dcsavvy: i'm just saying..: the widow & the will. the bc. being a black man

It's my favorite day of the week - FRIDAAAAAYYYY!

i love blogs and i love reading personal opinions of others - my friend angie @ www.politopics.com has an amazing blog that i am absolutely addicted to. her format has given me some ideas on how to become more regular at posting things that weirdly interest me and perhaps may interest some of you. i only have a few committed readers - so if this style is not working, let me know. now on to the madness.

>> owwwwww! james brown's "widow" & 5 yr old "son" left out of will
somebody ain't feeling too good! after seeing james' wife break down on entertainment tonight, i realized things couldn't have been quite functional in the king of soul's household.

presenting - my favorite video of the week!

brown did not include the widow or the alleged son in his will, but did include his other 6 children. you know - the ones who were dancing at the funeral to mc hammer songs. i heard that the 5 year old is not actually his child - but according to tomi rae brown, she has never been with any other "cat" than james because not to many of "them" hang around in her circle.. if you know what she means...... that's kind to say coming from somebody who wasn't legally married to the king of soul. check it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16585298/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<< bc that prevents pregnancy and freshens breath
for $44, you too can have this chewable form of birth control! what an incentive to prevent women from getting knocked up! i would love to meet ther person who invented this delightful treat - kudos to you! this concept reminds me of how you have to make children take vitamins, hence flintstone kids were invented. when things taste good, i guess you can't resist eating it, even birth control who would have thunk birth control was heading in the same direction! although i sound cynical, sadly - i'll be the first in line to try this one :) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16098766/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> the washington post is killing my nerves with this "being a black man" series.
an email i sent to friends...
i have been following the "Being a Black Man" series in the Washington Post. It's very good reading and I agree with the theme. One thing though... Even though I know this is supposed to reach out to a mass audience to give insight on Black America - I still can't put my finger on why I'm not 100% understanding the series' approach. maybe growing up in mississippi didn't offer me the appropriate amount of adversity that i as a black woman am supposed to encounter in order to understand this.... i don't know.. ;) i'm with the whole work hard, overcome obstacles, fight adversity and pull yourself up by the bootstraps mentality (that's my life too) - but it seems like this series is placing black men in the victim's corner. Is that the real story? is wapo's goal to emulate ralph ellison's invisible man concept? Is that the real message? i know the strength of black men i've encountered in my life and i am definitely proud to say that because they stepped up to the responsibilities of being an adult that they are far from victims, but instead are MEN, HEROES, AND BROTHERS (imo) and should NOT be cast in the same pot as those who don't. what is the real root of the real issue here that this series is trying to depict? one last thing - in class the other night - one of my white classmates even brought this up to me. she had a conversation with one of her male black coworkers who was totally against "being a black man' series but she felt that the people where she grew up needed to read about this. um hm. check it out for yourself... be sure to check out the section "black women speak their minds" under 'other features'

a response i received:

I agree that even in its attempt to shed an unprecedented light on the lives of Black men, it simultaneously shows them as being extremely exposed and victims who can never quite get it right... I wanna know are the writers of these articles even Black?? Iam sooo damn tired of folks paratrooping into our neighborhoods taking samples and observing us some damn urban anthropologists. They come and they snoop and make claims which over affirm their preconceived notions of how bad off po' Black folks are.. and too often our stories, even our truths, only serve to reinforce these urban myths...