Join the Campaign to Capitalize the "B"

I am a writer, so words mean a lot to me. I use my words to tell stories, to make people think and to express my ideas. We all know, despite the childhood refrain, that words have the power to wound and likewise they can heal (think Hallmark). And for that very reason, I have a problem with the way a certain letter is treated.

It's the letter B. Why is the letter B lower cased when describing Black people? I know black is a color but when I'm talking about my people, Black is not referring to the color of our skin (duh, Black people range in actual color from the lightest light to almost midnight black) it is the name of our culture. Black culture. A unique culture that is an amalgam of African, European, and Native American influences.

And whether you agree or not on what constitutes a Black American, the fact of the matter is that a lot of us colored folk identify as Black Americans, so that classification should be given all of the respect given other ethnic/cultural identifiers.

Let me make my point: If you see a sentence that says: "The school has an equal number of Asian, Hispanic and black students." How can you not feel like black is less than when it doesn't even merit a capital letter?

And I'm going to say further, how as a people, are we supposed to feel a pride in our culture when we can't even get a capital letter recognized as grammatically correct? In all of my writing, I always capitalize the letter b in Black. Many times it is struck down by a racist copy chief (just kidding, they're not intentionally racist, just probably afraid to buck the system)but I'll go to the mat to fight the change. In my books, where I have a little bit more control I beg for the change. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. But as a writer, a woman who uses words as her weapons for change, I never give up the fight.

And neither should you.

In the words of Bill Cosby, Come on People. If we all start capitalizing the b in Black when referring to Black people, then eventually the change will come. I mean, if Bling can make it into Webster's Dictionary, then we can capitalize the B.

Are you with me? Start with the man in the mirror and make that change (thank you Michael Jackson). You start the campaign, tell your friends. Tell your co-workers. Kids, tell your teachers. Black people deserve a capital B. We can start this revolution right now. And you don't have to be Black to believe in the the capital B. This is an issue that effects everyone who will ever put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard and write. This means you.

Peace!

Brothers Seperated at Birth?

No, Barak Obama and Dick Cheney are not brothers, but according to Cheney's wife, Lynne they are distant cousins! Yikes! Reported on CNN.Com:

"Mrs. Cheney said that in the course of researching her husband's genealogy for her new book, "Blue Skies, No Fences," she discovered that the two public figures share an ancestor eight generations ago.

"Think about this," Mrs. Cheney said. "This is such an amazing American story that one ancestor, a man that came to Maryland, could be responsible down the family line for lives that have taken such different and varied paths as Dick's and Barack Obama's."

Mrs. Cheney's spokeswoman Ginny Justice gave CNN's Ed Henry more details, saying the two unlikely relatives are related through a French Huguenot named Mareen Duvall. Cheney and Obama are both descendants of her."

Wow, this must be a lot for Dick to digest. First his daughter turns out gay and now he's got a Black cousin. I hope his heart can take the news!

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And in other unrelated news.
Please check out the new links I've added. The Backlist is a wonderful site managed by author/lit lover, Felicia Pride. I'm always checking it out to find out what's going on amongst the colored literatti. New books, lit prizes, author gossip, you name it, it's being reported on, on the Backlist. Check it out.

And if you're still looking for more literary news, views and reviews, mixed with a happy mix of gossip, politics and pop culture dissection by a Black man with a wicked bite, please check out Nat Turner's Revenge, the hilarious (and informative) blog by author Christopher Chambers. Today there's a really in-depth interview Chambers conducted with author Peter Schmidt. Schmidt's new book is called, Color and Money: How Rich White Kids are Winning the War Over College Affirmative Action.

Peace!

Why Indeed?

Karen Hunter has been at the receiving end of a lot of criticism this week (See My Terry McMillan post below) and I'm going to have to add my fuel to the fire.

Why would this book, Why Black Men Love White Women, be her debut book for her new imprint at Karen Hunter Books?

I want to applaud any young Black woman who lands her own imprint at a major publishing house, but gee, can we come up with something a little more useful than a stand-up comedian's unfunny examination of interracial relationships. The most unfunny thing about it is, the author Rajen Persuad was serious when he wrote this book, self-published it and then sold it to Ms. Hunter.

