as if we needed more proof that Urbana is "progressive"

Thanks, Kasey, for sending me the link to this:
Marijuana Decriminalized in Urbana

I know several of my students will be happy to hear it.

"my teacher rapping"

Susan, sent me a link to this video of an 8th grade math teacher in LA rapping about slope-intercept.



I then stumbled across a plethora of YouTube videos of teachers rapping. How interesting.









What? If I was still in college, this is definitely something I would have written a paper about.

feminism: sooo annoying!

I'm going with my Mom to see Mary Poppins: The Musical tonight! So lucky!

When I was little, it was my favorite movie. Like, my watch it, rewind it, watch it again, and persistently press "tracking" because the film was wearing thin, favorite movie.

At this part, I used to get so mad at the mom with her sister-suffragette-bullshit. I would just be so frustrated that she wouldn't shut the eff up and listen to the nanny. ha

commuting

I happened to be on The El at 5ish today. Crowded and sorta sweaty, yes, but there's something about seeing Chicago from that venue that always gets me all antsy and stuff. It makes me feel like there are so many places and people that I need to see and know. It's overwhelming. I like seeing all the well-dressed (and not-well-dressed) people, and I wonder where they're going, where they're coming from, what they do, who they're texting, and why, and what music they're listening to. I also like being able to look down at people's backyards and onto their porches and into their windows. Not in a weird way, just like, "Huh, cool place." Kinda reminds me of that subway piece in Will Eisner's New York.

What a far cry from my "commute." I usually don't see anyone as I walk through my quiet neighborhood, and my brain is usually fixated on figuring out things that happened throughout my own day. Sometimes, I see Richard Powers walking home from work. Wonder what that guy's thinking.

proud mama

A few years ago, spurred a little bit by mean-spirited humor, and in response to the rampant dumbness of groups like these:







Colleen and I created this:

PHeights because Col's from Palos Heights, and EP because I'm from Evergreen Park. Facebook wouldn't let us use that many characters in the title. Now, obviously, no one from Chicago, when they're out and about, would tell a stranger that they're from Evergreen Park, Illinois, as close as it is to Chicago. But it was funny for Col and I to imagine. The group is ridiculous and childish, we know. And awesome. And it's brought us comments like these:


I thought about removing myself from the group just now, but then I saw this latest comment:

(For those of you not familiar with this part of Chicago/not-Chicago, Mt. Greenwood is a Chicago neighborhood that's literally across the street from Evergreen Park.)

And I can't bring myself to do it. Call me immature. Whatevs.

among friendth

Here's a quiz:

The best part about seeing Quinn this weekend after a long Quinn-hiatus was
A. seeing Quinn.
B. acquiring this photo from him, taken when he went home to visit his family (including little brother Dylan and dog Cole) this weekend:


Answer:
I guess A, but B would be a really good guess.

Thank you, Moe!

Moe turned me on to StumbleUpon.com, which is so cool.

Some sweet sites I stumbled upon today.

1. eventsinthesky.com
2. thru-you.com
3. artpad.art.com
4. serialno3817131.com
5. earthalbum.com
6. guerrillamail.com
7. freegan.info
8. isnoop.net/toys/magwords.php
9. Overflow Bathtubs from Käsch
10. thriftdeluxe.com
11. toiletmap.gov.au
12. newsmap
13. wordperhect.net (so cool)
14. uh

But now I'm home.

And relaxing on the couch with Conor. Who makes a relaxation sesh much more relaxing. Even though he leaves a lot of drool on my shirt.

not my fucking week.

simple

Shitty, shitty day.

The best part of it was the blackberries I dipped in melted white chocolate as I watched Rachel Maddow. That part was lovely.

It's no coincidence that our poem for tomorrow will be this:

In the Station of the Metro
by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

book recommendation

I'm reading a book by Dr. Ruth Nicole Brown called Black Girlhood Celebration Toward a Hip-Hop Feminist Pedagogy.

I'm only into the second chapter as of yet, but so far she's arguing for Black girlhood celebration as a "format" for working with those individuals who call themselves Black, female, and young rather than any sort of girl empowerment programming or mentoring. She asks, "What if we abandon the notion that we Black girls are not good enough? What if we got rid of the thinking that says programming makes young people better? What if we did not define 'adolescence' as inherently problematic? What if we valued who Black girls are, including what they say and how they speak? What if we understood Black girls as producers of knowledge rather than consumers? What if we recognized that there is no magical age when one 'gets over' the racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia that collude to make us, as Black girls and women, the problem?" (29).

