Bill Cosby: An example of how "Rape" works within a patriarchal society

By today's Urban Chameleon contributor
Christa Bell

 In many ways, focusing on serial rapist, ‪#‎BillCosby‬, is a way to direct rage and shame at an entire set of systems that compose the massive and unwieldy phenomena that are patriarchy and rape culture. It's easier to focus on him than on the rape and torture of prisoners by, for example, the CIA. Cosby makes identifying the way rape culture works within patriarchy, manageable, almost breezy. He also makes it easy to identify those who have completely internalized rape culture ethics. If anything could be said to be redeeming about Cosby's decades as a serial rapist, it would be that his heinous crimes against women force us to approach rape from multiple and intersecting perspectives. It allows us to confront the kind of eucharistic brainwashing, that we are all impacted by, that allows patriarchy to operate so efficiently. By eucharistic, I mean that spiritual ritual of double think that allows us to believe that what is false, is actually real. As in the ritual of communion when adherents accept that the bread and wine being imbibed are the actual body and blood of christ. In the case of the ritual of defending Cosby, his disciples have substituted his TV persona, his filling in for and as their absent fathers, his representation of black masculine purity, as the truth of who he is. But he is not. He is black, he is an exceptional entertainer, and he is wealthy. He is also a scum who has spent decades sexually exploiting women in one of the most vile ways imaginable. You will have to find a way to reconcile those truths with his persona. Reconcile the wine and bread with the blood and flesh. This is also the work of ‪#‎Ferguson‬. Upending and calling out all systems of oppression.

Follow Christa Bell at www.realcoloredgirls.wordpress.com

Can We Get Further in Life With a Perm vs. Natural Hair?

By today's Urban Chameleon contributor

Brooke Lugo Smith

"It took a lot of self discovery and rebuilding for me to even train my own eye to love myself the way I am."

I was born with a full head of black, vibrant curls. Today, I would say this was a great thing but at the time being born in the 80's when mixed kids weren't trending, I developed a distorted perception of myself. In grade school, while other little girls' moms were taming their natural hair with relaxers, my mom refused, and therefore I was limited to pony tails and buns because I was too uncomfortable to wear my "wild" hair any other way. Growing up I never saw any images of women with hair like mine, not on TV, in videos and surely not in my classrooms. I have memories of little girls picking at my hair with looks of disgust saying, 

“Why don't you get a perm?” 

What was this “perm” they spoke of? Soon I realized it was the reason every Black girl I knew had straight silky hair. So I did what any other thirteen-year-old would've done in my shoes. I BEGGED my mother to relax my hair. I cried when she denied me. It was hard to be a plus size girl and have wild hair. Both of these traits made me unpopular.

It wasn't until graduation that my mom finally allowed me to get a perm.  Now I had hair that every girl envied. It was extra long and thick, a mane of black hair that almost reached my butt. It was amazing to see how people who never spoke or acknowledged all of a sudden want to crowd around me  just to see if my hair was real and ask to touch it. Everyday people stared in amazement. I was a hair goddess. Because of this new found attention I became addicted to the creamy crack (relaxer). At the first sight of my natural hair growing out at the roots I'd run to the store and touch it up before anyone could see. This habit continued all the way through my mid 20s. I was not prepared for the amount of work it took to maintain this look. I now had to flat iron my roots, curl my ends with a curling iron every day and use tons of heavy greasy products to keep it from frizzing; anything to stop my hair from going back to "wild." Slowly but surely my long mane that had once reached all the way down my back wouldn't grow past my collar bone. One day as I looked in the mirror, I couldn't help but look at my damaged hair with split ends and say, “What did you do to yourself?!” 

In 2005, I started growing my natural hair again. In addition, I decided to do a spiritual makeover. I needed to redefine my definition of beauty from within. No, I didn't do the “big chop” where some women cut off all of their hair completely and start from scratch. However, I went through what is known as the “in between” stage, where you allow your roots to grow out, looking puffy and crazy and slowly cut away your ends until the relaxer is completely gone. The transition was very awkward. Even though I was finding this new wave of confidence in the "natural" me, men, didn't seem to take a liking to the new look. I could go out with straight hair and have several suitors, and where the same outfit with my curls and only receive a handful of hellos. It took a lot of self discovery and rebuilding for me to even train my own eye to love my natural self. And I mean LOVE not just settle or be content. 

