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How To Love America

A few nights ago my neighborhood filled with a haze of smoke, roads and people obscured by the fog. Just over the tops of the houses across the street, I could see a thick cloud blazing from a house on fire. Some people had been shooting off fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July when they set their own house on fire. Despite the inherent tragedy, it seemed like burning down your own house by lighting off gunpowder and throwing it on your porch seems an apt way to commemorate independence day this year. This is America.

A poll released by Gallup shows pride in America is a record low–just 47% of Americans overall say they are extremely proud of their country, and that number drops to 32% when you split along party lines to look at Dems only. Half the country loves America like a stalker screaming “I love you!” when they walk into your job with a long gun and the other half are filling out asylum applications for Canada. Just over a decade ago, more than 70% of people were extremely proud to be America. What could possibly have caused so much hatred and division? Vlad? Don? Any ideas?

It used to be easy to love America–we are, after all, the land of milk and honey. Now, though, everyone is lactose intolerant, the bees are dying and our democracy is unraveling at the seams. So desperate are we to revive the myth that everyone wants to be us that we are locking up asylum seekers, claiming there’s a wave of people pushing up from the southern border. Many people believe this narrative even though net migration has been near its lowest for several years.

Long-term relationships are hard, and when Bae isn’t treating you right it can be easier to break up than to do the work to make up. But you can’t dump your country of origin. Like a marriage or your Mom, you’re going to have to try to make this work. So this 4th of July, let’s revive our flagging love affair with America. And no, this isn’t a trip down nostalgia lane wearing a MAGA hat. These are tips for staying in the fight when you’d rather throw a firework on the porch of America and let it burn.

Affirm your commitment

Your anger, sadness, and fear are a result of seeing something you love be destroyed by clown-faced hooligans. Take a minute to focus on the first half of that. Hold onto the fact that you love this country like a life raft. Despite all that has been and all that it is now, the promise of what we could be, the natural beauty of where we are, and the vast majority of our people make the US a place worth fighting for.

Love is Accountability

Any relationship that is going to last long term is going to take a lot of work. For too long we have floated along without attending the work needed to ensure the American dream is truly available to all people. Just like Bey and Jay, once you are aware your boo has gone astray, its time to call it out, and then work it out. You can be mad about America acting a fool and still love it. You can love America and refuse to let shit go. The fun time we had ignoring our problems and yelling bling bling are gone. Time to hunker down and do the work.

Do Not Accept Violence As Love

For any relationship to last, violence has to be unacceptable. No one thrives in an abusive relationship–certainly not the victim, nor the abuser. For centuries we have had successive waves of violence aimed at nearly every part of the population. This year we have seen 157 mass shootings, many of which are spurred by the dumpster fire of hate our country has become. Call it what it is–nationalist terrorism–and demand public officials recognize it as such. Relational, political and systemic violence is rampant, from kids in cages to police brutality, to aggressive deregulation and harmful economic practices. Show up and speak out every fucking time violence erupts.

Don’t Lose Yourself

Being in love with someone who doesn’t love you back is a recipe for disaster as any decent love song will tell you. While we collectively try to love this country onto the right side of history, take time out to make sure you nurture and grow yourself. Sad to say, we are on the downhill slide, and it may take some time before we’re done with this fight. It is okay to remove yourself, to treat your wounds while the battle rages around you. We are legion, so self-care is possible and important. To give love you must first give it to yourself. Do what you need to do to keep yourself right. Fall back and pant in between crises. Paint and draw and write and plant and laugh just for your own sanity. Spend time loving the people you love. You are not America. You do not have to mirror the chaos. You can take a break from the hate to remind yourself why your life matters.

Refuse to Let the Sidechick Win

Trump enjoys wild popularity in his party–nearly 90% of Republicans have a favorable rating of the president. But the party is shrinking. As Trump does Trump, more “establishment” Republicans flee the party and our polarized system breaks down. Trump represents neither traditional political base. Ugly, attitudinal and demanding power he doesn’t have, Trump is the typical side chick. No matter how loud she gets, you can’t let her take your boo. If it means you have to slap a bitch in the elevator, so be it. Despite Trump’s claims, his rabid base is far less than half the electorate. Get your neighbors and friends into the game and remind them who this country belongs to.