I wouldn't mind if this was being sold as humor tome, but these people are positioning this book as if Persuad had some Real information to share. From his website for the book Persuad writes:

I don't know how much you know about sex, power, politics and racism but when you read Why Black Men Love White Women you will most certainly be in for an intellectual exercise. You will know what it’s like to journey into the minds of the men and women around you. You will understand how they think and why they think that way. You will then become in touch with their deepest motivations and may be able to predict their every move.

Huh?

According to Persuad, within the pages of his book you will read about:
Why we live how we live.
Why are so many people afraid of Black people. And why so many of us are afraid of ourselves.
Why so many people to this day still hate Black people.
Why are Blacks still “complaining” about America.
What is reparations all about.
Why is there so much crime and poverty.
And why does so much of your hard earned money go to pay for it.
Believe it or not, all of these issues are inextricably linked to sex, power, and politics and are directly related to Why Black Men Love White Women.




Again. I repeat. This guy is a comedian. I'm not saying there's no space on bookstore shelves for a book that pokes fun at interracial relationships. Why not? But this book doesn't seem to be going for the funny.

I saw the book on the shelf at Barnes and Noble yesterday. It has a snazzy new cover with a bald black man nuzzling up with a blonde-haired blue-eyed woman while an out-of-focus (rejected) black woman watches from the background. Very provacative. But remember, you can't always judge a book by it's cover. In this case, judge it by the content because the cover (tacky as it is) may be the best thing about it.

Persuad writes that this book was written primarily for Black women, but I think I'm going to pass.

If someone does decide to shell out $24 to buy it, please chime in here and tell us how you liked it.

Peace.

Churros!

Here at the Meltingpot we firmly believe that one of the best ways to learn something about a different culture is to eat. When I lived as an exchange student in Morocco, I wasn't accepted into the family until I thrust my hand into a bowl of cous cous, savored the flavor of freshly slaughtered lamb and drank glass after glass of sweet mint tea. Once I ate, I destroyed the walls between my host family and myself, the walls between foreigner and family. I began to really understand Moroccan culture through the food and the daily rituals of preparing it.

Now, I'm not saying we're going to change the world here with the information that I'm about to share but...

Cinnabon is now selling churros. What is a churro? Well, depends who you ask.
At its most basic, a churro is a long piece of fried dough, usually rolled in sugar and sometimes stuffed with sweet things like chocolate or fruit preserves. Popular in Spanish speaking countries, here's a little history of the up and coming snack/dessert from the website Churrisimo Cafe.

Churros are traditional Spanish desserts developed centuries ago by Spanish shepherds. Up high in the mountains, fresh baked goods were impossible to come by, so the ingenious, nomadic folk of the hills came up with a delicious cake-like, cylindrical, daily staple which they could easily cook in a pan over an open fire. This was the birth of churros.

Originally churros were about the size of a breadstick, and they were eaten plain or rolled in cinnamon sugar. In Spain, churros are still a very popular breakfast, snack or dessert. But something this tasty wasn’t destined to remain in its country of origin.

It was only a matter of time before churros traveled to South America and other Hispanic countries and communities, eventually making their way to North America.

Once churros were adopted by peoples outside of Spain, they continued to evolve. Instead of being eaten plain, or rolled in sugar, a hollow, jumbo-sized churro was created, and stuffed with all kinds of delectable fillings such as chocolate, dulce de leche and fruit.

So depending on where you are, your churro will look and taste different. At Cinnabon, your churro may look and taste like this, from a reviewer onChowhound.com:

"I wouldn't say it was a spiral, it was in the traditional churros shape of the piping-tip star. The filling was weird--definitely a corn starch based cinnamony goo. The exterior was crispy and nicely coated in cinnamon sugar, and the interior was soft, and bordering on doughy closer to the filling."

I for one can never go to Spain without eating churros y chocolate as often as possible. If you have no immediate plans to go to Spain or Latin America, maybe you could head over to your local mall, find a Cinnabon and taste a little bit of Hispanic flavor and culture. Better yet, find a Hispanic restaurant or bakery (in good conscience, I cannot endorse the churros being sold in the subways of NYC.)and see if you can taste the real thing.

But we gotta give Cinnabon props for introducing the Churro to America's masses.

Peace.

