September 30, 2008

BOMANI’S GOT A JOB

Well, I’m kinda late on sharing this, but there’s a reason for it.  As of right now, I’m the host of a midday sports talk show on 620 The Bull, the ESPN Radio affiliate in Raleigh.  It’s The Three Hour Lunch Break with Bomani Jones, and you can catch it from 10-1 ET every weekday.  Just click on the live stream link on the right sidebar, and listen away.

It’s pretty simple — the show sounds like someone’s giving me a mic to talk about sports for three hours, only requiring that I don’t say any of the big-ticket cuss words.  It’s a hoot.  Tune in and enjoy.

I’ll adjust the sidebar to let you know the time and all that fun stuff soon.  Thanks for everything, everyone.

September 28, 2008

If Obama Loses

Newsweek asks how black people will take an Obama loss.  When I’m joking, I say that day after the election will be like a few million people went to see Mississippi Burning and Rosewood as a double feature, saw it all together in the world’s largest hypothetical multiplex, then filed out and went to work.  It might be best not to ask what’s wrong.  You’ll know, and you’d prefer to not have to be told.  Trust me on that one.

I’m joking, of course.  Yep.

Anyway, here’s a quick synopsis of what my concern would be from an Obama loss — if this black person can’t win, what black person can?

This is the most impressive politician of my lifetime (short, but that’s still the last seven elections).  Regardless of how you feel about Obama’s politics — his and mine are not the same — you have to acknowledge that he’s a bad, bad man.  And typically, the baddest man in an election wins.  It’s a popularity contest, and Obama just blows John McCain off any stage they share.  There’s no question who’s the biggest star.

Now, add to that the mistakes of the current administration, and the fact that the party of an administration as bad as this one tends to pay the price.

Tell me now — if this black man doesn’t win, which one has a prayer?

For me, what happens in this election isn’t gonna have me too disappointed about the short term.  There’s but so much change Obama wants to make, and far less that he’ll be able to accomplish.  That’s just this game, and I understand that.

But if a man with a pair of Ivy League degrees, a towering persona and a staggering resume can’t beat a 72 year-old man whose paired with the least qualified national election candidate in the history of this country, then I will confidently say that there will not be a black President before I die.

I’ll get over ‘08, if it comes down to that.  I’m not sure about the elections that will follow.

September 26, 2008

Michelle LaVaughn

I’ll go ahead and ask the question — when did Michelle Obama get that booty?  I know you talked about it, cuz it was a-buzzin’ in my circle.

September 24, 2008

Today’s look at slanted journalism

Went to the barber shop today.  I’m sure my bosses will be pleased.

Anyway, I saw the cover of The Final Call.  I think it’s the most succinct headline on the current economic situation.  While people are using terms like crisis and depression, The Final Call kept it simple.

“AMERICA IS BROKE.”

Well, that’s one way of putting it…

September 24, 2008

Have we made too much of Pac?

So, who’s the next Tupac?

I’ve never been one to look for the next anything.  Seems a futile mission, especially as nostalgia begins to obscure good sense.  But still, where is the next Pac?

I ask that because it hit me a few minutes ago — how influential has Tupac really been?

Who do you hear that just drips with Pac’s influence?  I hear him in T.I.  I hear him a bit in Weezy.

But when I hear younger cats, I wonder if they’ve listened to a single Pac album.

So really, how influential has Tupac’s music been?

The only thing I hear is the de-emphasis of metaphor.  I wish they would have soaked up some other part of Pac’s game.

I’m curious to see if I’m the only person that sees this.  Unfortunately, I’m not able to quite explain what I mean.  I think you know, though.

September 23, 2008

Ahhhh, a milestone…

So I do a lot more radio now.  I’m not in a position to expand on that here as of yet, but I will.  Anyway, I do more radio now.

Today was the first time I was physically threatened on the air!