Even though society is slowly beginning to embrace the natural look many of us have a long way to go with self acceptance.  I know I have come a long way but I still haven't arrived.

Let's talk corporate America. When I have meetings, specifically an interview, I still hesitate on whether to wear my hair natural, in fear of  coming across unprofessional. We are all a work in progress. I try and hold on to the principle that I am fearfully and wonderfully made! 

Be confident and be you. Honestly anyone who doesn't accept that is doing you a favor by weeding themselves out of your life! Being myself has even allowed me to find a spouse that loves me with no filter. Shoot, the day I met him, I was sporting a curly side ponytail, a Thunder Cats hoodie, jeans and Converse sneakers. He later told me, his dream girl was a women with natural black curls... go figure. Funny thing is my husband suffers from low hair esteem himself. He's been trying out this fro/hawk style but gets uncomfortable when his hair grows in thinking it looks too nappy. I even had to explain to him that the hair that grows out of our scalp is not bad even though we've been taught otherwise. I believe we simply haven't been given the option to love our natural hair. Growing up, there were no tutorials on maintenance, no products and no support. Luckily, today we have platforms like Urban Chameleon to shed some light on why we do what we do including the need to chameleon. I'm excited to teach my unborn baby how to rock their hair, curls or not. With the right products and styling (the key to any great hair style) we all can shine! In the words of one of my favorite movies, Just let your soooooooooouuuuul glow!

Brooke is a Gospel Pop Artist and the Star of Oxygen's hit reality show, My Big Fat Revenge. She is also the vocalist behind several  commercials including Old Navy and Kia Motors. Follow her at www.BrookeLugoSmith.com

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Funnel Cake Flowers & The Urban Chameleons comes to Spelman College!

In the vein of Saturday Night Live meets The Chappelle Show , Emmy nominated writer, producer, performer HaJ brings her new interactive, multimedia stage show to Spelman College. FUNNEL CAKE FLOWERS & THE URBAN CHAMELEONS is a comedic, social commentary on how people of color in America have to chameleon between white corporate America and their kinky hair-handling, curry spice eating, hip gyrating America in order to survive. It's complicated! 

Tickets are FREE!
General admission 

Location
Spelman College
John D. Rockefeller Fine Arts Building
Atlanta, GA 30314

Show Times 
Thurs. Feb 20 at 8PM 
Fri. 21st at 8PM
Saturday 22nd at 8PM 
Sun 23rd at 3PM

For more information e-mail tickles.tv@gmail.com

USA Today calls THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY “Race-Themed Film”

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By Funnel Cake Flowers, The Urban Chameleon News Reporter

USA today calls Black Man Holiday I mean Best Man Holiday a Race-Themed film

Awww snap white people you done messed up again and let me guess you have no idea why.

Allow me to explain, to translate. You see Black people want nothing more than to fit into the fabric of society here in the United States of America. You know the country that was built on the backs of our ancestors but yet and still we are considered outsiders. I know you keep telling us, “That’s bullshit! You gotta Black president, what more do you want, everything is equal.

But it’s really not and USA Today’s comment was evidence of that. For if we were really considered equal, and Black people in Black films and non-Black films were common I guarantee you we wouldn’t be having this conversation. There would be no need to point out that The Black Man Holiday, (excuse me) I mean The Best Man Holiday is a “race-themed film.”

And the thing that really hurts is that I’m sure, NO! certain, that the Black people involved in Black Man Holiday (excuse me) The Best Man Holiday were not striving to make a Black film…just a film…people…just a film. And you ruined it white people.

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How the Urban Chameleon Came to be

Why now are "SLAVE FILMS" being produced?

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor
Ayoka Chenzira

There is a disconnect between the lived experiences of contemporary Black America and the movies. One reason is that there simply aren't enough films featuring the lived experiences of people of color that are greenlit for production. Not that the stories or screenplays aren't there -- they are not being made.

