Race, Religion, & Rapture

(THERE'S NOT MUCH TIME LEFT, THIS 2008 INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL RADOSH ABOUT "RAPTURE READY" HAS NEVER BEEN MORE RELEVANT. MAKE SURE IT'S AMONG THE LAST THINGS YOU READ BEFORE, WELL, YOU KNOW...)

ORIGINAL:

This is an interview about Christian pop culture...

Wait! Don't go yet! The power of Obama compels you!

See, these days with reverends calling out future presidents, and future presidents giving dap like they're chilling at the 40/40 club, the tides of race, religion and pop culture have washed us all up on some sort of unchartered island. Everyone's a little Lost for clear definitions: What does it mean to be black? What does it mean to be Christian? What does it mean to be Tyler Perry?

So here's the deal: Daniel Radosh -- one of the smartest Caucasians I know (statement verifiable by his blog: Radosh.net) -- immersed himself in the mostly white-washed world of Christian pop culture for 12 months. And he survived to tell the story! Annnd that story is available for purchase at your local book store, Rapture Ready!.

Intrigued by how this seeming societal outlier could be a 7-billion dollar a year industry, I emailed Daniel a bunch of questions looking for connections between issues of race and Christian evangelicals. Basically trying to keep it "Spiritual, but not Religious", so we can get more perspective on if those folks are "Christian, but not Crazy."

In so doing we explored why church at 11AM is still the most segregated time in America, and why Jesus "can be your girlfriend, but not your ho", all set-up so that I could pin him down on one question: would he rather wake up as an evangelical christian, or a black person?

Will Daniel provide some compelling data to help us navigate this dark island of cultural politics, or will he say something inflammatory or insensitive? Find out in the interview below:


TAN Interviews Writer Daniel Radosh [EbonyJet]

In Search of TAN Magazine...

via

David Alan Grier Is Respected, But Can He Be Relevant?

these pics couldn't run with my analysis of David Alan Grier's Chocolate News show on EbonyJet. so i'm posting/teasing here along with excerpts:

When black-oriented comedy or satire falls short it's usually because it's outdated. [...]

This is why I'd suspect most young bruhs and sistahs weren't especially motivated by the previews/trailers/ads for Chocolate News, David Alan Grier's attempt at filling the Black Hole in television programming with his urban version of The Daily Show. Fronted by a guy who hasn't made you laugh since In Living Color, and teasing us with clips premised around ideas like hip hop being sexist/violent/hoe-laden, and white people using the n-word. Ehhh, done and done. Even the mildly amusing ad campaign pictured above right was executed better a couple years ago by a different network.

[...]

2. Can The Satirical News Show Work For Negroes?: Beyond the challenge of execution and high expectations, this is the heart of the problem for a show like Chocolate News. And I can't articulate it better than this waffling Salon review:

When Stephen Colbert launched his "Report," he made it clear to anyone with a sense of irony that he was riffing on Bill O'Reilly and his ilk. But even if Grier were to base his caricature on a media figure like Tavis Smiley or Tom Joyner, how many of us would get it? And how much fun could you make of either of those guys, anyway? Political humor is best served as a poke in the eye of power; Smiley and Joyner's influence and name recognition aren't anywhere near as strong as O'Reilly's."

Only one of these guys can be a satirical news-anchor host

All this said, most of the reviews are optimistic with reservations. Acknowledging the show is not quite funny yet, but if it gets time the talent and concept could lead to a solid piece of television. Which is a fair assessment. Listening to Grier do his Maya Angelou on the radio for NPR translates a whole lot better than seeing another black-guy-in-a-fatsuit routine. So there's hope. Who knows, maybe by the time we get a Black president, we'll also have a Black Daily Show that's worth talking about.

Until then, even if it's a little bittersweet, I might have to settle for my chocolate news no matter what form it comes in.

Could Grier Make Us Forget Chappelle [EbonyJet]
Grier Enters Political ComedyFray [NYT]
Chocolate News Spoofs, Satirizes [NPR]
SemiSweet CHocolate News [Salon]

The Myth of the 'Troubled NBA'

I explore the dissonance between media perception of the "troubled NBA" and its reality as a booming enterprise. Despite its flaws, and in light of the Mitchell Report and rampant PED use in baseball and football, the NBA might best represent the "pure" spirit of American sports/competition.

The Last Pure Sport [EbonyJet]

Sean Taylor: Takeaways

With the Vick sentencing, and now the Mitchell Report about to be released, the Sean Taylor story has been pushed to the margins by the same voracious news cycle that cast a shadow on the original tragedy via its need for quick commentary. I've collected some of the reaction and backlash in this article for Ebony, and noted some ideas for moving forward.


