Not Just Another Angry Negro

and one of those things is Josh Groban singing the theme to The Jeffersons! Surpringingly he didn't do too bad with the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air!

He just doesn't have the ethos to carry off The Jeffersons.

I fully recognize the need for tourists to go back to NOLA, but as a 20 year "regular" (pre-Katrina) I was sickened by what I saw and heard from the locals while I was at CCCC last week. I was afraid to go back and more and more I am wishing that I had not. The Quarter and the Convention Center area have been restored for the most part but the Ward and the East side are now (for the most part) non-existent. Natives trying to return to the area are finding that they have to leave again because they are no longer able to get the jobs that they have held for so long. I miss the NOLA that I knew, the corner bars and Po' Boy/Gumbo spots and the love of a people like no other.

This shit really pisses me off. Three years later we still see FEMA trailers and tent cities are popping up under overpasses. You still see houses marked with the mark of the dead. People are homeless, desperate, and hungry. While poverty is not something new to these folks they now find themselves alone with no community or family left to lean on. What pisses me off even more is the accusatory looks that I got from folks because African American natives chose me to speak to, converse with, commiserate with, share with...quit fucking whining about "discrimination" and understand (or at least don't share with me) because when I am faced with the REALITY of Katrina 3 fucking years later I can really give less than a shit if you are mad because a young African American woman hands me a flier for a poetry slam and ignores you or comes to me first at a counter or speaks to me on the street (did you speak to them first or clutch your pocketbook a little tighter when they rounded the corner?). Really???...is that your biggest concern about what you have seen (or chosen not to) while in New Orleans?

If you are offended by what I have written maybe you need to be. In the end, one can only pray that the real New Orleans can one day be resurrected.

The US Army is sponsoring an XBox/Halo 3 contest. Of course they are not looking for strategists and sharpshooters to recruit, but their contest is only open to US residents over the age of 18.

Of course you do have to register your gamertag (XBox Live username) and confirm your account information which includes your name, address, etc. but I'm sure they wouldn't want to use that to contact folks.

Is this a sign that America's Army for the 360 is not doing so hot? Come on ya'll get outta my gaming.

Xbox.com | Calendar of Events - U.S. Army Heavy Weapons Play & Win Sweepstakes

but I am up late taking the Electoral Compass Quiz. I promise that I didn't cheat in order to align myself with one candidate or another, but I find myself most closely aligned with (you guessed it...my politi-crush) Barack Obama and furthest away from Fred Thompson (yeah, like we need another actor for president).

After the quiz you can go in to see how your answers compare to various candidates (Obama and I answered almost completely the same on all of the issues), debate transcripts, and links to other news sources that offer information about the candidates' stances on the issues. Very cool use of the politi-nets.

Ok, I am going to bed!

No more looking at blog stats until after the 2008 elections. Is anyone surprised that all of this weeks' hits from the keyword search "nig*er president" have come from South Carolina? Is this any indication of how Obama is going to do in the primary down there?

It's my sneaking suspicion that Obama and Edwards will end up on a ticket together in the end. Will Edwards' South Carolinian supporters be pissed at him in the end?

Now this won't make much sense if you don't watch Boston Legal. William Shatner's character, Denny Crane, is a crazy, dangerous, but amusing character who clearly has Alzheimer's but only claims mad cow. He shoots at homeless people, accosts, women, and makes inappropriate racial remarks.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't think that Watson is either innocent or funny. He is clearly a racist nutbag who has lost his fucking mind. Alzheimer's has settled in and he no longer knows his usual cronies (who he's been sharing these viewing with all of his life) from the media. Doesn't anyone else think that it's interesting that he's only started going public with these comments in (aborting fetuses with gay genes, stupidity as a disease, etc) in the last 10 years? Yep, 70 is a good age for nutbag's mind-mouth barrier to break down.

When you think about it doesn't it make sense that a racist nutbag with a strong belief in eugenics would devote his life to mapping DNA? This is a perfect example for our students (and for us) of choosing research areas that we are deeply invested in so that we do solid work. Nobel laureate nutbag was probably pretty sure that he would be the one to map the human genome and be able to zap out gay, black, and stupid genes at the very least!

The sad this is that in this vein of thinking Senor Nutbag (because I am sure that he would want to be among the "Latin lovers") must now either go and stick his head in an oven or OD on Viagra since he has become one of the inferior/damaged brood.

Nutbag's apology and story at CNN.com

Watson, 79, an American who won the 1962 Nobel prize for his role in the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, told the Sunday Times he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours, whereas all the testing says not really."

Lauren's super cute kid, Ethan, and his cousin have made a stop-motion animation film of Zelda all by their lonesome! I have to say that it is awesome and the awesomeness of the video is only improved by how cute Ethan's audio is! I knew that I should have run off with that kid when Lauren first introduced me to him.

Now that I am done gushing over Ethan, let me just say that this is the kind of creativity and effort that I would love to see out of most college kids! Leave a couple of ingenious kids alone for a while and see what they come up with? As for them uploading it to You Tube all on their own...Lauren you better watch out, you never know when the kid might be filming :-)

Alright now head on over to Faux Real and tell Ethan and Lauren (formerly of Feministe fame) how awesome he is! Share his video with all of your friends and colleagues. She may have a new Spielberg on her hands!

Can you believe it? It's my blogiversary! My blogging madness began 6 years ago today! Six years of writing blogs entries about stuff that motivates me, pisses me oof, or stuff that I just think that I might need to remember later.

Over the years I have pissed plenty of folks off, but that's okay it happens in person too. Here's to 6 more years of venting and pissing folks off!

Joystiq has written about the fact that a blogger over at Black Looks has taken offense to the trailer for Capcom's upcoming Resident Evil 5 (and the setting of the game itself). RE5 appears to take place in an African country this time Chris Redfield is back and killing African zombies.

The trailer starts off with chanting and progresses with driving tribal beats. Ok, I get it. It's atmosphere. As Alexander points out over at joystiq, the zombies in previous REs have been largely white (loosely defined) and have been shot by white men and no one has raised an eyebrow, but what Alex (and the developers on this project) have failed to see is the fact that nothing, video games included, happens in a vacuum.

This isn't just a white soldier shooting African zombies. There is too much cultural baggage associated with this pairing both here in the US and on the African continent. Soldiers participating in what looks like genocide? One white man winning out over hordes of Africans? There is too much tied up in this situation for it to be benign. How can you not expect folks not to get upset? Looking over the comments at Joystiq and those that have spilled over to Black Looks one can see that these nuances are truly lost on the general public. The comments themselves are racist, the ignorance abounds.

When you consider the rhetorical and cultural contexts of the military and African countries this game becomes no more than another racist simulation like those used to recruit for and entertain white supremicist groups. It feels oddly like Border Patrol or Ethnic Cleansing. I'm sure that there are folks who are going to disagree vehemently with m, but I ask that ya'll keep it respectful.

Soon to be cross-posted at Joystick 101.