I think what she has to say is fascinating in that she takes a critical look at well-intentioned programmers who in fact miss the point that investment "in a [girl empowerment and/or mentoring] program's singular narative of who we need Black girls to be. To get funding. To make us feel good. To be good feminists, Black women, teachers, mentos, whatever" actually disallows those Black girls that a program intends to "fix" from taking an "explicitly political approach" to celebrating their identities in a world that rarely does so. (How's that for a run-on sentence?)

I can't wait to read more of what she says on how hip-hop theories and cultures can and should be woven through spaces that seek to celebrate Black girlhood. I like this part:

For the girls with whom I work in our community, as is the case with my girlfriends, hip-hop gives meaning to our girlhood. That makes us experts. Our expertise is rarely acknowleged.

Consider this example: I was working at a community center with a group of girls. it was the first time I had met them, so I concentrated very hard on learning their names. One girl in particular had the polysllabic but familiar name of 'Tameka' that I mistakenly mispronounced as 'Tamesha.' When I 'called her out of her name,' she responded, 'Get it right, get it tight.' A graduate students , Nita... acompanied me on this expedition and afterward sared with me how 'disrespectful' this girl had been in correcting me -- being a Black female adult with a doctorate degree. I shrugged it off. To Nita's dismay, I was not bothered by the girl's defense.

'I did call her out of her name,' I responded. 'Besides, I rarely take offense to the language She was probably quoting some rap song I'm too old to know about.'

...

On my way home from the recreation center that night, I searched for the hip-hop station on the car radio. Not even one mile from the community center, I heard the song 'Ms. New Booty' boosting the chorus, 'get it right get it tight!' The year was 2006, and Bubba Sparxxx, a White rapper from LaGrange, California, rapping an oft-used msogynist trope of objectifying Black women's backsides, was the rapper Tameka decided to quote that night at the recreation center. Catchy beat aside, the lyrics confirmed my suspicions.

Tameka sampled a line from 'Ms. New Booty' to speak to me. In my work, I found that Black girls literally speak though hip-hop. Even as she corrected me, I did not think she was talking abck to me or speaking disrespectfuly. Tameka was demonstrating a leracy that at one time I was too well-versed in. (33)

Cooool!

Apple has just made up for that thing with the non-universal projector hook-up thingies that I was ranting about earlier today.



(Today was obviously an unproductive day for me. Hence all the blogging.)

English majoring is so different from English teaching.

This week I'm trying a new thing. One of my classes is AP Prep, which means that it's supposed to be lining students up to be ready to take AP English senior year. In theory, this is where the kids whose strengths or interests lie in English Language Arts should be, and so again, in theory, this should be my likeliest group of potential English majors. (In practice, of course, that's not necessarily who takes this course.)

So to inject a little but of literary-ness into an otherwise reading and writing skill-based course, I'm trying to give the first few minutes each day in one of my classes to poetry. These past few days, it's taken ten, which is far too many of our fifty minutes to be "getting started with a poem," but I'll press on, because I think it's fun.

Tomorrow we're going to read Wilfred Owen's "Dulce Et Decorum Est" , "Apologia Pro Poemate Meo", and "Anthem for Doomed Youth." (Some White man poetry because it's possible that I'm giving my students the impression that only women and/or people of color ever write anything worth reading. Whoops.)

I hadn't forgotten, but I'm glad I'm recalling how much I love this guy's WWI poetry. I loved these two poems before I knew how much I loved teaching, and I was just a plain-ol' English major. I wrote a paper about these and other WWI poetry for a course I took my sophomore year, and I'm reading over it now as a way to quick prep for our discussion tomorrow. I wrote it long enough ago that I don't remember my thought processes as I was putting together my thesis and argument, and so I can almost read it as though I wasn't the writer: "Keats' poetic philosphy, espcially the idea of the 'camelion poet' whose personal identity is removed from his or her poem, is completely absent as Owen' work grows closer to the Wordsworthian ideal of the poet as someone, 'endued with a more lively sensibility... than [is] supposed to be common among mankind' (894, 246). Owen's poetry, however, as opposed to being a strictly Wordsworthian poet-centered conduit for the emotion of mankind, is under the fierce possession of its creator."

Some totally self-involved part of me, a larger part than I'd like to admit, really misses being able to sit around and talk and write about stuff like this (or even know what it it's about. Keats' poetic philosophy? Totally gone from my brain. Wordsworth? Him, too. Vague recollections, that's all.)

boring, boring, WHAT?