Old school shit, too.  The chokeout.  Well, lemme be more specific…

“You’ll know it’s me.  I’ll be the 6-4, 235 white man choking a little black man.”

Well, at least he keeps it above the belt.

September 23, 2008

As I type…

…I’m on the air with Ric Flair.  Fuckin right.

September 7, 2008

Adventures in Alphabetical Order

So I’m wearing out this new Ice Cube album — in short, it’s what you’d expect from the man that did “Death Certificate” when he grew up, now that he’s making money with cookie cutter movies and doesn’t have to make cookie cutter records.  It just ended, and that meant going to the next song in the iTunes library, arranged in alphabetical order.

Well, let’s just say it’s a big shock to go from Cube to Ideal’s “Get Gone.”  Perhaps you remember the classic scene in teh video when buddy takes the magazine out of his lady’s head and puts her out.  I believe it was a Jet magazine.

Resurrected Angry Cube into the smoothed out R&B?  Not what I expected.

Though, at the same time, you could kinda say it fits. The anger and all.

September 1, 2008

Phuckuhgustav

I’m exhausted right now.  Being unemployed for a full month is draining, lemme tell ya.  Then, it’s the last BBQ holiday of the year, and I can’t find a grill to mooch from.  It’s like 10,000 spoons when all I need is a knife.

(Notice that’s not ironic, I don’t think.  It’s just a bad break.  That song could have been more accurate if the hook went, “that’s kinda fucked up, don’t you think?”)

That said, this isn’t as exhausted as I was during Katrina.  My daddy’s from Louisiana, just about everybody on that side of the family went to Southern in Baton Rouge, and I grew up on the Gulf Coast.  The initial concern was making sure all my folks got out okay.  They did, thought not all my folks could say the same thing about their people.

The exhaustion reached critical mass for me at seeing what the shameful negligence of the federal government.  Those folks that see Obama getting this nomination and marveling at how far America has come need to get a grip.  Yes, it’s been decades since Bull Connor was sicking the dogs on us and black folks were actually considered by both laymen and scientists to be subhuman.  

But you know what?  Katrina was just 2005.  The shit that really matters, living up to the spirit of the 14th amendment, is still light years behind.  The images of those black people — a staggering proportion of which were dark-skinned, it should be noted — trying to survive in sci-fi conditions brought me to tears.  These were real humans trying to survive in water with fucking nutria rats.  In real life, no CGI.  And while this went on, Wal-Mart got to New Orleans before the federal government.  I’ve never been more embarrassed of those entrusted to provide basic humanity to us all, and I’ve never been more disheartened about where I stood as an American.  

The most treacherous natural disaster in the history of this country hits, and folks are wasting time wagging their fingers at people for not leaving early?  It’s 20,000 leagues under the sea, and you’re concerned that people are boosting at Wal-Mart?  Please.

Now, the government would never do that to me.  I grew up with a decent amount of money.  I live in a neighborhood that, while riiiiiight by the ‘hood, would be taken care of if a natural disaster hit Durham, N.C.

But let me go a little longer without a steady job and see how that would work out.  I’d be on the other side of 147 leaving voicemails at City Hall, not knowing that they got the hell out of Dodge before the gunfight even started.

Yes, Katrina was as much about class as it was race.  But, as Steve Harvey once said, we’re all a couple of bad decisions away from being out on the street.  For that reason, I could easily see myself cooking on one of those roofs in the Lower 9th.  There was no way I could see what happened after the levees broke and not take that personally.  I’m not forgiving anyone any time soon, either.

Thankfully, Gustav dropped down to a Category 2 and didn’t hit the city directly.

Do I think the federal government would handle things as poorly as it did three years ago?  No.

Do I want to find out if I’m right?  Hell no.

The folks in Louisiana are surely breathing the loudest sighs of relief right now.  But I’ve had enough conversations with people that felt as personally attached to the folks in New Orleans as I did to know that there are a lot more people exhaling, too.