Love is not easy. I’ve had enough crappy relationships to know sometimes you have to walk away. These days may have you fantasizing about Canadian bacon, but the American dream is still worth loving. This 4th of July raise your tofu pup and locally brewed craft beer to toast America. Drink up some good summertime vibes. As you watch the fireworks tonight, remember how beautiful the fight for America can be.

I’m Just A Threat: Childish Gambino on America

Donald Glover wasn’t content to just reawaken our childhood trauma on Thursday’s episode of Atlanta and then round out his triple threat credentials hosting and as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live.

He had to remind us what kind of threat he really is in his Sunday morning video release of This Is America. This dark minstrel-show video is more complex than a Kanye West history revision, swinging wildly from Bo Jangles shuck and jive to a roleplay of America’s dark chaos.

The video starts with the sound of light Caribean guitar played by a barefoot man in linen pants–a moment of black joy and happiness. Childish Gambino jerks to life to the music, contorting to adopt the tune like a demon taking possession of the black body. The happy tune is short lived as a stalking shirtless Gambino mercs his diasporan brother, menacing “This is America” to the throb of heavy bass. He adopts the famous pose of dancing Jim Crow when he pulls the trigger: this is the black experience in America, our connection killed, our bodies possessed by the leering dark energy of American supremacy, turned into shucking zombies. This is probably what it looked like when Kanye lost his mind.

The new Jim Crow two steps with South African school children against a backdrop of increasing chaos. The stereotypical images of blacks dancing and singing ‘cars, clothes, hos’ are hip hop’s most marketable products. Against the backdrop of hundreds of years of oppression, rappers that preach the prosperity+bitches gospel reinforce the slavery-era idea that blacks were greedy, lazy bucks, undeserving of freedom or justice. Simultaneously, they lull listeners into focusing on a little cash instead of economic justice, a little flash instead of freedom These are the kind of images mass media loves to reproduce–and ship worldwide: they support hegemonic thinking about blacks and keep everyone sipping the white supremacy juice. A twin set of school children dance in the back under the rain of a red money gun. Jim Crow is for the kids

Speaking of the prosperity gospel, a choir preaching “get your money, black man” sings in a room removed from the chaos. Jim pops through a door to join them in joyful worship–for a moment–before mowing them down with an AR-15. He punctuates his shots again with, “This is America.” The scene calls the Charleston church shooting to mind. It also reminds us that as black people, buying into capitalism as a way to salvation is a dangerous business: “Don’t catch you slippin.”

Throughout the video, the background is increasingly populated with people running in all directions. black people and white people, cops, people wielding sticks or bats. The direction of the actions isn’t clear–who is chasing who? Is this an uprising like Baltimore or a street war like Charlottesville? Like the news on any given day, it is hard to make sense of the chaotic images broadcast salaciously without context.

Above it all, young men in white masks bear witness, cell phones out. “This is a celly. That is a tool.” They sit above the chaos watching and recording. Below the school kids circle Jim Crow while the apocalypse’s horseman rides through on the white horse of death (is everything apocalyptic? [yes.]). With cars burning and police and people rioting, it is Jim Crow’s hand extended like a gun that sends everyone running, the scene dropping into silence as he nods off high on America’s heroin, violence.

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His dance is brought back with a couple quick puffs on a joint. He perches atop a car doing his best Michael Jackson. Scattered around is a field of cars. These are not your usual rap-mobiles. There are no spinning rims or chrome kits. Instead, the cars call to mind the hundreds of cars we have seen pulled over in police shooting videos. Sandra Bland’s car, or Samuel Dubose’s–cars that belong to working people just trying to get through the day without being turned into a statistic by the state. Jim Crow dances among the graveyard of cars, with just his linen legged brother, hooded head and guitar restored and a sister wavering sexily on the hood of a Philando Castile look-a-like car.

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Even the black man that dances possessed through a wasteland of black pain, shucking and jiving to the gospel of white supremacy, mowing down his brethren, is not free (take note, Kanye). The video ends with our Jim Crow now terror-stricken, running from the faceless unfocused chaos he was dancing above. He is no longer funny or silly or swaggy, his face full of raw fear, his body pumping all his energy towards surviving. Judging by our present state of affairs, he’s not going to make it.