This period of what is being called "slave films" is discomforting. On the one hand so many people are unfamiliar with that period in American history. Common thought also suggests that so many of us think that slavery was such a long time ago -- so we do need films that show that part of the county's despicable history.

That said, in many ways, the films about slavery are not telling us anything new and in fact continue to highlight the same premise and archetypes -- that slavery was terrible not because people were stolen from their homelands, bought and sold and insured (by still surviving U.S. insurance companies) but because the white slave owners were sadistic. Cut to -- let me show you how sadistic. The sadistic (often well to do) slave owner and his seemingly powerless wife are finally challenged by the well-meaning white man who will essentially become the turnkey hero through an act of kindness or bravery. This of course disallows for the historical evidence of how many slaves survived, rebelled and escaped. It also closes the door on a deeper visual rhetoric about how slavery was part of a knotty American fabric -- common -- ubiquitous -- often without fanfare. It's residue still has death grip on modern day America.

You can tell a great deal about a culture through its art and specifically through its national cinema. Not only by what is produced but what is absent. Timing is everything -- so the question does remain -- why now are "slave films" being produced? We often hear that screenplays by African American filmmakers cannot be found. I have a science fiction film and am adapting the novels of Pearl Cleage to the screen, others that I know have dramas, comedies and historical pieces. What they have in common is a modern day take on African American lives -- and points of view that we seldom see expressed in American cinema. The absence of this work on screen is very telling about American culture.

Follow Ayoka Chenzira on Twitter @ayomentary 

How the Urban Chameleon Came to be

Out Here In These Streets

By House of HaJ

Pardon the grammatical errors- I'm just flowing.

The phrase "Out Here In These Streets" came to life for me and a good friend of mine while traveling to South by South West in Austin Texas this past March 2013. The festival is a stomping ground for entrepreneurs , innovators, independent thinkers and creative and technology lovers. People like us just doing our thing...out here in these streets.

In Black culture we identify with the term "streets" as a game, a jungle even at times a matrix; it basically sums up, a very real hustle; whether you're a drug dealer or an entrepreneur.

Several years ago, separately and at different times, me and my friend decided to take a leap of faith and dedicate ourselves to building something, being our own boss, being in control of our time while trying to make this world a better place.

As sexy as that sounds it's not always. In fact at times I wonder if I picked the harder hustle, ‘cause selling drugs has got be easier than keepin' it legal.

There is an illusion to being an "entrepreneur." You actually think you're in control. But you are not in control. I'm not even sure if god is in control. This was confirmed for me just the other day while watching for the first time the movie, Daddy's Little Girl starring Idris Elba. Lou Gosset’s character tells Idris' character at a moment where he’s down and out that's he's going to need the help of “God and two more white people.” That's real.

Most of the time being an entrepreneur is a pride swallowing, ego-deflating journey and that's not even the worst part. The worst part is continuing to actually pursue the damn journey; seeking the word "yes" in a world of "no. " But you do it anyway. For an entrepreneur knowing and understanding this is what it means to be out here in these streets. Are you out here? Get at me.

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How the Urban Chameleon Came to be

BOOM – Just like that Zimmerman Trades Places With Trayvon

Dear George Zimmerman,

For the rest of your life you are now going to feel what it’s like to be a black man in America.

You will feel people stare at you. Judging you for what you think are unfair reasons.

You will lose out on getting jobs for something you feel is outside of your control.

You will believe yourself to be an upstanding citizen and wonder why people choose to not see that.

People will cross the street when they see you coming.

They will call you hurtful names. It will drive you so insane some days that you'll want to scream at the top of your lungs.

But you will have to wake up the next day, put on firm look and push through life.

I bet you never thought that by taking the life of a young Black man that you would end up inheriting his.

Enjoy your "Freedom."

Sincerely,

A Black male who could've been Trayvon

WASHINGTON DC HERE WE COMES!

