Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Don't Wear Your Good Sh*t to the Doctors

Urban Chameleon news

God forbid something happens and you have to be rushed to the hospital. Please tell your family to first remove any good sh*t you may have on. According to this news report doctor lets patient die so he could steal his watch. Can we say G-H-E-T-T-O ? (and sad)

According to the lawsuit, Jerry Kubena Sr. was rushed to the St. Joseph’s Medical Center on June 1st for heart problems. Emergency room physician Dr. Cleveland Enmon allegedly allowed Kubena to die from a heart attack after he noticed his Presidential Rolex watch on his wrist. Two nurses reportedly noticed the watch was missing from the body of Mr. Kubena, and that a bulge appeared in the doctor’s pocket.
full story on justicenewsflash

Are Black Barbies Finally Black?

Urban Chameleon news

Growing up I wasn't allowed to play with white dolls for my mom didn't want me to idolize their beauty. So instead I had Huggie Bean and other dolls that she made where the hair was yarn to even look like locks. I saw what she meant witnessing self hatred comments that girls around my way would spit at each other, "Well at least my hair ain't nappy" and "You so Black you look like burnt toast" before returning to combing their white Barbie doll's hair for another three hours.

Well does Mattel after all these years finally address the problem? Hmmmm, you be the judge...

Mattel announced today their introduction of new Black Barbie dolls. The new dolls have fuller lips, a wider nose, more distinct cheekbones and curlier hair. Deemed the “So In Style” line, or S.I.S, the line features Kara, Trichelle and Grace who are three best friends in tune with fashion, fun and music.

Each doll features its own unique personality and style and

reflects one of three various skin tones. The line also features a mentoring theme and each doll comes with her little sister. The big and little doll is set to inspire mentoring in the young girls who play with them.






link to other photos and full article on hiphopwired


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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Facebook poll on Obama ‘assassination’ probed

Urban Chameleon news

People are on ANOTHER level. You would think Obama was Hitler performing genocide the way people are responding to his Health Care reform. Protests, the horrific pictures depicting Obama from everything from a witch doctor, the joker and Che are one thing but to go as far as posting a poll regarding assassination is despicable.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Secret Service is investigating an online survey that asked whether people thought President Barack Obama should be assassinated, officials said Monday.

The poll, posted Saturday on Facebook, was taken off the popular social networking site quickly after company officials were alerted to its existence. But, like any threat against the president, Secret Service agents are taking no chances.

"We are aware of it and we will take the appropriate investigative steps," said Darrin Blackford, a Secret Service spokesman. "We take of these things seriously."

The poll asked respondents "Should Obama be killed?" The choices: No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care.

The question was not created by Facebook, but by an independent person using an add-on application that has been suspended from the site.

"The third-party application that enabled an individual user to create the offensive poll was brought to our attention this morning," said Barry Schnitt, Facebook'shttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/2.gif spokesman for policy.

Because the application was disabled, the responses to the nonscientific polls are not available.

"We're working with the U.S. Secret Service, but they'll need to provide any details of their investigation," Schnitt said.

source from MSNBC


Monday, September 28, 2009

Should We Care About East Cleveland Mayor's Private Business?

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

If your most private moments were exposed is it right for you to be judged by them?

By now most of us are well familiar with the photo shoot that took place inside the East Cleveland Mayor's home. I have no idea what this man's policies are but I do know that I have hung with lawyers, doctors, bankers, judges, professors who if you only new what the thought, said and did when not "suited" up you might be appalled too (as some have put it). I could personally care less if the man enjoys an "amber wig and Jimmy Choo's." It's his bid'ness.

During this "scandal" I've asked a number of people what they would do if compromising photos of them were leaked and interestingly enough they each said the same thing, "I would own up to it, re-iterate that what I do on my own time is my business and does not affect my work."

This may be easier said then done.

However, one person did say they would pull an R. Kelly and blame it on their brother even if they didn't have one.

What would you do if this was you?