The video gives us a lot to examine. Childish Gambino has created this layered stew worthy of reflection and not just reaction–so what do you take away? Some have written that he is condemning black America for embracing shallowness while massive problems loom in plain sight. Others have said he is pointing to a cycle of violence and numbness as we try to mumble rap our way past problems we can’t ignore. I think both of these analyses put too much burden on black America alone to do the heavy lifting of eradicating white supremacy.

To lay white supremacy at the feet of black people who like to have a good time is also to deny black people their humanity. In the last few years, I have seen activists go so hard that their life energy was depleted like a phone charge. We plug ourselves into pop culture to get a boost, a little levity to remind us why we fight, a little art to remind us that to be free is to take joy where you can find it. The trick is to plug into pop culture that fills you up to fight another day, and these days black excellence is giving us plenty to sup on. Childish Gambino’s song and video are another in a long line of important work being created by black artists–Cole, Lamar, Kweli, and Buddy and Caleborate, and Beyonce, and Solange, and, Joyner, and Vic Mensa and on and on.

Yes, yes, the commodity factory of American media keeps pumping out crap-get-money-fuck-bitches-rap. You don’t have to eat that fast food. You shouldn’t let the fast food being produced by corporations define what hip hop is or isn’t. Don’t be fooled: there is always conscious rap happening. Sometimes it is harder to find than others, but it has always been a part of hip-hop, and more broadly black culture. In every era, the rebellion leaders and freedom fighters also consumed the pop culture of their day. In other times as in our own, artists and seers showed us the way through their painting, writing, singing, and dancing. Let’s not let each new track make us declare consciousness is now alive, now dead. Let’s just sit in the complexity. Let’s acknowledge that our world is not binary.

America is this– forcing all experience into a simple dichotomy of good and bad, violence and justice, joy and chaos. We have to tease out what the relationship between these elements is–where is the cause? which is the side effect? who loses and who loses more? This Is America juxtaposes our country’s many masks so that we can see the complexity of moving through this world. The video is a Rorschach test, the video sows both shame and sympathy, letting you grow whichever you choose. It is we who must do the choosing: not just for this video, not in the abstract but at this moment. To get beyond the binge/purge cycle that devours black life, we have to rise above the choice to devolve into the chaos America allows for or to rest in the embrace of the joy and lightness that we need sometimes to survive. To do both, to be all that humanity can be–this is America.

Time, Honored: A Wrinkle Gets a Lift

Happy Wrinkle In Time Day! Fifty-six years after the publication of Ursula Le Guin’s novel of a young heroine traveling through time, the motion picture version is shepherded onto the screen by shaman of black girl magic Ava DuVernay. After weeks swooning over Black Panther, now is not the time to forget how much representation matters. A Wrinkle In Time is more than just a breakthrough in casting: it challenges the notion of who gets to be a hero and how.

DuVernay’s adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time will star Storm Reid as Meg, a girl who travels in time to save her scientist father (Chris Pine) with help from three celestial beings played by Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kialing and Oprah (who may in fact have just been playing herself). Like other films of late–Get Out, Hidden Figures and most notably Black Panther–the casting of A Wrinkle in Time brings a fresh face to the tired trope of the rugged Rambo-like hero.

Black women are the fastest growing group of female entrepreneurs. They are the most educated group in America. They are also mothers to the next generation of black women who will shatter the ceilings still stifling the black excellence we are enjoying today. After the muck of video vixens and tragic mulattos their mothers waded through, our young girls deserve smart capable characters that reflect their courage, intelligence and agency. A Wrinkle In Time gives girls a expansive vision of potential, encouraging them to dream big and risk bigger without fear.

A Wrinkle In Time also challenges another convention of the hero tale: violence. No matter how courageous and conscious our heroes are they always need to open a can of whoop-ass to get their job done. Every superhero uses his power in violent combat. While they often throw in a few pithy lines along the way, it is brute force that ultimatly solves every problem. No wonder we have a hard time not believing that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun. Buried deep in the list of solutions to our gun problem is the need to address our cultural beliefs around violence. Our hero Meg is unlikely to do Bruce-Lee-level roundhouse kicks to save her dad. Instead, like people in the real world, her courage will take a different shape. The toolbox that she models for young girls has something other than an arm bar in it–solutions like knowledge, scientific thinking and compassion for others that girls (and the rest of us; looking at you,Trump) could use. We need more diplomacy, characters that aren’t afraid to do something other than destroy the world, and we need heroes who show us exciting solutions that are not based on killing other people.