Fresh from the Atlanta Fringe Festival, FUNNEL CAKE FLOWERS & THE URBAN CHAMELEONS created by Emmy nominated writer HaJ and directed by Award-winning filmmaker Ayoka Chenzira comes to Washington DC! This multimedia, interactive exposé highlights black-white relations by outing the lives of people of color who, as code-switchers, choose when to reveal their accents and attitudes in front of white people, creating a shocking and hysterical Saturday Night Live style mock of the human condition while “living in color in a white man’s world.” Check out the promo here

SHOW TIMES:

Tuesday July 2nd at 8:00PM

Wednesday July 3rd at 8:00PM

Location:

Katzen Center

American University

4400 Massachusetts Ave.

Washington, DC 20016

Ticket's are $12 for adults $10 for students and seniors. Purchase online here or at the door. If you can't make it TELL A FRIEND! You won't be sorry

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FUNNEL CAKE FLOWERS & THE URBAN CHAMELEONS Premeries at the Atlanta Fringe Festival June 6-9!

My Caribbean mother doesn't get along with her private school educated grandson

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor, Anonymous

 

Six years ago when I had my son I knew it was my responsibility to provide him with the best that I could. When he was three someone told me about progressive education, which peaked my interest. These are schools that teach critical thinking as oppose to following orders. A huge difference between how poor children and rich children are developed. Outliers: The Story of Success written by Malcolm Gladwell, explores these and many other dissimilarities. Poor kids are usually taught to follow authority where rich kids are encouraged to be inquisitive. They are more likely to go to a doctor and ask questions that they have a right to know, like why are you putting that instrument in my ear?

The school that I ended up enrolling my son in teaches kids to be thought leaders and citizens of the world. This entails asking questions and exploring different answers until they make sense. The problem is, this makes for a difficult relationship between my son and his Trinidadian grandmother, (my mother).

One weekend I left him with her. She sent me a text telling me to pick him up earlier than we discussed before she wrings his neck. He called to tell me that my mother is very negative. 

My mother is old school, children don't get to have conversations with their elders about why they can't do something. The answer is, because I said so, and if you question me again I will beat your ass. That's the thing about being an Urban Chameleon and raising one, it's always about trying to figure out how to navigate the cultural conflicts that nobody prepares you for.

Oh well, maybe when he becomes president of a company or nation my Trini grandmother will appreciate his independent mind then;) 

 

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More Black and Brown People at South by South West (SXSW) Please!

"If technology doesn't see race, that's actually a problem." 

 by HaJ

Left to right: Ayo, HaJ, Pamela Jennings, Sabrina Harvey and Nicole Valentine

This past March I was invited to speak on the Blacks in Technology (BiT) panel at South by South West (SXSW), Elevate the Game: Maverick Women Recode the Future, along with Pamela Jennings, CEO of Noble Wire, Sabrina Harvey, CEO of Art of Genius Tech Education & Women Interactive, and Nicole Valentine, President of Synergy Business Development and Ayoka Chenzira, filmmaker and interactive digital media artist as well as my co-creator and director of HERadventure an interactive, sci-fi movie. Ayoka and I developed HERadventure, which also debuted at SXSW.

Left to right: Denver Louis, Mary Pryor, Nicole Valentine, HaJ, Ayo

 On the first day of the festival that takes place every year in Austin, Texas, we ran into social media guru Michael Street and urban socialista Mary Pryor at Whole Foods. I guess a gathering of people of color was unusual here for minutes into our conversation an older white woman came up to us super excited expressing that she had never seen anything like “this” before. She admired Mary’s Afri-centric head wrap and complimented how beautiful everyone was while continue to stare in awe at the brown people before her. She then returned to finish drinking wine with her male friend who was about 20ft away. Even after returning to her table she kept staring at us. This woman’s perspective seemed to be a reflection of our presence at SXSW. Out of thousands of attendees you could probably count the number of people of color on one hand and have fingers left over. Ayo and I were apart of a smaller number of people of color who were presenting a project. One could argue a number of reasons as to why that was but it certainly isn’t because people of color aren’t innovative.

During out BiT Panel, meaningful conversations came about as it related to the importance of women and people of color advancing in the field of technology, specifically gaming and coding. However if the funding and information is only being distributed to largely one group of people then the experiences developed from new technologies will not reflect diversity of ideas and perspectives. Remember the YouTube video of the Black guy pointing out that the HP face recognition technology didn’t seem to recognize his blackness?   