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Sunday, September 27, 2009

Jay Z on Oprah

Urban Chameleon news

It's moments like this where you kick yourself for moving out the 'hood! I cannot believe I was not there when Jay Z brought Oprah back to Marcy projects just blocks away from where I grew up. "From Brooklyn to the Boardroom" as Oprah put it (an Urban Chameleon line I might add) I'm just mad that I was in the boardroom when my ass shoulda been in Brooklyn!

Well if you missed, experience it here





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Friday, September 25, 2009

Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly try to understand Jay Z

by today’s Urban Chameleon contributor Black&Complicated










It is always interesting to me how there are some people who only see the world black or white, good or bad and take for granted the gray areas. Do these people ever really experience life instead of playing a bystander because life my friend is very, very, very, gray...

In this short segment Bill O’ Reilly and Glenn Beck try to understand if Jay Z is a “good guy” or “bad guy” as if they have the credentials to make this determination. Confused that one minute he’s performing a “racial rap” about president Obama and the next minute he is doing a charity for the families of the police and fire fighters lost during 9/11. Sorry guys…this stuff is just too complicated for your colorless no spin zone but not for the Urban Chameleon.



On the flip side the ‘hood is reported to be upset that Jay Z did the charity in the first place knowing the blood filled history between the ‘hood and cops in addition to the racism that’s taken place with in the Fire Department; not hiring more people of color. Damn Jay more money, more problems. I’m telling you yall..being Black... it's complicated.

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Thursday, September 24, 2009

A glowing 'Portrait' of the Obamas' rock-solid marriage

Urban Chameleon news

A biography out Tuesday on Michelle and Barack's relationship. Like most couples, they've had their rough spots.

source: USA Today
article by Craig Wilson


Christopher Andersen interviewed more than 200 people for an intimate look at the pair in Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage (William Morrow, $25.99).
Andersen, 60, a former senior editor at People magazine and author of 29 biographies, including The Day Diana Died, calls his new book "a positive story. A love story."
The White House had no comment.
"What's odd is that our first non-white first family is really the most all-American, down-to-earth couple we've ever had in the White House," Andersen said in an interview with USA TODAY. "They're comfortable in their own skins."
But they've had bumps along the way.
Left alone for long periods of time while her husband built his political career, Michelle Obama grew frustrated, Andersen says. "I think she could have walked at one point. She felt abandoned."
One thing that brought the couple back together was when daughter Sasha, now 8, was diagnosed with life-threatening spinal meningitis as an infant. She recovered.
And once Michelle, 45, decided there was no stopping the Obama bandwagon, she jumped on, Andersen says.
"She's the reason he is where he is," the author says. "She taught him how to be an effective politician to punch harder against Hillary, for instance."
Andersen also says Michelle Obama is "wary" of the Clintons, and that's why Hillary wasn't the vice presidential candidate: "Michelle didn't want the Clintons down the hall."

click here to read full article on USA today

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

'For Colored Girls' Who Don't Like Tyler Perry

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor Thembi Ford (WWTD)

He's just not good enough for Ntozake Shange.


Getting his hot little hands on Ntozake Shange’s 1975 play For Colored Girls who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf was coup of the year for Tyler Perry. Not only will he produce and direct the upcoming film version, the King of Coonery will also write the adaptation of what may be the most important work about black female identity ever. Ask any black woman, especially the artsy/moody/self-aware type, about For Colored Girls … and she will respond with a wistful look and fond memories.

I was Lady in Blue in a high-school production and have told more than one sorry dude, “insteada being sorry all the time, try being yourself,” quoting the Lady in Red (but playing it off like I came up with it on my own). This is classic material, and now we can expect the intentionally stripped-down aesthetic of Shange’s work to be replaced by style choices that only a closeted gay man could make. Even worse, Perry has announced that he’d like to cast the likes of Oprah, Halle Berry and Beyoncé to tackle the play’s issues, which include love, rape, abortion and relationships.

Beyoncé??? Please pass the Xanax.

How did we come to such a low point in black entertainment? Sadly, money always talks. Did you know that Tyler Perry’s films have grossed about $319 million in seven years, while Spike Lee’s have grossed $372 million in 23 years? When you account for the inclusion of rather mainstream flicks including Inside Man ($88 million) in Lee’s canon, Tyler Perry is really in black folks’ pockets at an alarming speed. We’re going to see his movies in droves, and I just cannot figure out why.