Beyond the pettiness of our broken politics, human knowledge is advancing at a rapid pace. The ideas in A Wrinkle in Time about multiverses, fractured time, and infinite possibilities are not just science fiction like they mostly were in Le Guin’s own time. Quantum physics, gravitational waves and tesseracts are shifting from fantasy to provable theory–one step closer to becoming everyday reality. Our country is locked in a battle over simplistic binary ideas–left or right, black or white, Trump or the rest of us. Only by drawing on all the knowledge humanity has to offer and expanding our thinking into the multiverse of opportunities that exist can we free ourselves from the small minded structures of power created by small minded men to control the masses. A Wrinkle in Time encourages audiences to expand their minds, and evolve.

A Wrinkle in Time is a vision of a world beyond the flawed one we have built. This is what science fiction can do best–help us visualize our way beyond the boundaries of our knowledge, support the thinkers and creators in building a map to this new world. Meg is a girl of this moment, brave and empowered, afraid sometimes but unstoppable always. This movie is for the girls who are like Meg. May they see their own power writ large on the screen. This is for the world that needs to see those quiet girls, the ones off thinking, silently saving the world. May we see them, may we be them.

90 Years Old: Straight, No Filler

The Oscars are rolling out the red carpet tonight, with all the stars celebrating the very best films Hollywood made this year. Amidst all the glittery chandelier earrings and piles of silk gowns are a host of political issues that are giving the films a run for the best drama award.

After years of silence and complicity, Hollywood’s not-so-secret culture of sexual harassment and predatory employment broke wide open with the takedown of Harvey Weinstein and the wave of predators washed out of Hollywood in his wake. While the initial euphoria of the movement has passed, Hollywood’s heaviest hitters, like Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino, are behind the Times Up organization. Putting money where it matters, Times Up provides legal representation to victims of sexual assault that need it. While the black gowns at the golden globes were dramatic, the long-term effect of ongoing prosecution of predators across sectors has the potential to sweep in a new era of accountability. Now if we can just address the culture that makes the perpetrators, maybe we won’t see any more remakes of the same old Hollywood horror story.

OscarsSoWhite shed light on–der–a Hollywood so white that a director of color had never won in nearly 90 years, until last year’s win for Barry Jenkins for Moonlight. Now finally 90, Oscar has tipped its golden rod to diversity with the inclusion of directors Jordan Peele for Get Out and Guillermo Del Toro for the Shape of Water. From red carpet chatbot Michael Strahan to presenters and luminaries, there is a lot more color at the Oscars than there used to be. Sure rumors persist that older Oscar voters refused to even watch Get Out, never mind vote for it. Sure the Oscars continue to be mostly white, even amidst growing challenges from amazing artists like Dee Res, Ava DuVernay, and the aforementioned Jordan Peele. Let’s hope we can change a couple years with increased diversity into an inclusive new normal for Hollywood.

A year ago, the Oscars happened in the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration and the chaos that followed. The tone was somber with lots of people pledging to resist and #nevertrump in their acceptance speeches. far from being overstated, the in the moment activism reflected the angsty zeitgeist of the year. It felt like Hollywood climbed out of the clouds to throw in for the resistance with the rest of the plebs. This year, not so much. Oscar producers are encouraging both attendees and the presenters to tone it down a little.

“I think people are getting burned out and sort of want a little break and a little focus on the movies themselves,” Rebecca Ford of The Hollywood Reporter told Inside Edition. “In general, ratings for this have been going down for television over the years, especially when things get too political, we do see that people tune out.”

While the resistance keeps chugging along, this year’s Oscars will be presented from La La land. Parkland Florida student activists won’t be in attendance. Host Kimmy Kimmel will keep his comedy less pointed political and more puns and schtick. This year’s Oscars will give viewers a break from the chaos that has only deepened since last year. Enjoy tonight, but don’t forget this isn’t normal.

The stories this year’s Oscars are celebrating ask us to believe in love, to recognize those that are different, to honor our communities, stand up to indifference and fight for what’s right. We need these stories to help us navigate a world that is anything but normal right now. When you are done swooning over the gowns, get ready for reentry from La La Land, but for tonight, pass the popcorn and root for everybody black.