This is why initiatives like Black Girls Code founded by Kimberly Bryant are so crucial.

BiT has taken a tremendous step in the right direction with creating panels and programming to provide information from people of color in technology and entertainment that's innovative at SXSW. We can only hope that initiatives alike will continue to be embraced, supported and expand into an integrated experience for everyone (including white people).

A friend of mine said to me that the Internet does not see race, it just calculates information according to zeroes and ones. I would argue that NOT seeing race is a problem. Or, being so in shock like the woman at Whole Foods because you’re not used to seeing a group of people of a different race is a problem. 

Being a part of a woman and gaming panel and presenting HERadventure our interactive, sci-fi movie starring a reluctant, female, alien, superhero who also happens to be a woman of color allowed us to continue pushing (or rather opening up) the envelope to empower those who seem to have gotten lost in the zero and ones. To find more about HERadventure visit the website www.heradventure.com

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How the Urban Chameleon Came to be

Tarantino Unchained

 By Jelani Cobb from The New Yorker

In early 2010, not long after the release of Quentin Tarantino’s Second World War revenge epic, “Inglourious Basterds,” I began teaching a course on American history at Moscow State University. When a Russian friend asked me what I thought of the film I told him I loved the way the director created an alternate history in order to make a larger point about the universal nature of heroism. My friend and, as I later learned, lots of other Russians took issue with the film for precisely that reason. “Is this,” he asked, “how Americans really perceive World War II?” In Russia, where the annual May 9th celebrations of the German surrender dwarf those of the Fourth of July in this country, the sacrifices that were crucial to defeating Hitler are a point of huge national pride. The history department at the university features a marble monument to hundreds of university students who died defending the country. Because many Russians feel that the world—and particularly the United States—has never properly recognized the scale of their losses, they tend to see “Inglourious Basterds” not as a revenge fantasy but as an attempt to further whitewash their role in Hitler’s demise. The alternate history in “Inglourious Basterds” failed there because the actual history had yet to be reconciled. The movie’s lines between fantasy and the actual myopic perspectives on history were so hazy that the audience wasn’t asked to suspend disbelief, they were asked to suspend conscience. With “Django Unchained,” Tarantino’s tale of vengeful ex-slave, what happened in Russia is happening here.

The theme of revenge permeates Tarantino’s work. If the violence in his films seems gratuitous, it’s also deployed as a kind of spiritual redemption. And if this dynamic is applicable anywhere in American history, it’s on a slave plantation. Frederick Douglass, in his slave narrative, traced his freedom not to the moment when he escaped to the north but the moment in which he first struck an overseer who attempted to whip him. Quentin Tarantino is the only filmmaker who could pack theatres with multiracial audiences eager to see a black hero murder a dizzying array of white slaveholders and overseers. (And, in all fairness, it’s not likely that a black director would’ve gotten a budget to even attempt such a thing.)

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/01/how-accurate-is-quentin-tarantinos-portrayal-of-slavery-in-django-unchained.html#ixzz2GvS6m8xw

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How the Urban Chameleon Came to be

Obama has 99 Problems but Mitt Ain't One

Dear Mrs. Romney...I know You Aint Talking To Me...

Dear Mrs. Romney,

 

 I work very hard in my daily life to assume the best about people. So the only thing I am going to assume about you is that you are probably a pretty nice person with a good heart. I like to make this global assumption without the taint of the opinions of others. And I would appreciate it if you would stop assuming things about me. I am not a part of the amorphous American female collective you spoke of last night. In fact, I take great offense to being lumped together with the female stereotype you presented. I am not the woman you described, nor are any of my female friends. I am much, much more.Allow me to introduce myself. I am a member of the middle class, but I haven’t always been. I have been teaching middle school since I graduated from college. My first job paid $1300 a month. For seven years I supplemented my income by working evenings and weekends at a movie theater and a retail store. This was to pay my rent and my car payment and buy a few groceries. After seventeen years as a teacher, I have earned a Master’s degree, an Education Specialist degree and an administrative license. I am happily married with two elementary-age kids. My husband and I are both educators, and there is still no money left at the end of the month. We continue to live paycheck to paycheck.That’s what two teachers with two kids do.

