Barack or Plaxico: Pick Your Role Model

Man, the pickin's sure seem thin out there in the dialogue-o-sphere lately.

I've plumbed theroot.com, afronerd.com, essence.com, blackpressusa.com and way too many others seeking inspiration. (Watching the soaps and "Big Brother..." on The Africa Channel hasn't helped one bit. Grimmacing at snippets of The Bravo Channel's "Real Housewives of the ATL" only numbed the senses. Sadly, C-SPAN's coverage of shabbily-staged summit on older black activists' and officials' reviews of the election lulled me to sleep. Here's the best I could come up with....


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NO! Not the scary prospect of Junior emulating Yo Gabba Gabba's DJ Lance (above). I mean this piece of work in nymag.com's Nov. 9 Intelligencer..."Revenge of the Black Nerd".

It says nothing never uttered before really, except to the reactive reference to Obama's recent election.

Still, it got me thinking slightly. It helped in that constant assessment of priorities. I'd entered the Thanksgiving Weekend (rather, five days away from Pre-K) with a faint sense of dread. How would I keep Junior occupied that long? How would I nurture his inner nerd (so the charter school takes him next year) as well as his inner jock (the great inducer of naps)?

Turns out we did a lot of counting: of Hot Wheeels cars, checkers pieces won (because I let him), basketball jerseys (7), times Ping clubs were spotted as I thumbed (on demand) through golf magazines while he pooped.

I totally lost count of how many times we viewed a DVD compilation of "Little Rascals" episodes that I borrowed, on a whim, from the local library. And I know not a waking hour passed all weekend when I didn't fret over Junior's "skills evaluation" tomorrow night for the Y's 4-to-5 year old basketball league.

How much does it really matter how the volunteer coaches rate him at Target Passing, Ten Meter Drilling and Spot Shooting at his age? In an age when Super Bowl stars like Plaxico Burress are shooting themselves in the proverbial foot, and NBA stars like Stephon Marbury are portrayed as dodging the competition they're paid insanely to engage in; the doping, the baby mama drama, the DUIs, etc.

At least we spent as much time gorging on the Noggin and Sprout channels as we did ballon-sword fighting and tossing the Nerf (rainy weekends suck). But if I'd had my priorities in order, I'd have carved out some serious reading time with him as well.

Can We Trust BET Founder/Obama-Hater?

According to a report on the Maynard Institute's "Journal-Isms" blog, penned by Richard Prince, BET's billionaire founder Bob Johnson _ a fervent Clinton supporter during the Presidential primaries _ wants back into the cable television game.


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Reportedly, Johnson _ whose groundbreaking Black Entertainment Television network was chiefly responsible for propagating the imagery of pimps, hos, husters, dope dealers and menaces to society onto the mass market, according to some critics _ has applied for a license from the Federal Communications Commission to launch a new "urban" station under the auspices of Ion Media Networks, Inc. Ion's parent company, according to report, is best known for re-running such high quality programming as "Mama's Family" and "Baywatch".

What's Johnson's motivation? To undo the "set the race back a generation" hot mess that BET turned into? To ride the colorific coattails of Obama's ascent, even though Johnson backed the President-elect's main rival.

I love how Aaron McGruder parodied what Johnson and BET wrought so ruefully on his "Boondocks" series (click above). Do we want that man at the helm of another network? Will any programs that Johnson runs be any good for our kids?

Correct me if I'm wrong in thinking, "Not".

While Obama assembles his Dream Team...

Let's look on the bright side.
Give this President-elect time to work things out.
It looks like his master plan is in full effect as far as cabinet placements go.
In the meantime, let's wake up every morning from until after Tax Day or Barack's first 100 Days (whichever comes first) realizing that things actually could be worse.
Here's this household's new theme song to help soothe the cold, early a.m. aches and pangs.


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If nothing else, current conditions teach us that it truly is, as the Soul Stirrers sang, "A Mean Ol' World". This "Ray Sings / Basie Swings" (Concorde Music) CD I just bought on a whim hits back with a certain, determined meanness that showed "the Genius" up against a full big band at his prime and fuels me. Not that I'm endorsing it or anything...
Back to the main point: Rise up singin' people! Show your kids by example that you've got the gumption to persevere. Fight back, at all costs, the shadows of doubt that might cloud their eyes.
Like that Big Buford burger I wolfed down after a volunteer stint at that germy pre-school this afternoon, this too shall pass.

Does Barack Obama play golf?

I'm frankly still feeling too wiped out from all the election hysteria that culminated two nights ago to go through Google to find out what else the President-elect and I might have in common; hobby-wise.


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But I will; and if the golf industry sees any chance to make his connection to the game a win-win in terms of publicity, it'll soon be known anyway.

For some reason, I keep envisioning Barack and Tiger Woods in a dream pairing; playing privately at Woods' Isleworth compound. Imagine the conversation, the laughs, the bets, the precious pauses.

To lighten things up on this blog, for a change, let's focus on golf. Black men who play golf. How black men play golf differently, if at all. What draws more and more black men to the fairways?

More importantly: what's the best way to get more of our black children into the game? My son is 5, so I can't get him into the First Tee program for another two years. I've tried, without pushing, to get him used to swinging clubs. But it's hard to hold his attention for more than 20 minutes.

Any suggestions?