The Revolution Will Not Be Commodified

The Superbowl is America’s highest secular holiday, a day where we celebrate the holy trinity of violence, fatty snacks, and great ads. This year a 30-second spot during the Superbowl ran for a cool 5 mil. Just like the teams on the field, advertisers have to go big or go home. Making a play for the woke heart of America, Ram trucks gave us this spot, voiced over by none other than Martin Luther King, Jr himself.

Yup, this ad went too far in pairing the eloquent and weighty words of a civil rights icon with a five thousand pound piece of environment-destroying metal with a lovely crew cab. The pairing is as good as strawberry milk and shrimp: the MLK voiceover is too meaningful to stuff its authenticity into a pickup truck and the truck ad does nothing to add to our understanding of the great leader. Lose-lose, just like the ~~Eagles~~ Patriots

The twitter machine is already chewing Dodge a new ass for the ad, and the King estate has confirmed that they had no part in lending the icon’s voice to the advertiser. By tomorrow, the tepid apology or some version of a mea culpa will slap back the controversy and we’ll move on to the next.

Advertisers are riding a razor-thin line when they leverage the political and social upheaval in the zeitgeist for their ads. Those who are in touch with their audience and talking with them instead of at them can really use the moment to show an authentic connection with their consumers. This T Mobile ad that also ran during the Superbowl tried to connect with consumers who care about a number of movements:

Brands are best when they jump into movements to get important messages out without hoeing out the message for the sake of the brand. In case you missed it Burger King did just that recently with their whopper neutrality ad:

You’ve got to get in the game if you want to win, so brands are bold to not shy away from what is happening in the world. But to actually win, you have to do your homework. Companies do themselves and the movements they purport to care about a disservice when they use social change as a costume they try on to sell soda or soap or trucks. Stripping the important events of our time and filling it with the same capitalist messages that have fed the inequality leading to this moment can leave audiences upset, brands tarnished and important social moments cheapened. Do better Ram, or stick with your Vikings.

#MeTooButNotYou for Grammys

This year’s Grammy’s promised to be the most diverse Grammys ever! There was lots of great music this year from a wide slate of artists, so it shouldn’t have been difficult to break the Grammy’s long tradition of marginalizing people of color, particularly in the Hip Hop community. The night was looking good when Kendrick Lamar, current throne holder, kicked off the night with this en-fuego performance.

Not only was it dope, making raptastic mincemeat of Eminem’s much-heralded performance, but it was woker than Chris at the end of Get Out. Dave Chappelle even had to check in to let people know they were witnessing peak black excellence.

Hi, I’m Dave Chappelle and I just wanted to remind the audience, the only thing more frightening than watching a black being honest in America is being an honest black man in America.

And he would know–watch the Bird Revelation for Dave’s own brush with honesty.

And that was just the opening. The night closed with a planetary-sized sweep of top awards by Cardi B dance partner Bruno Mars. Top song, album, and record awards went to Mars along with a few others, netting him 6 total wins for the night.

Blacks. Check. Latinos. Check. Woman. Check. Bet the Recording Academy is feeling pretty good about itself right now. It checked all of the awards show boxes, right? Grammys are now officially Not Racist or Sexist!

Hold on, not so fast. We Saw Bey slaying with hubby Jay z. We saw SZA heating up the red carpet with her five nominations after a red hot year. We saw Cardi B and Rhianna backing up the boys that won. But no major Grammys were won by black women.

None.

But hey, maybe that’s their fault for not being creative enough. Bey you slacker. Rhi you lackluster sad sack! recording Academy President Neil Portnow has this advice to you:

It has to begin with… women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level… [They need] to step up because I think they would be welcome.

That’s right, if only Rhianna and SZA and Beyonce and Cardi and Remy worked from the heart, were more creative, really leaned in to the industry, then they could get awards like the boys do.

In the era of #MeToo, the Grammys continue to look as modern as the Macarena. Black women were shut out in all but the Gospel category (thanks, Tay), and women were largely absent from the winner’s circle. Portnow’s comments are out of step with what’s happening in our country, and amongst the music buying audience. It’s time for the music industry to catch up with the times.