We don’t have a housekeeper or a nanny. We don’t have personal assistants. All our limited disposable funds go towards riding and violin lessons, karate class, field trips, and school clothes for the kids. If we need new clothes, we wait for clearance sales and shop at discount stores. If one of the kids wants to add an enrichment activity to their schedule, we juggle our finances to decide what we can give up.

We have debt and student loans that impede our financial progress, both of which have accrued over the years as we have tried to live pretty average everyday lives. When it’s time for our kids to go to college, let’s hope they qualify for scholarships; “shopping around” for a more affordable option would mean no higher education for our kids. Period.

Disposable income for this middle class family is a joke.

But I digress. I am a woman, and you don’t know the first thing about me. When you suggest that it’s a “woman’s lot” to work all day then come home and cater to her husband and kids, and that you hear my voice, my blood boils.

You may hear my voice and “love you women,” but you are certainly not listening.

Your life does not resemble mine in any way. Yes, you have five children and a debilitating illness. But you also have the monetary resources to finance support systems. I believe wholeheartedly that being a stay-at-home mom is a full-time job, but you have no idea what it is like to be that parent and work a second, or even a third job at the same time to make ends meet.

So please refrain from claiming allegiance with me, from suggesting that you are an example of “every woman.” That claim is a lie.

Have you ever bounced a check because you had to put gas in your car?

Have you ever been forced to calculate the cost of your groceries as you shop to be sure you’re not over-budget?

Have you ever told one of your children that they can have new shoes that fit…after payday?

Welcome to the reality of this woman.

And I am incredibly lucky.

I have a job, as does my extremely supportive husband. We have two sets of grandparents a stone’s throw away who take care of our kids when they’re sick or they have days off of school so we don’t have to miss work. We have a roof over our heads, food to eat, and we have each other.

I can’t imagine surviving under alternate conditions. What about the single woman who spends fully half of her paycheck on childcare? What about the woman who is struck with Cancer but ignores her medical needs in order to put food on the table for her family? What about the woman who forfeited higher education to raise a child and now has no skills to find a job? What about the woman who lives in a shelter with her children in order to escape an abusive partner or as a result of an eviction?

Shopping at Costco does not level this playing field.

So I take exception to your statement that all women share the same lot in life.

If you want to make this claim, if you want to try to convince me that we are more similar than different, you’re going to have to spend a week or so walking in my $15 Payless clearance shoes.

You are not every woman. You are an incredibly privileged, elite, distorted version of American womanhood, and you have no idea how the other 99% live.

As your husband and his party try to control my body, my choices, my well-being, please remember that you and your party will never speak for me.

How dare you even try.

- Cathy Walker-Gilman

REGISTER FOR ATLANTA'S WOMEN INTERACTIVE CONFERENCE

SCHEDULE INCLUDES :
Monetizing Your Creativity: Become a Leader of the PAC 
How Creatives Can Bid On Government Contracts  
Use Social Media & Mobile Marketing to Build Your Business 
Script Writing for the Web 
see full schedule by clicking here

Is Everyone But Harry Belafonte Riding Jay-Z's Dick?

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

Yes I said it. And I no I cannot wait until I have the privilege of being 85 years old like Mr. Harry Belafonte to say what needs to be said.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mr. Belafonte was asked if he was happy with today's Hollywood images of minorities. Mr. Belafonte replied, "Not at all...It is all --excuse my French--shit."

He goes on to use Jay-Z and Beyonce as an example of turning their backs on social responsibility. It's hard to ignore this point and so I'm in conversation about it.

So why aren't more of today's young Black rich celebrities socially active? One could also ask, should more Black elders be holding them responsible?

Regardless of how you analyze this question, what's worth noting is that something happened between the Civil Rights Movement and the Hip Hop Generation.

My mom recalls when drugs were deliberately put into the Black communities to break up the power behind unifying the community. All that hard work and blood shed, which once had a clear community purpose lost its road map. So even though we won the
right to sit in the front of the bus, it didn't stop some of us from acting like a fool on that
bus.

