Another Country

Hello readers of Another Country. Well, I have finally done it. I have my own domain and website, http://llanoralleyne.com, which also gives me a cool new-looking blog (via wordpress) and the opportunity to tie in my creative fiction and photography endeavor in a loosely unified basket. This means that I will no longer be updating this blog, but I will love for all of you to continue reading my musings over at http://blog.llanoralleyne.com. While there, you can also see what I am up to professionally and creatively. Look forward to chatting with many of you at the new spot.

Cheers,
Llanor

Labels: llanoralleyne.com, moving

"What has he done to deserve it?" "This is premature, at best."
--comments on Twitter questioning the validity of today's Nobel Peace Prize winner

Short-term memory is a bedeviling condition. One that plagues many of us when times are betters than others. Yes, the U.S. is fighting a two-front war. And yes, war is, in essence, the opposite of peace. But what the Nobel Peace Prize committee did today was to unveil its political aspirations for a world that for too long lived under a depressing, belligerent cloud created by President Barack Obama's predecessor, George Walker Bush.

While many opponents to Mr. Obama's receiving the award choose to base their arguments on the word "peace" and a criteria of accomplishment, they neglect to read the committee's use of the word, "effort" in explaining why the US President is deserving of the prize. Throughout his political career, including the two years he spent campaigning for the presidency, Barack Obama has sought to bridge the gaping void between "us and them," a standoff that never has peace at its core. He took that fight to a world that had been frozen out by a US government that seemed intent on creating enemies out of allies and agitating old foes with its indifference.

Nine months into his role as "leader of the free world," Obama has not ended the Middle East conflict; he has not closed the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison camp; he has not withdrawn troops from Afghanistan or Iraq; and he has not stopped Iran from mouthing off about its desire to obliterate the West. But what he has done, with diplomacy and a healthy respect for other world leaders and countries, is to bring everyone back to the table for civilized discourse on how we are to continue to coexist. Whether or not we believe some of those at the table deserve a voice, it is essential to recognize the significance of discussion and open debate, which are precursors to peace. That he has done so after eight years of stifling, cowboy jargon and illiterate bravado is an accomplishment worthy of praise.

(Photo: Reuters)

Labels: Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize

Like many black women, the road to my current, beloved short and natural do was paved by ironing combs, lye, rollers, finger waves, and braid extensions. Arriving at this satisfied place with my hair wasn't particularly difficult (I've always loved the texture of my natural kinks and burning the skin off my scalp began to feel like self mutilation), but for other black people in my West Indian dominated Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights, I had seriously lost my mind.

Labels: Hair, self destruction, Self Hate, Solange Knowles

Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a free man, but the furor over his arrest is not showing any signs of abating. While I believe the Cambridge police overstepped the bounds of good judgement when they arrested the scholar in his own home, I still find Gates' new found awareness of racial profiling incredulous and disingenuous.

Labels: Henry Louis Gates, prison system, Racial Politics

Yesterday, news of the arrest of Harvard Professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. last Thursday hit the news and blog wires with a decidedly loud twang. Gates, arriving home from a trip to China to find his front door jammed, used his shoulder and the aid of his driver to force his way in. A neighbor, Lucia Whalen, thought this suspicious and phoned police. What ensued is disputed by the arresting officers and Gates' attorney, but suffice it to say the racial underpinnings of the incident are on full display. Gates is for now remaining mums, only saying through his lawyer that he presented ID to prove it was in fact his own home he'd broken into and that he believes this was a clear case of racial profiling.

Of course, like the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, the racial undertones of this incident are threatening to obscure all gray areas entirely. Gates, according to the officer's report, said, "Why, because I'm a black man in America?" when he was informed they were investigating a break-in. It is difficult to question the professor's anger here, especially when history does nothing but underscore those reported eight words posed, I imagine, as a rhetorical question. How many times was my brother stopped on the streets of Crown Heights for being tall, black, and male?

Like a line created with a thick, black magic marker, conversations about racial profiling have always been dogged by the leathery skin of race itself, leaving emotional and psychological prompts smothered and unspoken because to emote in the midst of articulating is to be weak and, therefore, forfeit the argument. That Gates omits that he might have been enraged by the presence of the police and what that might indicate about their mindset, about his neighbor, about being treated in a way that even his professorship could not stymie, about his own emotional and psychological hurt, is telling.

My friend E. wrote this earlier today: "After reading [Gates'] statement and the police report, in my [opinion] both were at fault. There was no need for Gates to overact and there was no need for Gates' arrest. We all need to have open honest conversations about race in this country or this will continue."