While Hollywood applies itself to the task of moving beyond lip service to legal and cultural shifts towards equality, the music industry is lagging behind, stuck in patterns of pumping out patriarchy and normativity. Music audiences already have more choices than ever before to access artist both in and out of the mainstream. If the music industry hopes to hold on to Millenials and their younger siblings, they will need to open up to be more inclusive. I’m sure they will have their own tidal wave of sexual assault allegations, and the industry is still a long way from being racially conscious, but beginning to recognize and promote the amazing talent of black women is a good first step. After all, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step–and a great playlist

How Not to Be H&M

If you heard a rumble in the jungle yesterday is was the internet coming full force at Swedish retailer H & M for this offensive ad selling a child’s sweatshirt:

The ad was taken down after a twitterstorm of critique, 960,000 news articles and spokesperson The Weekend announced he was breaking up with the brand. The damage is done. This isn’t H&M’s first rodeo, either. They caught similar heat for using all white models in South Africa. They had a wake-up call and apparently hit snooze. In this latest all-too-predictable episode, alarm and outrage from consumers were met with a tepid apology from H & M:

“We sincerely apologize for this image,” the company said in a statement. “It has been removed from all online channels and the product will not be for sale in the United States. We believe in diversity and inclusion in all that we do.”

Yes, that is correct. They believe in diversity but will still be selling the t-shirt somewhere where you snowflakes won’t whine about it–namely in the UK. So H&M hit snooze again. That barely passes the apology test.

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The association between black people and monkeys, an association used to dehumanize black people and justify atrocities ranging from slavery to lynching to police brutality is perhaps one of the most well know negative stereotype of black people. The global domination of American media means that even in Sweden, the images of white supremacy are familiar. As many people tweeted, someone should have caught this.

We have to move beyond the outrage machine. Advertisers are experts at advertising, but that doesn’t automatically make them experts in cultural consciousness. So what can ad agencies do to avoid these missteps that can cost billion-dollar companies big in terms of boycotts and brand damage?

Start at the top

Thinking about diversity and inclusion should start long before the pitch. Connecting with consumers is the very heart of advertising, and connecting with diverse audiences should be at the heart of your agency’s values. Women, minorities, people of different backgrounds and abilities make up the majority of America–and the world.

Senior management sets the tone. This means that executive teams should model the inclusiveness they seek for the whole agency. Agencies looking to do diversity right need to be sure executives have the time, knowledge and tools needed to make sure that diversity and inclusion isn’t just a value on paper. Training your management team and arming them with a strategic plan with specifics will ensure they are prepared to turn inclusion from a buzzword into an action verb.

Get the right people in the room

When bad ads come out, people often ask who was in the room. Chances are high that there was little diversity: people of color remain underrepresented in the creative workforce. While there has been an increase in gender representation since the Mad Men days, racial and cultural diversity remains an elusive goal for many agencies.

Having a diverse group of people working at an agency isn’t just about doing the right thing, it is about assembling a team that will have the skills needed to thrive in a complex cultural environment. According to Adobe’s recently released report, Creativity’s Diversity Disconnect, lack of access and information about potential careers in advertising are a part of the problem, but the same report also indicates that creatives of color found barriers to success even once they were in the workplace. Diversifying your workforce should include pipeline development, hiring, and most importantly retention and promotion strategies. This is a long game–despite widespread agreement in the field that diversity is important there is a long way to go and it will take time. But it won’t happen at all if agencies don’t develop and execute strategic plans to make the shift.

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Make Everyone Responsible

Lots of critics of H&M asked why the parents didn’t step in. I suggest you don’t depend on the parents or the model to protect your billion-dollar brand. Making sure you have people who can spot an error before it goes out the door is key. That doesn’t mean scuttling your current workforce, it means training them. While you are working on growing diversity in-house, give all your employees the tools they need with training in culturally-conscious production. Regular training, as well as opportunities to keep current and learn from others’ wins and losses, can help ensure there is always someone in the room ready to ask the right questions.

The data is clear–America is becoming more diverse. Diverse audiences are looking for advertising that respects and reflects their experiences. Not only that, when advertising reproduces old racist ideas, audiences have the tools to quickly organize, calling for boycotts and trashing offending brands. This isn’t a trend, it is a new day. Agencies need to shift their thinking about diversity from an add-on to absolutely critical and find ways to support diversity efforts beyond the hire date. Leadership that models and values diversity, processes that consider culturally-conscious production, and time for training and discussion can make diversity everybody’s business, a value that will reflect in the work.

Eminiem VS Trump (and Stan Too!)