Maybe it’s easy for whole church buses to go see a Perry flick after Sunday service. Maybe we’re just happy to see black folks on-screen no matter what they do. Or maybe we don’t have the sense of a billy goat when it comes to choosing meaningful entertainment—I just don’t know. But the end result is the proliferation of a parade of empty, stereotypical characters, humor so dry it could sop up Jermaine Jackson’s hairdo and the persistent depiction of black women whose lives are not complete unless they can find and hold onto a good black man. When we begged for greater representation on-screen, this is not what we had in mind.

Can I go back to Beyoncé and the meds I’ll need to watch her act again, especially in such a groundbreaking piece? It’s hard for me to even write about it because my thumbs have spontaneously become paralyzed into the down position. I haven’t forgotten Beyoncé notifying the world that she’s not black, she’s Creole, which is the exact opposite of the For Colored Girls ... message. Let’s also not forget that Beyoncé cannot act. I’ve given her too many chances to demonstrate that she can, and after watching her try to squeeze out tears while trying not to look directly into the camera, I’ve concluded that the only role she’d excel in is an adaptation of Pinocchio—on camera, the girl looks like she’s made of wood. Her clumsy speech pattern is the stuff that gets folks flunked out of The Juilliard School. There’s something about how her tongue sits in her mouth—it’s too big, it’s too wide, it’s too strong, it won’t fit. Why is this happening again? Greed. Not just greed for money, but for recognition.

Whether or not Beyoncé ends up in the film, Perry has a special talent for creating the illusion that otherwise credible black actors don’t have enough talent for mystery dinner theater, so I have to consider anything he controls creatively a lost cause. However, as executive producer in a joint venture with Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry sat in the audience for Precious, a film highly praised by critics at the Sundance Film Festival. (You may have heard the buzz about excellent performances from Mariah Carey and Mo’Nique.) As the audience ooh’d and ahh’d at how creatively stunning it was, Perry scratched his chin and said, “Hmmm. I want me some of this.” So now what should be a landmark moment in black female cinema directed by any of the renown black female directors out there—Kasi Lemmon (Eve’s Bayou), Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Secret Life of Bees), Debbie Allen (no explanation needed) or Nzinga Stewart (who was originally slated to direct the film)—is instead sure to fall flat under Perry’s control.

What’s saddest of all to me is that, as much as we can expect Perry to butcher Shange’s work, won’t so many of us feel obligated to see it anyway? Will we bite our tongues and watch, even if just for the sake of criticism and cultural commentary? Or will we consider ourselves lucky to absorb the prose and poetry of For Colored Girls … on the big screen for the first time? Should we patronize questionable black films just because they’re intended for us or should we boycott what we suspect is garbage? This is a persistent quandary that those of us interested in thoughtful black entertainment continue to face. Just what is a black woman to do with such a mess? When I ask myself these questions, I’m reminded of Shange’s Lady in Green: “bein’ alive, bein’ a woman, and being colored is a metaphysical dilemma / I haven’t yet conquered.” After 34 years, at least that much still rings true.

source from The Root


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I Knew She Was Dating a White Guy

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

Today at work where I was producing a show I had a voice over artist come in to record a couple of scripts. I've worked with her before. Super sweet. Friendly. Down to earth. And a sister. I knew from a previous session that she was getting married this past weekend, so when I saw her today I congratulated her with a hug and the instinctual "do you have pictures?".

Thinking back to when she initially told me about her nuptial plans, I recall the question in my head, wondering if her then fiance was white. Not to intentionally be so presumptuous, but there does seem to be a crop of sisters who don't surprise me when I discover through their facebook photos that they're dating or married to a white dude. Shoot, my sister is married to a white dude. And, as you may have guessed, the lovely voice over artist is, in fact, now married to a white dude as well - as proven by the photo of the two of them kissing on their wedding day that she promptly presented me with on her cell phone. Her mom sent her that photo. Still waiting on the pocket size professional shots, I assume. I digress...

