Motley Moose – Archive

The recent advertising campaign, launched by Nikon, “I Am Generation Image,”  has attracted a huge amount of media buzz, specifically because two of their featured subjects are a black gay male couple and their kids.

librarisingnsf had a diary about them last week. The Instagram photo they uploaded doing their girl’s hair in the morning, set off a firestorm – some supportive, and some very hateful, but it got them noticed by Nikon.

Kordale & Kaleb: Dads

“Last year, we were surprised when a picture of us doing our daughters’ hair went viral. To us, that’s just part of our morning routine. With our images, we want to share our family’s life – and maybe reveal how much our family is like yours.”

By now, we are all familiar with this iconic image, which for all of us symbolizes the tragic murder of Trayvon Martin, and the “hoodie” that racists have used to blame him for his death at the hands of George Zimmerman.  

Other images have followed this one, especially the “hand-up don’t shoot” gesture from protestors across America after the killing of Michael Brown. Or the last words of Eric Garner “I can’t breathe.”

Black men live and dream. Have emotions, feelings, hopes and fears. At a time when black men, especially younger ones are being vilified, de-humanized, incarcerated in massive numbers, and yes-shot dead in the streets, with an outcry and nationwide demonstrations as a result and reaction, I hope people will share the following film by a young black artist.

#Blackmendream from Shikeith on Vimeo.

You’ve seen all of the major national news outlets covering Ferguson, and the events surrounding the murder of Mike Brown through their own lens, especially focused on demonizing both Brown, and the people protesting. There were hundreds of reporters assigned to cover “violence” in Ferguson, “looters” etc. It’s telling how many aren’t covering the ongoing protests and strategies being enacted by people committed to long term change. Try searching the headlines for what is going on right now. Where did the cameras go?

As people head to the polls to vote today, and as we wait to hear election results come in this evening and late into the night-along with demographic data about turnout, and the inevitable dissections by pundits and analysts-one thing is clear, even before the results come in. We have been pushing hard to GOTV, and a key part of the mobilized electorate is black female voters. One major effort has been #BlackWomenVote.  As they put it:

Black women had the highest voter turnout in the 2012 presidential election, representing almost 70 percent of the Black electorate and surpassing our 2008 record-breaking numbers. Many are expecting us to stay home on November 4th, in fact only 37 percent of African Americans normally show up to the polls for midterm elections.

Black women have the potential to take this country by storm. We have the collective power to elect representatives who will champion our interests and support legislative actions that will improve education, health care and economic opportunities for our communities.

Contrary to much of the negativity being spread by some traditional media sources, and blather from black Republican tokens, black American Democrats continue our relentless pursuit of the ballot box, with efforts to turn out our voters across the nation. Souls to the Polls operations are still underway: from Minnesota, to Ohio and Illinois, to Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and more.

NPR: After Sunday Service, Georgia Churches Get Souls To The Polls

The Piney Grove church is in an area that is 55 percent African-American and therefore one part of Georgia that could help Nunn win the Senate seat this November. That’s if people turn out to vote.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter joined the congregation yesterday to help rally churchgoers to the polls and work to “help make Martin Luther King’s dream become a reality in our state.” “We can do it, if we all work together, if we all go to vote, if we can be sure that all of our friends and relatives and neighbors go to vote, and vote early,” Carter said.

Sunday voting caused some controversy in Georgia. Republicans grumbled about it giving Democrats a boost. But Flippin says it’s only fair that black voters get a chance on Sundays to mobilize. “Many of our people still do not have professional jobs that they can take off or go into work late. You know, most corporations – they allow you to come late or come early on Election Day. Well, if you’re working in a factory or job like that, they can’t take off,” says Flippin. Piney Grove worshippers loaded up on two church buses and, with a caravan of cars following, drove to the voter registration and elections office in Decatur to vote.

So much of our history, as black Americans, is often lost, forgotten or obscured. Key moments of that history often take us to North Carolina, where struggles are still being led by groups like Moral Mondays, spearheaded by Rev. William Barber.

One such historical moment was the issuance of The Durham Manifesto, as a result of the October of 1942 Southern Conference on Race Relations, which was held in Durham, North Carolina.

Though many people think of Jim Crow as something in our past, along with poll taxes put in place to be a “skin-color” tax to prevent people of a darker hue from voting, it isn’t history. It’s alive and well and being perpetrated across the U.S. and not just in the south.

After the recent news release about bullets fired into the White House back in 2011, I though I’d revisit some of the worrisome thoughts I’ve had for years about the Secret Service and the safety of President Obama and his family. Why are we supposed to automatically trust those assigned to the protection of the President when it is patently clear that security has been lax? Could racism inside the agency be one of the variables that comes into play? In the spate of news articles and blogs about the Secret Service screw-ups recently, I find it interesting that few have linked the ongoing suit in the courts by black agents to what seems to be only slipshod security as a potential factor.  

Much of our attention has been focused on our young black men, and rightly so, given the propensity in this culture for them to be shot in cold blood, killed and incarcerated. We’ve discussed President Obama’s initiative for young black men, “My Brother’s Keeper.”

However, a new report, issued by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is important for us to pay attention to. Read the full report here.