I asked my dad for some advice regarding flex something or other that I keep hearing about at work. An excerpt from his response:

In your case, because you are generally healthy you may not want to participate in the Flexible Spending Health plan unless you know that there will be certain predictable health care outlays during the next year. For example if you know you want new glasses or contacts, or if you want your nose shrunken down to a normal size in the next year you have to try to determine how much your insurance will cover for these procedures so you know how much you will be out of pocket.

Michael's the one with the big nose, Dad!

a master of sass

One of my students moved north to the Chicagoland area earlier this school year, and was back yesterday to visit.

It was wonderful to see him. He's got this simultaneously hilarious and poignant manner of speaking, and he can really tell a great story.

Apparently, Oprah and Tyra were at his school recently to talk to the students about Rhianna and Chris Brown. Not surprisingly, he was one of the students chosen to be on the show. Before the filming, however, he was backstage talking with Oprah about the incident. He was making the argument that men are sometimes victims of abuse in relationships, too, when Tyra interrupted him to disagree with something he said. And he said, and I quote, "Um, nobody's talking to you, Tyra!"

ha

He decided that he doesn't like Oprah or Tyra anymore because he thought they were "real," but after that they wouldn't let him be on the show anymore.

What a lovely day.

Things I did:

cleaned the apartment with music blasting
left all the windows open
ironed all of my clothes for the week
walked to the grocery store to do my shopping for the week
talked to Melissa on the phone for a while
booked a train ticket to Chicago for spring break
wasted time on my sweet new MacBook
walked over to the high school and got myself set up for tomorrow
finalized the plans for this week's Social Justice Committee meeting
caught up on my email (1 left in my personal and 3 in my work!)
made delicious red beans and rice for dinner
checked this out

Things I'm about to do:
write my reflection notes for last week's lessons
book a flight somewhere for the week after school gets out
walk over to Paradiso to finish Player Piano
be in bed by 10



All jokes aside, my life rules.

my students on the five-paragraph essay:

They had to read an article ("Developing 'Real-World Intelligence': Teaching Argumentative Writing through Debate" by Randi Dickson) about argumentation and debate in the classroom and the role (or lack thereof) of formulaic writing in argumentation and debate.

Most of the article argues that debating in classrooms prepares students to be active members of a participatory democracy. She suggests that while requiring a strict interpretation of the five-paragraph format might traditionally be thought of as the best way to teach students to write, she has found that it actually limits learning, especially within the context of argument. Instead, she suggests not getting rid of writing "templates" all-together, but rather giving them several to choose from and adapt.

My students had to answer several questions about the article so that I could check their comprehension of it. One of the questions asked, "How does Dickson suggest that writing instructors avoid such formulaic assignments? Do you agree or disagree with her approach? Why?"

Here's what some of them had to say:

"A five-paragraph essay isn't flexible and there is no room to expand it. You are stuck to a guideline that can't be broken."

"I agree with her approach because it gives a student writer more options and opportunities to make it the best and als their own; thus making it more motivational to do the assignment."

"you never know wat the other people are going to say so she thinks it shouldn't be formulaic cuz wat if the other team has something that's not in ur formula your screwed."

"I don't agree because you have to be on track."

"I agree because a student should not be limited to just five paragraph essays which restrict a student's creativity and potential."

"This is smart because it gives a lot of freedom without total lack of 'rules.' Needs flexibility but structure (a backbone)."

"I agree with her approach because they don't leave enough room for choice. There shouldn't be a 'right' way to write an essay."

"I kind of agree with this because other students might not always need the basics, so what's left for them?"

Coincidentally, we just had this discussion at a recent department meeting -- not necessarily about writing just for argument and debate. It seemed like most of my colleagues are in the five-paragraph-yay camp, which kind of stunk for those of us in the five-paragraph-nay camp.

Anyway, I think this stuff's super-interesting.

speaking of activism

Here's one thing I really don't care about. I was invited to this Facebook group today.

As I clicked, "Reject Invitation," I thought back to last night's exploration of activism. I can remember times where it's been hard for me to understand how it could be possible for someone to not do anything let alone not care about some of the things I'm passionate about.

I guess it's good to get some perspective.

OK, not "I guess." It is.

the problem with hippies

Tonight Kasey and I went to see Bill Ayres speak at the University about the state of activism today. He had some pretty cool things to say. Two of those things:

You don't have to do everything; you only have to do anything.

The rhythm of activism should be something like
Open your eyes.
See the injustices in the world.
Act.
Doubt yourself so you don't become self-righteously dogmatic in your actions.