My point is, I've begun to identify a pattern of brown skin sisters marrying or shacking up with the whitest dudes in town. And it kind of bothers me...kind of... that I'm so very proud that I am a sista who dates the brothas, a conscious choice to continue to evolve Black love. Why was that so important? Because Black love (for me) was to be protected. It had survived slavery, separation, lost, blood, secrecy, identity crisis and complication and a whole host of other sh*t too deep for words so therefore its evolution was sacred to me. I can't deny that there is this inner dialog that goes something like this:

Me: Ohmigod girl you got marriage?! Do you have pictures just so I can confirm he's white?
Other sister: yeah, look! It was such a perfect day.
Me: mmm hmm. A white boy. I knew it. - oh, is that my MAN coming to surprise me at work? (Enter fine and kind chocolate brotha) yeah. He holds me down.
(grin)

I guess I just feel like a white man couldn't ever fully understand me. Don't get it twisted, I've dated the other white meat. Aaaand it just wasn't a good fit for me. An unfilled hole or another way to put it - too many damn issues. I know its hard for Black women to find good Black men. The odds are definitely not in our favor especially when there's the Black men that just date white women. Did you see, even Xzibit is dating a white chic?! Yeah. X to tha Z. I definitely do not knock love when it's real. When it's healthy and strong. Love, afterall, is what binds us. It's the reason we're here and the reason we get out of bed in the morning. I just have my preference of what I will get out or better yet stay in bed for. And a gal's gotta have an inner dialog that makes her giggle.

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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Will Precious Contribute More to Our Precious Problems?

by today’s Urban Chameleon contributor

The soon to be released film, Precious, based off the novel Push by Sapphire is making the festival rounds with the backing of Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey. The film stars a young teenage girl living in Harlem with her dysfunctional family; impregnated twice by her father and physically abused by her mother who is played by Mo’Nique who (I can’t even front) is giving it to us from the trailer. The film also stars Lenny Kravitz, Paula Patton and Mariah Carey who lawwwwwd I cannot believe she allowed herself to be seen with out soft gel lighting and a Photoshop airbrush.

However, I can’t say I’m hyped to see this film. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t abused as child or maybe I was abused and don’t need Precious reminding me or maybe I’m just sick and tired of 99% of the few mainstream Black films released being connected to poverty and dysfunction. There are about eleven genres of film (action, adventure, comedy, crime& gangster, epics & historical, horror, musicals, science fiction, war and drama) and Black films for the most part cover only one of those genres, the same poverty stricken, dysfunctional- let me uplift myself with either the lord or a bustin’ a rhyme- drama.

Since media contributes as one of the largest influences over people’s perception do we really need Precious? A writer friend of mine had me chuckling as someone attacked him for not supporting the film, emphasizing a point Oprah apparently made, which had something to do with that, "Never again will we ignore Precious." In which my friend replied, “Oh no we know exactly who precious is, my problem is that white people think we’re allllllllll Precious.”

In all fairness I wouldn’t have a problem with Precious if there were other kinds of films released that showcased broader experiences of people of color. Out of all the Vince Vaughn and Seth Rogen movies you mean to tell me we can’t we get at least one regular romantic comedy out this piece?





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Monday, September 21, 2009

Secretary by Day, Royaly by Night: The African Chameleon

Urban Chameleon news

The story of a Ghanaian Chameleon

Secretary by Day, Royalty by Night

Embassy Worker Remotely Rules a Ghanaian Town

source: Washington Post
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The king folds her own laundry, chauffeurs herself around Washington in a 1992 Honda and answers her own phone. Her boss's phone, too.

Peggielene Bartels lives in Silver Spring and works as a secretary. When she steps off an airplane in Ghana on Thursday, arriving in the coastal town her family has controlled for half a century, she will be royalty -- with a driver, a chef and an eight-bedroom palace, albeit one in need of repairs she will help finance herself.

"I'm a big-time king, you know," said Bartels, seated at her desk at the Ghanaian embassy just off Van Ness Street NW, where she has worked for almost 30 years.