I could not agree more. A sense of humanity is frequently lost in these heated discussions that often focus on winning and which tend to pull on history to fuel histrionics. Should Gates' have been arrested? Absolutely not. It is an affront to his long-time residency in the neighborhood and to him as a respected, contributing citizen of this country. Do I think the cops went too far? Yes, they did. His ID should have been enough to let it go. Do I think Gates lost his cool when cops walked into his house? Yes, I do. So much of this incident is laced with emotion that you can almost plot the rising ante on a chart. And that is really my point. There is more to it than race; there is boulder-sized indignation and entitlement on the side of both parties.

As I write this, CNN is reporting that all charges have been dropped against Professor Gates. This is as it should be, but the debate will surely continue.

Labels: Harvard, Henry Louis Gates, Race, Racial Politics, Speech

The whole world is mourning Michael Jackson today and with good reason. The grief that his sudden death evokes has everything to do with his musical presence in our lives and how his songs defined some aspect of our coming of age, at least for my generation (born in the 1970s).

Everyone has at least one Michael Jackson-infused memory. One of mine is of my younger sister and I standing in front the massive chest of drawers in our Crown Heights apartment, only a couple of months into our living in the U.S. in 1984, and singing "Beat It" at the top of our lungs. Two years after Thriller was released we, at ages 5 and 7, had just discovered the energy that song can bring out in our little selves. It was around that time that my mother allowed us to view the "Thriller" video for the first time. Like many other young'uns we were scared shitless, but still madly in love with Zombie Michael.

Who else remembers the primetime event that was the debut of the "Bad" video in 1987? My sister and I rushed to finish our homework and to eat dinner. Then we turned on ABC, I believe it was, and sat slack-jawed for the entire "West Side Story in the Subway" mini-movie. Michael Jackson was a god. Period.

In more recent years, I have been disappointed and baffled by Michael Jackson; an unease that slowly developed as he got lighter skinned and more plastic looking. For black children who grew up with Michael Jackson, his evolution from stunning black man (look at that fro, those expressive eyes!) to knifed up white mannequin was a metaphoric scapel to our own feelings of self worth. Many of us explained away his physical alterations as eccentric, but if we are being honest, his ever fairer skin and alienesque face was one of the most visceral acts of self-loathing allowed to be committed in public view. To not acknowledge that and the latter day molestation accusations is to rewrite history.

All of that said, I am thankful that Michael Jackson was here. He was undoubtably one of the most talented human beings to ever live. That many of us once worshipped him (and many still do) is testament to his boundless talent and what his moonwalking, schamon-ing, crouch-grabbing, spinning, gold-throated self brought to our individual worlds. He will be dearly missed.

Labels: Michael Jackson

"LOL, Charles Hamilton is a pussy n*****, got punched by a bitch..."

Charles Hamilton must be waking up this morning praying for a better day after facing ridicule yesterday from all corners of the web. I was pretty late to this myself, but comments like the quote above made my back hunch up. After following a Twitter conversation started by the writer Toure on the incident, I got even more fired up.

Here's what happened (don't want to post the video; that is easy enough to find). Hamilton was engaged in a freestyle rap battle with a female friend (Briana) on the streets of NYC. She delivered her diss-filled rhyme and then it was his turn. He got a little too personal. She decked him. Hamilton let it go.

The video surfaced yesterday morning and then all manner of verbal madness ensued. Toure argued, with the Rihanna/Brown incident still fresh, that Hamilton did well not to lash back at his friend. In this I totally agree. But then Toure went on to tweet, "The people asserting no one should hit anyone are right but are missing the point: violence against women is pandemic. The opposite is not."

This is also true, but I think it is Toure that also misses the point.

I wrote to him: "While that is true, violence itself is pandemic. We have to say no to it in all of its forms."

If we are going for equality and peace in this world we can not abide double standards. The quote from the guy who called Hamilton a "pussy n*****" (we will save the racial, psychological, and misogynistic evaluation of these two words for another day) and Toure's point are just two veins of a complex organ.

The woman who punched Hamilton is being hailed as a female hero, even though she herself has sort of apologized to him for the incident. Hamilton is being ridiculed because he literally turned the other cheek. If he had hauled off and slapped Briana back, not only would he have no career left, CNN will be hosting state of the black youth town hall meetings, false historical analogies and "Black leaders" in tow.

At the same time, if we glorify Briana's actions as some Sojourner Truth moment the message we send to our children becomes muddled: girls get a pass, boys lose face either way. This reasoning sets up a cyclical wheel of resentment which spins into....violence. The point: No one should lay their hands on anyone else (self defense, the exception).

Violence itself is pandemic. We can not parse which gender is allowed to do what. I know a deluge of media (music videos, music, movies, etc.) speak otherwise, but it can not hurt to instill in our children, both girls and boys, that punching, kicking, spitting, slapping, shooting are unacceptable ways to seek conflict resolution or to quiet anger. To do so is to begin to breakdown one of the mechanisms behind violence itself.

photo courtesy of fightpromo.com.

Labels: double standard, gender, violence