I'll probably follow-up with an additional link-dump as there was plenty more fodder, specifically columns and posts that spoke to the emotional core of the story and lesson of hope.

More Lessons To Be Learned [EbonyJet]
Previously:
RIP Sean Taylor [EbonyJet]

EbonyJet: The Dearth of Black Satire

If You Can't Take A Joke .... [EbonyJet]

UPDATE: The NY Times taps into this stream with a discussion about race in sitcoms. Reading the piece and their examples, it's almost like race is the issue that tests the edginess and unique perspective of a writer. All the shows that grab my attention handle the subject in new, funny and different ways. Cheers to those guys!

Race on Sitcoms [NY Times]

Negro Law: Can Celebrities Adopt Us?

My take on the new Hollywood trend of adopting African babies is up on EbonyJet today. Here's your intro ...

What will the world be like in 10-20 years? When we have perspective to look back on the Great African-Baby Rush of '06-07?

Will history fondly remember these fair baby-mamas? Or has the ugly face of racism simply taken on the most becoming of disguises?

Seems like it was only 10-20 years ago when many of us were brazenly scoffing at Caucasians at cocktail parties. "Whatever!" we exclaimed. "They may talk a good game, but it's not like any of these Hollywood celebs are taking care of some stinky old dark baby in Africa."

And look at them now: Madonna! Angelina! The girl from Weeds! All as skinny, and kind, and benevolent as Mr. Drummond himself.

In the slightly altered words of the old Negro spiritual theme song “Different Strokes”:

A [wo]man is born, a [wo]man of means,
Then along come three, they ain't even got no jeans…
But they got …
Mel-a Nin
It takes
Mel-a Nin
It takes
Mel-a Nin
To move the world…
Mmmmmmmm

continued on EbonyJet ...


UPDATE II: All is fixed, so first update is no longer needed.
UPDATE: I realize in the version I sent, I forgot to include a key suggestion. Here it is as an addendum:

Can Celebrities Adopt Us? [Ebony]
Hollywood's Latest Accessory [TMZ]

Negro Law: Should We Toss Michael Vick to the Dogs?

I will update this post again, but for now since the previous post became a convo about Ebony and Jet mag, I'll give Vick his own space here.

Michael Vick has pleaded guilty in a court of law, but what about the court of public opinion? I explore the ins-and-outs in a series on ebonyjet.

1. Gold Medal Press Conference
2. Must Love Dogs Black People
3. A Race Issue? A Race Opportunity (say: oooooh)
4. I Am Michael Vick

The Assimilated Ebony

This week TAN makes his debut on the new online home for Ebony magazine.

I'm joining a group of writers charged with the task of bringing the venerable negro-mag institution into the 21st century. They're still feeling things out before they officially "launch" but I'm proud to be apart of something so black and so strong. So proud I don't even care that they pay me in grits! I hear the ladies like a little nightcap of grits and hennessy anyways ...

Last night I got to do a little market research with some Caucasian peeps, and test drove name-dropping the EbonyJET brand name. I was like, "I'm doing a little series on the Michael Vick stuff for EbonyJet." And they were like, "who?" And I was like "you know, Ebony magazine?" And they were like, "No, who are you. We don't know who you are." Then they left. But the exchange made me realize I hope they eventually lose the Jet part in the brand name. It's a little cumbersome. I feel like I'm trying to con caucasians by fitting all the blackmagazinesintoonename. There's no MaximStuff magazine. Or CosmoVogue. And I think you could just live with telling the eight readers of Jet that the magazine is now Ebony, or part of Ebony, or whatever. The wiki on Jet says that it was influential with its coverage of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. So I don't know, I'm sure they've done some other stories, but if that's what the white folks who write wikipedia think of when they think of Jet, then I suspect you need not be so heavily invested in the Jet brand. Because wikipedia writers run this ish.

Although if we brought back the Bus Boycott, that would totally be hot. Bus Boyhott (oh!).

Anyjet, now that I have sufficiently pissed off my new grits-providers, I better link this Michael Vick series before they take it down. There will be 4-5 pieces, and I'll leave this post up and link the segments as they go online:

Negro Law: Should We Toss Michael Vick To The Dogs?

Gold Medal Press Conference
Must Love Dogs Black People
A Race Issue? A Race Opportunity (say: oooooh)
I Am Michael Vick