In the humdrum of ordinary life, people periodically yearn for something unexpected, some kind of gilded escape, delivered, perhaps, by an unanticipated inheritance or a winning lottery ticket.

In Bartels's case, that moment arrived 15 months ago. The phone in her condominium awoke her at 4 a.m.

"Hello, Nana," said the overseas caller -- a relative, as it turned out -- employing a title Ghanaians use to refer to people of stature, from kings and queens to grandparents.

"What you mean, 'Nana?' " answered Bartels, 55, who has no grandchildren -- or children, for that matter. Her husband lives overseas. She thought the call was a prank.

The 90-year-old king of Otuam, a town of 7,000 residents an hour's drive from Ghana's capital, had just died, the caller said. The king, as it happened, was Bartels's uncle. The town elders had performed a ritual to choose his successor, praying and pouring schnapps on the ground and waiting for steam to rise as they announced the names of 25 relatives. The steam would signify which name the ancestors had blessed as the new king.

Bartels, the caller said, was Otuam's new Nana, with power to resolve disputes, appoint elders and manage more than 1,000 acres of family-owned land.

"Oh, please don't play games with me," Bartels replied, reminding the caller that she was a woman, making her more fit for the title of queen. The caller replied that the kingship was the post that was open.

"Things are changing," she recalls him saying; women can now hold many more positions, even king. "You have to accept it.'"

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Bartels endured three months of sleepless nights as she weighed whether to take the throne. She asked herself, "Why me?" The turning point occurred one morning as she drove to work through Rock Creek Park. A voice inside her pronounced: "You can't escape it. It's yours."


"Not everyone gets to become king," she said. "Perhaps it is my destiny."


click here to read full story at the Washington Post



Friday, September 18, 2009

News week wrap up with Haiti Cherie

by Tickles.Tv

Our favorite "Tell it like is" immigrant Haiti aka Ayiti Cherie is back from Tickles.tv with this weeks news wrap up. WHAT A WEEK PEOPLE!!! WHAT A WEEK



Haiti Cherie part 1, part 2, part 3

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A White Girl Raised by a Jamaican Nanny in Brooklyn

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

Growing up in Brooklyn and attending a predominantly all white school a lot of my white friends had Caribbean nannies, which is common of course even outside of Brooklyn but I never thought too much about the kind of impact this must have had. Well here is the outcome- a young white Urban Chameleon girl is born!

AWWWWWWWWWWWW SNAP! This little white girl kills it!



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Go ON Diana Ross

An Urban Chameleon moment

What Would Thembi Do just put me on to this 1968 clip (the year that Martin Luther King was assassinated) of a twenty-four year old Diana Ross rocking out with some African Interpretive Dance on national television while she was still part of The Supremes. Can we say, Urban Chameleon moment?



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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Hitler is angry too...

Urban Chameleon news

President Obama calls Kanye West a Jackass!

Urban Chameleon news

ABC's Terry Moran set the Twitter-sphere all aflutter when he wrote:

TerryMorgan: Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a "jackass" for his outburst at VWAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT'S presidential. from Terry Morgan-6:39PM (1 hour ago)

We've reached out to Moran and will update this post when we learn more.

Now, an ABC spokesperson explains to POLITICO what happened:

"In the process of reporting on remarks by President Obama that were made during a CNBC interview, ABC News employees prematurely tweeted a portion of those remarks that turned out to be from an off-the-record portion of the interview. This was done before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong. We apologize to the White House and CNBC and are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again."

The White House had no immediate comment.

— Josh Gerstein contributed to this report. source from politico.co

But regardless here is the recording of Obama calling Kanye a jackass and RIGHTFULLY SO!


Why can't Kanye West go AWAY...but wait do we want him to?

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

There used to be a time where I would rearrange my schedule and stop everything to watch music award shows and indulge in the ridiculousness . I no longer do that. Ever since I realized that I was growing up but my idols weren't. After awhile, the orgies, the ostentatious outfits, the indecent exposures, the acceptance speeches done high with a cup of alcohol brought to the stage and the Kanye West outbursts began to annoy me but then again that's why we still watch or at least hear about it on the news.