BET Hip Hop awards last night featured a who’s who of the years hottest Hip Hop–but all anyone cares about is Eminem. The real Slim Shady stole the internet with his cypher devoted to a full-body takedown of Donald Trump. ICYMI, you’re welcome:

The interwebs and cable news outlets buzzed with all sorts of love and accolades for Marshall Mathers, from Diddy and Kaepernick himself to LeBron James, another star who recently roasted Trump with a simple “U bum”.

So by midday, everybody is really feeling Em, and Trump’s tinny Twitter triggers haven’t banged out a response (though Trump did take the time just days ago to tweet at ESPN, calling for Jemele Hill to be fired). Shortly thereafter, Eminem is declared President of the United States according to the rules of rap battles.

Not totally sure how rap battles work, but I believe Eminem is now the President of the United States of America.

— andy lassner (@andylassner) October 11, 2017

Except that Eminem is not the president. Once the high wears off, the fact remains Eminem is about the 306,547,999th person in America to yell ‘Fuck Trump’. I swear even my mother has said it. He’s not even the first celebrity, or rapper to say it. There is no shortage of rappers that have spit that fire at the Orange House–Kendrick, Qtip, Kweli, Jay. Where were you this spring when Joey Bada$$ stole my heart with those three little words: fuck white supremacy?

But there is one thing Eminem did that is worth noting–he attacked his own fans. Most of his cypher was directed at Donald Trump but a few bars of the freestyle were directed at his own Stans. As one of the most popular white rappers, Em has–spoiler!–a huge white fan base. And like the rest of white America, it’s safe to assume a portion of them are Trump supports, maybe even a few alt right thrown in, if they made it past White America. With an album scheduled to drop November 17, Eminem refuses to tread lightly with his more hate-inclined fans to make that paper. Instead, he went in on his own bread and butter, telling fans:

And any fan of mine who’s a supporter of his
I’m drawing in the sand a line, you’re either for or against
And if you can’t decide who you like more and you’re split
On who you should stand beside, I’ll do it for you with this:
Fuck you!

Like confronting your drunk racist uncle at Thanksgiving, Em models the way that we each have to confront the people we care about. We’ve all done it, lost friends, sometimes even family over the racist and sexist beliefs they refuse to stop embracing. With these last few lines in a video bound to go viral, Eminem shows famous white people how famous white people can and should talk to their potentially racist fans: forget the money–cut them off. This is worth clapping it up.

The fight for racial justice requires all people of good conscience to do what is hard, to confront those closest to us, and to put ourselves in harm’s way to get to justice. It’s not about finding the best way, or the most important way, but just the way that is open to you, right now. Writers, write. Painters, paint. Organizers, organize, and Eminem raps. We each must pick up the tool we are most skilled with to dismantle racism. We have to take real risks to say what is true to people we love, to people who love us. Shedding friends, fans, and fakers is the only way we’ll get to justice.

Jemele Hill’s Fearless Twitter Fingers

Sportswriter Jemele Hill was suspended for two weeks from ESPN this afternoon for the cardinal offense of tweeting. Let the irony of that sink in: suspended for tweeting. Did she tweet that she was going to start a nuclear war with North Korea? Did she tweet antagonistic messages at the mayor of San Juan Puerto Rico? Even worse:

Jemel Hill encouraged people to boycott Dallas Cowboys’ advertisers in response to the team’s owners promise to censure players who choose to kneel for the anthem. It’s not like she was marching around Charlottesville with torches again just a month after a young woman was killed by a terrorist. She didn’t stockpile weapons and bomb-making materials. Nonetheless, her tweet represented a ‘dangerous’ breach of the ESPN social media policy. A statement from ESPN concluded “all employees were reminded of how individual tweets may reflect negatively on ESPN and that such actions would have consequences. Hence this decision.” She didn’t threaten human life, but NFL money.

This suspension is just the latest case of employment sanctions against a black person for defending their right to peacefully protest during the NFL’s opening ceremony. No matter how much fans boo, how many beers they throw on protesting players and fans, how many tweets they fire at the ‘snowflakes’standing up to the week after week, the right to peaceful protest remains enshrined in the constitution. Trump inserted himself into the fray and shifted the narrative to be a fight over patriotism–classic authoritarian move.