It would have been a really cool evening if it wasn't for all the hippies. Ayres spoke for about forty minutes, and then opened it up, since it was the last night of his stay on campus, for about an hour and a half's worth of questions. Then began the parade of hippies asking, "Why are young people in America so apathetic?" in different ways over and over and over again.

Ugggghhhhh.

Kasey leaned over and wrote on my notes, "Hippies always thinking nothing is happening/changing," and then whispered, "because they don't do anything. Besides jam." I snickered (admittedly self-righteously...) and wrote back, "But duuude, did you catch that Umphrey's show?" (...I know. Who do we think we are?)

Then Ayres said something that really helped us conceptualize what it is exactly that makes hippies (and White Liberals) so annoying. They think they're a minority. Well, actually he said that, "If you're going to act on an issue, then you have to think that most people, given education on the issue, would agree with you. You have to believe that you're in the majority."

Here's our cynical translation. Hippies (and White Liberals), newsflash: You're not the only people who care. Get over yourselves. "Persuade people with logic and evidence," Ayres said, "it's not about a showy 'activist' performance." Stop trying to perform sainthood. I can't think of anything less productive.

(It's worth noting that I do see the irony in my perpetually whining White liberal self complaining about hippies and White Liberals. I guess I should specify that it's the self-loathing, longing-for-the-sixties types that I find particularly whack. Just because people aren't organizing sit-ins every day doesn't mean people aren't, on individual and massive scales, working towards a more humane world; that's all I'm saying.)

Unfortunately there was no time for Kasey's poignant question:
"Mr. Ayres, your hippies then or these hippies now -- who's more annoying?"

superstition, shuperstition

Yesterday when I was walking home from school, a black cat dashed across my path. Then, I went home, ate a delicious gyro, took a nap, did some work, drank a beer, and went to bed. And this Friday is a 13th. Whatever.

uncanny

Seriously.

Same haircut.

Rachel:Kasey:

Same voice.

(Which I can't/won't prove here, but trust me they do.)

Same sassiness.

Rachel:
See The Rachel Maddow Show.

Kasey:

word of the day

coblaboration: like collaboration, only wordier, less productive, and more annoying

Mmm hmmm Mmmm hmmmmm

I had to go to school early this morning to drop off lesson plans for my sub. As I was walking back home, the crossing guards for the local elementary school were just getting to their posts. I was saying good morning to one as another pulled up, parked, and opened the door so that we could hear her BLASTING "A Woman's Worth" by Alicia Keys. The woman who'd just said hello to me started laughing and said, "You'll have to excuse my mother. She's old." I thought she was kidding, making a joke about how loud this person's stereo was at seven-thirty in the morning. But when I walked past the car, there really was a super old woman getting out of it. Like, really old. How cool.

feeling fragile

I have to use more than one hand to count the number of times I've been sick this school year. At least.

Right now I have an upper respiratory infection and pink eye in both eyes.

Not fun.

part two

Teaching is way more challenging than college ever was for me. I've said that before, but had been referring to "real-world experience" challenges like having to know what to say to a kid who insists, "I. DON'T. CARE."

But actually, it's a lot more intellectually challenging, too.

In college, pretty much the answer to every question is, "Well, you see, it's complicated." ("How is marriage portrayed in Jane Austen's Persuasion?" "Well, you see, it's complicated." ; "Can the subaltern speak?" "Well, you see, it's complicated."; "What's the reason for the achievement gap?" "Well, you see, it's complicated.") It's kind of lovely to relish in the complicatedness of it all. Negative capability I think Keats called it. Or maybe it was some other British poet whose work Prof. Saville recited whimsically in ENGL 210. Who cares.

Except in public high schools you're supposed to make sense of the complicatedness. You're supposed to actually do something practical. Which I like to do and is always my goal, but it's hard to know which practical thing I can do, and how, while remaining faithful to my complicated ideals. It's a lot more comfortable to swim around in a bunch of theoretical bullshit -- in fact, I'm doing it right now -- but it doesn't get anything done. Which is what my students need from me. Which is hard.

Uggggggggggggggghhhhhh

This has lesson plan written all over it.

When I mentioned my frustrations detailed in the post below to Kasey, she brought this article in yesterday's Daily Illini to my attention. I knew I liked Terrell Starr.

