of stadiums on stretchers. Well, maybe not so much, but you get me.

And a dictionary for every American…

em•pa •thy [em-puh-thee] – noun
1. the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself: By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self.

em•pa•thet•ic [em-puh-thet-ik] -adjective
Of, pertaining to, or characterized by empathy: a sensitive, empathetic school counselor.

That’s just a little lesson for all of you losers out there with limited vocabs and no grip on how to properly use a comma. In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, yesterday on The View, Michelle Obama said that her husband was “sweet, empathetic.” The dumbass audience and countless other couch potatoes across America heard, “sweet and pathetic.”

I saw that it was all Michelle could do NOT to roll her eyes. Silly ass Sherri Shepherd is included in those who did not understand “empathetic.” Unsurprisingly.

If you missed it and have about 20 min to kill, watch here:

A “Michelle Moment”

I just felt like having a Michelle Moment after reading about how these Tennessee Republicans are throwing shade her way. There are a lot of people out there who can’t stand Michelle. They think she’s overbearing and too outspoken. She’s not patriotic enough. Some say she’s not cute (like that even matters). 

Well, I say that she’s a fabulous wife, mother, attorney and supporter. So let’s say this Michelle Moment is crafted to send positive energy over to the woman who must be exhausted and stressed and overwhelmed. Let’s not forget about the woman beside the man. You go ‘Chelly!!