The NFL is a television rating juggernaut. Three games on Sunday, Monday night, Thursday night, 32 teams, nevermind replays, and streaming. There are few stages in the US bigger than the NFL. America’s greatest show is now overshadowed on that stage from the sidelines by a handful of athletes protesting police brutality. This alone is enough to make white supremacy burn all its jerseys. For Jemele Hill to argue that it is also people’s right to not watch the big show is nothing less than a knife to the neck of America’s golden goose.

We’re over a year into the NFL protests. With a volley of a million tweets, an army of think pieces and a raging battle on everybody’s news feed the mainstream narrative of the protests is even muddier than ever. Black people, however, are clear as day. Colin Kaepernick is clear, swatting down reports that he was willing to cave on protesting if he secured a contract.

Jemele Hill was clear when she reminded fans that they are valued customers of the NFL who’s boycotting hold power. She was clear that systemic racism is a problem not just in the streets, but also in the boardrooms of America. She knew that NFL owner Jerry Jones was more likely to capitulate to a boycott that hit his pockets for punishing protesting players than the protests of his own players.

Police_shootings_2017_database_-_Washington_Post

You should be clear: the extrajudicial killing of black people in this country continues unabated. Even worse, the last few year have shored up the courts and public opinion against fixing our unjust justice system. Racism is arguably the worst it has been since slavery. Yet, despite the best efforts of the right, Nazis with torches and the racist tweets of the actual President of the United States, the quest for racial justice and equity for black people in America continues. Don’t let ESPN contribute to silencing black voices with this unfair suspension-sign. Don’t let the lies about Kaepernick go unanswered-share. And of course, as always, stay woke.

Trump’s Okey-Doke-Rope-A-Dope

Oops, he did it again. Trump’s got the country so riled up about the NFL’s knees and elbows that there’s barely enough time in the day to focus on the humanitarian crisis exploding in Puerto Rico, looming threats of nuclear War with North Korea, 181 arrests during healthcare hearings, and a bunch of White House staffers using personal accounts for their damn emails. Remember when you were just sick of hearing about the emails? Good times.

Today’s media environment runs through your life like a freight train: demanding your attention for constantly breaking news, requiring your studious use of social media so you can keep up on the latest viral videos. Keeping up with it all is exhausting. Ignoring the media barking for your attention means you might miss any one of these majorly important stories altogether. Damned if you do try to keep up, ignorantly awaiting the imminent apocalypse if you don’t pay attention. Trump expertly leverages our inability to look away to control the news cycle and the national narrative.

Trump treats his captive audience like hostages, terrorizing us at regular intervals to keep our attention, threatening one of us–Black athletes–or another–Dreamers–to signal his dominance and to keep the fearful quiet. He exhausts us with his diatribes. He robs us of sleep with his late-night tweeting. He holds the gun of patriotism to our heads when we ask for justice. He won’t let us take a bathroom break.

Whatever you may think of Donald Trump, you cannot deny that he is well aware of how to manipulate media to get attention. He rode a wave of crazy talk all the way into the White House. Now camped out in the Oval Office, he continues to command the news cycle any day he chooses with the stroke of 140 characters. He is a car accident that we can’t look away from, even though our rubber-necking is slowing down the flow of critical and timely stories that require both attention and action.

Trump is using racism to whip up his base and wipe out his critics. The thing that makes this trap exceptionally difficult to avoid is that the stories he stokes the news cycle with are important–NFL protests about racial justice(not the free speech issue that is not at the center of the protests, no matter what he tells you), DACA, Charlottesville. These are critical and complex issues that deserve all our attention. Here’s the trick, Trump has no intention of offering solutions or real dialogue on any of these issues. While he has people of good conscience dancing around the ring trying to explain racial justice to the unwilling he skulks out of the spotlight. Nothing gets accomplished but making more anger, and then he hits us with another tweet. War with North Korea, bam. Repeal healthcare, pow. Before you know it you’re leaning against the ropes and the ref is counting you out.

So be prepared for the next round of stories fighting for headlines. Avoid Trump’s okey-doke-rope-a-dope. Remember that climate change, international diplomacy, and democratic integrity are the prize to keep your eyes on. Even when you’re watching the top story, ask yourself ‘is there something important I’m not hearing about’? Be careful to avoid fights that are designed to distract you, not engage you. Keep your chin tucked. Protect your neck. And always, stay woke.