Terry McMillan is not a fan of Ghetto Lit

The Ghetto Lit debate is about to get Hot again! Rumors are swirling around the literary blogosphere that Terry McMillan recently fired off a raging email to two execs at publishing giant Simon & Schuster and author/ghostwriter Karen Hunter (who helped Terry's Ex, Jonathan Plummer pen his trashy fictionalized tell-all for an imprint of S&S)).

Here's a piece of the alleged email:

The three of you, along with the other publishing houses who have been kind enough to add "special" urban/ghetto imprints are all about to see a major shift in your ongoing and relentless publication of exploitative, destructive, racist, egregious, sexist, base, tacky, poorly-written, unedited, degrading books. Like a number of Black bookstores who are starting to refuse to sell this trash, I, along with other Black literary organizations, supporters, book clubs as well as writers are about to make our opinions known, to aid in making clear to the public just how demeaning these books are and what it means to our community.

It is sad that it took years of selling trashy sexually-driven as well as tell-alls before so-called black writers were ever allowed in the Big Publishing Houses ...Why hasn't Walter Mosley or Edwidge Dandicat or Barak Obama or Terry McMillan or Jamaica Kincaid among others ever offered our very own imprints, I wonder?...

I've heard that Simon & Schuster has even gotten some of its authors out of jail just to go on a book tour. ...

This is the beginning of a brand new trend, so be prepared for it. Years ago white folks bought us and worked us as slaves. You're doing the same exact thing. The only problem is that back then we didn't go willingly. Malcolm X and Dr. King and Rosa Parks, among others, didn't fight for us to get to This, and this is precisely why you are beginning to see a lack of support for these disgusting books.

(Note: I've edited out the personal attacks on Karen Hunter. But if you really want to see the email in its entirety, go to the aalbc website)

I am anxiously awaiting the fallout from this email that is clearly making the rounds quite quickly. Even though I think Ms. McMillan is a bit of a hot head and much of this email was written in anger, I agree with her 100 percent in her evaluation of ghetto lit and its detrimental effects on anyone who reads it or even sees it in the stores. Not to mention the authors of more "serious" literature who can't get their foot in the door or promotional dollars to support their efforts.

When I walk into Border's Book store, for example, and see what's on display under African-American literature -- dozens of book covers with purple shiny script and half-naked women -- I want to cry. I love books and bookstores like a fat boy loves cake, but the place where I should be able to find literature that reflects my reality offers only degrading smut. I feel cheated and embarrassed instead of inspired and excited. And this is the truth as you'll only read it on the MeltingPot. What about all of those non-Black people who want to educate themselves about Black culture and Black life because in their real life they don't know any Black people. This is what they think we're living like. It's like Primetime TV before the Cosby's. Only now, we ought to know better.

And before anyone jumps on me for being bourgie and out of touch with my peoples, back off. There are wonderful books -- fiction and non-fiction -- that tell the gritty and often gruesome tales of Black urban poverty, resilience and the "game." And they actually include grammatically correct sentences that make sense. What about Push by Sapphire? What about The Autobiography of Malcolm X? I loved both of those books. What about Project Girl by the late Janet Malcolm (who also penned some great YA books that were mostly set in the projects of NYC). Why do publishing houses set the bar so low for African-American readers? What does that mean?

I have been passively angry about this topic for so long. Maybe it's time, thanks to Terry McMillan, to get this revolution going.

Peace!

Black Hair is Still Political

People continue to ask me if Black hair is still political. After Glamour magazine, Don Imus, and that little girl who couldn't dance in her ballet recital because of her dredlocks, I have to shake my head and say ABSOLUTELY.

I have nothing new to add to the subject here except to say that a whole lot of people will be discussing the topic this weekend, October 6-7 at the 13th Annual International Locks Conference in Philadelphia. No joke. There is a whole weekend festival in my new home town dedicated to cultivating the loc. Actually, the conference is really a celebration of Black culture and natural hair. There will be food, fashion, dance and a million different ideas to apply to the locks growing out of Black people's heads.

Over at Anti-Racist Parent there were 46 comments posted on an essay by Liz Dwyer who wrote about the detrimental effects of the terms "good" and "bad" hair on African-American children. This makes me realize just how important then, this locks conference really is. To educate and celebrate. For Blacks, Whites and everyone in between. Because even though it is a cliche, knowledge is power. Even when we're talking about hair.