I did not watch this years VMA's but my nightly news was of course flooded with replays of what Kanye did to Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech, which was to grab her mic and tell her and the world that Beyonce should have won. I think at this point Kanye West has annoyed us all whether you still watch award shows or not but can this man be stopped and does anyone really want to stop him? Media thrives off these kinds of out bursts and we the people play right into it even when we criticize for some how it still ends up benefiting Kanye. Sure a slap on the wrist and and an apology statement may be in "order" but never any real accountability. And how do we know this? BECAUSE HE KEEPS DOING IT! I've heard talks of people threatening not to buy Kanye's album. Well that is definitely going to have to be a white people's movement 1) to really affect a man's pockets and 2)to make a point because as soon as Black people hear a beat they are feelin' it's ova "We gettin' dat sh*t."

I do wonder what the long term fate of Kanye will be. In the meantime I found a great piece from the blog newblackman below on the subject matter.

Staging Impropriety: Jes Grew at the VMAs
by Mark Anthony Neal

Twitter and Facebook were aglow, seconds after Kanye West’s most recent flare-up, this time snatching the microphone from a bewildered Taylor Swift, who had just won the “Best Female Video” award at MTV’s VMAs. West was ostensibly “protesting” Swift’s victory over fellow nominee Beyonce Knowles. West’s behavior at such events has become something of a cliché and as such it was almost to be expected. But this time was a bit different, in that West was not protesting on behalf of his usual favorite charity—himself. Something was afoot.

In a weekend that was in part defined by black impropriety—Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame acceptance speech and Serena Williams vitriolic verbal attack on a line judge at the US Open—West’s moment seemed like staged Jes Grew, as Ishmael Reed might refer to it, in response to what has been several months of improprieties liberally taken at the expense of black bodies, be it the late “King of Pop” or the current President of the United States. It is part of a script that West has carefully crafted, in the best (post-modern) spirit of P.T. Barnum. The boos that appeared whenever West’s name was mentioned throughout the evening were also part of that script and we all sat enraptured wondering how Knowles might respond to West’s misguided attempt to “speak” on her behalf. After a stirring performance of “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” all eyes were on Knowles when she received the award for “Video of the Year” and called Swift to the stage to recover her interrupted moment.

What immediately stuck me about Knowles’ gesture, were the cynics who suggested that Knowles did so at the behest of MTV and that Knowles’ kindness was essentially staged by the network. Plausible indeed, but if that is plausible, why isn’t is also plausible that the whole experience was in fact staged, to generate the kind of buzz on social networking sites that translates into increased viewership and traffic at MTV.com? Now in its 25th year, the VMAs are an aging and fatigued brand. As such the “drama” of the awards—remember Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley’s staged kiss—has become more integral to the success of the awards than its performances.

There was no risk in having Kanye West act a fool, because it is what we have come to expect from him and fair amount of people will grant him his eccentricities, because of his genius. As for Taylor Swift, she now has increased visibility because she was the victim of black impropriety, something she shares with Kim Clijsters, winner of the US Open. Beyonce Knowles is now granted a level of gravitas for her public graciousness or what critic Leonard Feather once termed “a rare noblesse oblige gesture” in response to Aretha Franklin giving her 1973 Grammy Award to fellow nominee Esther Phillips. And finally for MTV, they have produced the most talked about VMAs since that Jackson and Presley kiss.

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Monday, September 14, 2009

White People and Their Overuse of Black Sayings

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

I love my white friends but I hate when they re-purpose, overuse and or take the credit for Black sayings…


I was out to dinner last night with a very good girlfriend of mine who is white. She was in town visiting from LA and we hadn’t seen each other in quite sometime. We were having a blast catching up when all of a sudden in the middle of our conversation she randomly responds to something I said with, “Bitch please!” and then starts guffawing at her self before continuing “Ohmigod I love that saying, it’s my new thing. I use it all the time but I can’t take the credit I stole it from Mark.”


Now I know Mark and Mark is white. So I say to her, “It’s all good Mark stole the saying too.”


“From who?” She asks


“Black people.”


“Really?”


“Yes.”