I can only imagine Jay-Z's reality from his songs and lyrics, framing for us what it took
for him to get to where he is. Pulling himself up by his own boot straps after he had to
make the boot, steal the materials for the boot and lets not forget, get shot at for the
boot. It's not so unreal that a rich rapper's financial values would be more in line with a
conservative Republican. I got mine, you betta get yours.

Even though our community is suffering from poverty, mass incarceration, and unequal
educational systems, unlike Mr. Belafonte, for Jay-Z, the term "community" may just be
a definition in the dictionary. Yes, Jay-Z has the Shawn Carter foundation that has made
charitable contributions. However, KultureKritic interestingly breaks down that the $1.3
million dollars given away through 750 Scholarships estimates to be about $1,733 per
child. Not only can that barely get anyone though a semester of college it can't even
buy one of those kids a Louis Vitton bag. Is the foundation more of a public relationship
obligation and tax write off rather than an actual social responsibility.

Although I don't have the answer, I'm sure as hell glad that Mr. Belafonte isn't more
concerned with chilling in the champagne room with Jay-Z than he is with calling him
out and asking some real questions. I sure hope Jay-Z isn't at home working an a Belafonte
retaliation track...cause this beef is way more serious than that sh*t that went down with
Nas.

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Adidas Sneaker Controversy on Huffington Post (the extended version)

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor &  Editor-in-chief, HaJ

I was invited to participate in Huffington Post's live video chat hosted by Marc Lamont Hill discussing the Adidas "slave sneaker" controversy. You can watch by clicking on the link. However, my written commentary may better reflect the points I was hoping to make.

• Initial Reaction to the Sneaker - When you look at this what are your thoughts?

1. I almost drowned in tears of laughter. Did someone really say let's make a "slave sneaker?" Where the hell were the Black executives at Adidas during the proof of concept meeting? Please don't tell me they got the -itis and missed the meeting after indulging in the Burger King crispy chicken wrap. Wait a minute, has this slave sneaker revealed a bigger issue --- that Adidas has nobody on staff who is a descendent of a slave to say, "Hey guys, too soon?"

• What Does It Mean to Have Shackles On Sneakers Targeted To The Urban Community

2. Wait, what are we defining as "targeted? I've heard two different narratives for the concept behind this design. 1) "This sneaker is so hot it must be chained to your ankle." 2) The designer feels like a slave to the fashion industry." Regardless both ideas deserve a good lynching. 

On the other hand, there is great irony that the "urban community" would have such a visceral reaction to a sneaker. Why is that? Because "we" are slaves to our sneakers. How many times have we heard a story about someone getting shot (or at least Tasered because someone's sneaker's got stepped on. Hell, I've almost shot someone myself (with a water gun of course).  Now that's commentary I could have gotten behind the designer on.  In fact, the slave sneaker should have been a crispy white pair of Jordan’s with a foot a print on the toe and spots of blood representing the fallen homies.

• Is This Racial Insensitivity?

3. You have to be sensitive to be insensitive.  We as Black people are programmed to be confrontational about race because our history includes fighting for basic human rights because of our race. White people have the luxury of coming up with designs like slave shackles without it having any kind of stigmatization on their identity. Wait, am I being racist assuming the slave sneaker designer is white? Regardless, my people...Black people crave that kind of freedom...but wait, a lot of us would then be out of work (including myself). What would there be to complain about? Never mind. Racism may be doing more for the economy than government.

• Should We Just Let It Go? - (Do we see race in everything?)

4. Let it go? Let it go? Hell no!!! (That is until the next racially charged news line) Of course we see race in everything. Our freedom was built on it. However, I sometimes think it's us perpetuating racism. We've become a reactionary culture instead of a proactive one. We for some reason continue to seek white's people's approval (even subconsciously). We complain there are not enough of us in this or that instead of building our own systems that work for us. Imagine if we spent less energy complaining and more creating. Did I get too deep?

• Does Intention Even Matter? 

5. Only to the person who had the intention. For everyone else perspective is reality. Does it matter if the designer was using this monster image as inspiration? How many Black people would believe him even if he pinky swore? People only care about how they're affected and maybe as long as they do we might not ever be able to have a progressive conversation.

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