Letters about The Daily Illini's coverage of Cotton Club

By Steve Contorno, editor in chief, Terrell Starr, staff writer

We've spent the better part of the last week trying to figure out where went wrong in our coverage of the Cotton Club after-party. Internally, our own issues with diversity kept us from understanding many of the issues brought to light by comments on our Web site. It wasn't until I received a letter from Terrell Starr that I began to see the many ways in which our paper can be perceived. And although our reporter covered that story because of the amount of police attention it garnered, not the skin color of the people involved, Terrell also helped me to see how coverage of the event and other stories that week were interpreted by the public.

Terrell has been a reporter on our staff for two years and is a graduate student at the University. As a black student on campus, he was able to see the issue from many sides. I forwarded his letter to our entire staff and would like to share it with all of our readers.

Perception is often not reality, and without dialogue, those perceptions become hurtful assumptions or stereotypes. I don't pretend to understand how the minority population felt when they read our paper last week just because I talked to Terrell; likewise, I don't think the majority of our readers understand how we put together our paper just because they read it. But I would like for both sides to begin to understand each other better by encouraging communication. We must engage in dialogue to fix the gaps that only grow larger by ignoring these problems. I haven't received a phone call or an e-mail, just one letter to the editor concerning what happened, and I fear that were it not for Terrell and his letter, we would be completely oblivious to what was going on. We pride ourselves on being the voice of students, and we're working harder to be the voice of the entire campus by diversifying our newsroom and our coverage.

The lines of communication are open, and I will be working to contact leaders within the minority community to help us in better understanding each other. Please read Terrell's letter and let us hear your voice.

Thank you.

Steve Contorno, editor in chief

Letter from Terrell Starr

Masha said he was disappointed that negative events such as these garner so much attention, while more positive programs in the black community go unheeded.

"I didn't see any DI coverage (of those successful events), but when altercations like this occur, I get a call the very next day," he said.

- Femi Masha, social action chair, Central Black Student Union. The Daily Illini, Monday, Feb. 23, 2009.

Dear Colleagues,

Masha's words cannot escape my mind. They contradict my view of the people I have come to know and love during my two-plus years at The Daily Illini. I always brag about working here and show off the outstanding work we do. I'm proud to be a reporter for The Daily Illini. Besides this, I feel the people with whom I am learning this wonderful trade called journalism are kind, unique and thoughtful.

But thoughtfulness seemed to be missing in the Monday-Wednesday front pages of our great newspaper last week. At first glance, Monday's front-page story concerning the Cotton Club incident made me think, "Wow."

"Did someone get hurt? Dozens of arrests had to occur," I assumed from seeing the bold-type headline.

Yet, I learned in Tuesday's article that only one arrest had taken place. I wonder if any of our editors considered how some would view a front-page story (with a bold lead, mind you) about a mostly black event covered negatively for a second year in a row. And that many black students may feel our coverage of them in general is already limited - with the exception of front-page stories about fights and academic underachievement (more on this later).

Quick question: Are fights so uncommon at the U of I that when one occurs, it's front-page news?

The reason why I hold on to Masha's words so tightly is because they reflect the larger problem of how local and national news media cover the black community. There's a saying in journalism that "if it bleeds, it leads." But with black coverage, I feel it's, "if no one bleeds but someone is scratched, it still leads."

I felt our newspaper reinforced this model unintentionally. We didn't mean to, but that's the feeling that I and many other people felt over the past few days.

I don't profess to represent the University's black community, but most of my friends and other colleagues of color do share Masha's perception of the DI. I hear these views now, and I heard them more than two years ago when I joined the staff.

This is unfortunate. Most importantly, I know such perceptions do not truly define anyone with whom I work. And I have defended our newsroom when critics made what I felt were unfair comments (charges of racial insensitivity, mainly) about the people who work in it.

Yet our paper's odd front-page layout on Wednesday did nothing to debunk these views.

The page prominently shows the nation's first black president speaking before Congress. Then on the side, an equally prominent story with a bold headline reads, "Report says blacks trail on AP tests."

So for three days, many of our readers got this message: You don't behave well in large groups (Monday and Tuesday). And on Wednesday, our paper added insult to injury by saying, "You have a black president. BUT most of you are underachievers." Many people have been asking me what I think about the first three days of this week's newspaper.

This time, I can't defend our newsroom.

But look at last Wednesday's front page once more, and ask yourselves if you would run it again. If your answer is yes, I would be very concerned. As a black graduate student who strives to contradict stereotypes of being unqualified and unfit to attend institutions like the U of I, I was personally offended. It wasn't that the story was bad. It just had no business being placed next to the Obama piece. What were we insinuating with last Wednesday's layout? What message were we sending our readers? Given our first two front pages that week, were we sensitive? I think not.