Mark is notorious for making his less exposed white friends believe that he is just that original and cool. He’s a big time Hollywood producer who spends a lot of time with Black celebrities and their “entourages” where he picks up a thing or ten and then goes back to his white friends to flaunt his evolving culture. Mark annoys me for more reasons than one.


My girlfriend genuinely seemed surprised that “Bitch please” was not a Mark original which was so odd to me being that this saying predates me. I wondered if it would be weird to ask her to please not wear out the saying. I really cannot take another phenomenon where every white woman (and even some men) where running around saying “No you di in’t” with the mimicking Black girl head role and the two snaps in the “s” shape. And don’t let me see that D-list comedian Kathy Griffin


I’m already waiting to karate chop her ass for naming her tour “She’ll Cut a Bitch.” B*TCH PLEASE…I wish she would.




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Friday, September 11, 2009

Ok so Elmo is Black but guess who is white?

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor



I've just discovered that voice over actor of Cleveland from Family Guy is played by Mike Henry a white man. No there is not an obsession to research the racial identities of puppets and cartoons (click here: for Elmo's identity reveal) it just so happens that I came across another (cue music)- dun dun dun dun

REVEALED IDENTITY. Then again if I just paid attention to the credits this probably wouldn’t be such a revelation. But do you?


Anyhoo hoo to the hoo I'm not sure how I feel about Cleveland now. Interestingly enough when he was on Family Guy (a show that I love) I didn't think too much about the character. He’s the one “Black” friend. It’s a joke on top of a joke I get it. But to then hear that HE was the one getting his own show came as a surprise. I mean, who really cares about Cleveland? I had to wonder...is this because we now have a Black president? Is this some kind of affirmative action protocol? If so this is a prime example of when it's a problem. Bottom line Cleveland is not the one to have his own show the paraplegic is more interesting.


Here's the problem. There is no point of reference to what kind of Black man Cleveland is. Does he eat fried chicken or turkey sandwiches? Does he drink 40ties or Budweiser? Does he celebrate Kwanzaa or Hanukah? I just don’t know. On his new show he has a two sons, one that look like a young Black replica of Peter, the father from Family Guy and the other son who is giving me a modern day Bebe's kid vibe. Oh and his wife is played by Sanaa Lathan. Who IS this family? There is no core or context it feels like white people dictating comedy for Black people and unfortunately the “white” humor (which let me remind you that I love) from Family Guy does not translate here annnnnd I can’t help but to think if a big part of that reason is because Cleveland is played by Mike Henry. It's not his fault I just don't think anyone thought this through...







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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Dear Obama heckler are you smarter than a 3rd grader?

Urban Chameleon news

I definitely have a theory that people never mature beyond third grade. Some of us just do a better job at controlling ourselves but I find that the same visceral instincts that existed then still exist when you’re grown. Sometimes instead of telling someone that you like them- you act weird. Sometimes when someone hurts your feelings you get back at them and sometimes when someone says something you don’t like you boo and shout “LIER!” even if it's to your president in the middle of his Health Care Reform speech.


I ask you Joe Wilson, are you smarter than a 3rd Grader? and get this! people are actually making contributions to dumb ass (read below)


Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-SC) shameful screed from the back-benches of the congressional gallery last night has made him a cause célèbre for the far right. The “freeper” posters at the Free Republic called for donations to Wilson (that post was subsequently removed). Republican activist Patrick Ruffini encouraged his Twitter followers to contribute to Wilson. Calling the South Carolina congressman a “great American hero,” RedState.com’s Erick Erickson posted this fundraising solicitation on his site:

Joe Wilson has been identified as the Republican who yelled out that Barack Obama was a liar.

He gets a drink on me!

CONTRIBUTE TO JOE WILSON HERE. Joe Wilson’s opponent raised $11,000.00 in an hour after Joe Wilson stood up to Barack Obama. We must help Joe Wilson.

While the far right circled the wagons around Wilson, Democratic activists quickly opened their pocketbooks for Rob Miller, “an Iraq War veteran who unsuccessfully challenged Wilson in 2008 and is seeking a rematch next year.” By 10 am this morning, nearly $60,000 had been donated on Miller’s ActBlue’s page.


News source from thinkprogress.org


President Obama's Health Care Reform Speech



Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Don't Look for President Obama's Health Care address on Fox sister network tonight...

Urban Chameleon news

God forbid people miss "So You Think You Can Dance" for our president to address a national crisis. I mean... I could see if it was the Real Housewives of Atlanta. I would definitely then stand up to the network that tried to keep me from She by Sheree. (are you hearing the sarcasm?)

While ABC, NBC and CBS confirmed today they'll air Obama's address to Congress, Fox has just announced in a statement that the network won't pre-empt programming on Wednesday, according to a company statement.

It's not too surprising considering Fox aired "So You Think You Can Dance" instead of Obama's last prime-time news conference. The reality dance contest also airs at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, the same time Obama addresses Congress.

While the broadcast network will not cut to the president, both Fox News and Fox Business Network will air the address in its entirety.

source from Michael Calderone blog on politico.com

BET put on BLAST by Former Exec Andreas Hale

Urban Chameleon news

Former executive at BET, Andreas Hale was let go and has put the abominable company on BLAST ...AND has hinted at writing a tell all book. DOWN WITCHU BET! D-O-W-N

As someone who has been critical of BET for many years, it surprised many that I would leave my post at HipHopDX last year to take a position at BET. But it was an opportunity I absolutely had to take. I could no longer be critical of this company without accepting the opportunity to change it when given. …

Although I was hired to bring about change, I was systematically shut down. I wasn’t hired to make noise, I was hired to be silenced. The truth of the matter is that everything that you thought was wrong with BET is true.

full article on DDotomen.com

Does the term “Oreo” always haunt the Urban Chameleon?

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

Growing up living in a predominantly Black neighborhood and commuting to an all white neighborhood where my parents sent me to school I definitely experienced the “confused years.” I was considered neither Black nor white enough. I can remember clear as day the first time this little Black girl from around the way, whispered “Oreo” at me under her breath after my mom shouted out the window for her to put down a toy of mine she was mishandling. The connection? She was embarrassed and felt the need to taunt me. I can also remember the white girls at school telling me that I was not like the “others.” Cut to 20 years later- same sh*t different century

I was recently out to dinner with a friend of mine who came to meet me after wrapping up his last day on an acting job. He was telling me how the white people on set asked if he was from the suburbs. We both busted out laughing knowing that his designer John Varvatos shirts, slip on suede shoes and pronunciation of his “i-n-g-s” is what was throwing these folks off. But we both knew this Harlem-ite, reformed drug dealer, damn near high school drop out whose version of anger management growing up was to shoot different kinds of guns off the rooftops of the projects was NOT from the suburbs. However, his second identity was born when he was accepted to Yale on a drama scholarship and for the first time had to exist amongst white folks. What was at first an uncomfortable (to say the least) adjustment for him to make eventually turned into him mastering the ability of being an Urban Chameleon-but now what? What did that mean? Especially if white people are STILL so curious to know where the hell you’re from.

The reality is- it doesn’t matter where you’re from. At the end of the day it comes down to where people think you’re from and you can choose whether or whether not to correct them. He said that he enjoyed eventually telling them folks that he grew up in the projects in Harlem – it was his attempt to shake up their perspective of what they think they know about one particular group of people. It’s then that I realized that being an Urban Chameleon is a state of mind where hopefully you are no longer confused as I once was growing up- where you’ve experienced enough worlds that you’re the one that’s now clear.

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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

South African Runner Caster Semenya Gets Make Over

Urban Chameleon news

If you aren't already aware South African runner Caster Semenya had to undergo gender testing after questions were raised when she completed what they ruled as an "unusually" strong finish in an 800-meter run at the track and field world championships in Berlin in mid-August.

Well honey there is no better way to come back at a b*tch then to get dress like a--

Fabulous glamorous looking woman and pose for South African You Magazine



I love it- did she call Tyra? Is she smiling with her eyes?

I'm not judging (or at least trying not to) but it's better than this look.



source from news.spreadit.org