Not to mention that study was released three weeks ago, so I wonder why someone thought it was so immediate and breaking that it deserved an equally prominent place on the front page (BOLD PRINT AND ALL) with the president discussing our nation's worst economic woes since the Great Depression.

We have to do better than this.

I am writing this to you because I care about the unintentional messages we are sending our readers. Equally important, I care about you all; so to stay silent would not be collegial and it would breach my definition of friendship. Numerous minorities have declined to grant me interviews in the past because they feel our paper is racially insensitive and that I would not be fair to them in my reporting. Simply put, many minorities on campus do not feel the DI is their newspaper.

Masha's ending quote and our front pages this week sum up the reasons why.

Last week, a young African-American journalism student who is held in high regard by several College of Media faculty, approached me and inquired about working at The Daily Illini. But he said he was reluctant to apply because of our coverage of the Cotton Club incident. "What should I do?" he asked me. "What's going on in (your newsroom)?"

Several other graduate students have approached me and asked, "How do you feel about (these front pages)?" I've heard too many complaints over the years and last week to stay silent any longer.

I told them all that I would hold my judgment and share my disappointment over last week's first three front pages with my colleagues first - just as I know any of you would do if someone questioned my integrity and work.

As young journalists, we will be entering the workforce, taking on the editorial positions of retiring baby boomers and making decisions about what goes to print and what doesn't. Our decision-making last week was not a good start for our future occupations.

Unfortunately, The New York Post did not provide us the best model of how to confront insensitivity last week. Their so-called apology over their insensitive ape and stimulus package cartoon did nothing to quell grumbles of minority communities already skeptical of the media.

They would have been better off not apologizing at all. But we have a chance to offer a proper apology. We must even do better than The Post and set the industry standard when it comes to expressing sensitivity for all peoples of all backgrounds. It's sad that the professionals our journalism professors consistently ask us to model failed to set the right example for us.

Therefore we, the students, must set the example for them.

Last week's series of front pages reveal that we all (regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or gender) have to do a better job of moving beyond our cultural vacuums to better understand everyone in our campus community. It can be difficult. Even uncomfortable.

But taking such steps to connect with people who do not reflect our backgrounds can help avoid the blunders of last week. I, as a black person, could have been equally insensitive to some other group with a poor editorial decision.

I've spoken to several of you over the week and saw the regret in your eyes concerning this issue. Now it's up to our editorial staff to show our readers the same regret I have seen these past few days.

And hopefully, the time will come when people like Masha will begin complimenting us on our fair and balanced coverage of their communities rather than highlight what they feel is our absence of it. I'm ready to help our newsroom do just that.

The worst thing about living in East Central Illinois

is not the shitty winter weather, but rather the not-news news. The last two mornings, I've enjoyed my breakfast in front of the T.V., watching the local news. Both mornings, they've reported extensively on three marijuana-related arrests that occurred about three days ago.

I'm sorry, I know that crime is what sells in the news industry, but this is boring. And I'm not complaining about not having "good" crimes to hear about. I know that there's cool stuff going on around here, so in the absence of any newsworthy arrests, why not just report good news?

Maybe it's not crime that sells, but the mugshots of Black and Latino people? Maybe I'm just cynical.

like two peas in a pod. no?

When asked how he'd like to be remembered, Julian Bond said that he hadn't thought about it. He said it in a dismissive way that seemed to say, "Uh... I'm too busy doing badass work to think about my own legacy. Duh."

But then he chuckled and said, "Of course I've thought about it!" And his smile said, "I know I'm supposed to be dignified and care more about my work than myself, but come on! I've done some badass work!"

He explained that he'd thought about what he wanted on his tombstone. He wants it double-sided: on one side, "easily amused," and on the other, "race man."

And so I just wanted to publicly remind y'all readers of this blog (i.e. Mom) that I've had "fairly easily amused" listed as a descriptor of myself on Facebook for like, months now. I think that means that Julian Bond would probably think I'm cool.


Or at least maybe he would.

(More interesting JB tidbits:
1. He boycotted Coretta Scott King's funeral because hers and Dr. King's children opted to hold services at an anti-gay megachurch. He protested that this choice ran contrary to Ms. King's long-standing support of the LGBT community.

2. He hosted Saturday Night Live in 1977. Here's a transcript of a skit called "The Black Perspective" in which he explains his "theory" that "light-skinned blacks are smarter than dark-skinned blacks.")