"Usher. Michael Jackson is not a genre of music!"

Happy MLK day!

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Musings from a Black Woman: Why Newsweek Sucks and Blows.

"Why Black Women Love R. Kelly: Sexism on Trial: Why did so many African-American women support R. Kelly?", by Allison Samuels at Newsweek.com. I found this article via Angelfirenze at TWoP's The Boondocks forum.

. . . When the verdict was announced, dozens of black women (and some black men) cheered outside the courtroom as the singer made his way past them to his waiting tour bus. It wasn't just in Chicago. African-American blogs such as Young, Black and Fabulous, What About Our Daughters and Essence quickly filled up with letters from women exclaiming their joy over Kelly's freedom . . .

. . . Fame has long affected--or perverted--the way justice is meted out by a jury. The celebrity effect is arguably more pronounced when the defendant is black, in part because African-Americans feel protective when one of their own achieves mainstream success. "It's sick," says Aaron McGruder, creator of the comic strip "Boondocks," which featured a scathing episode [my favorite episode!] focused on Kelly and his supporters. "The love we have for our celebrities in the black community no matter what they do is crazy, and there is no excuse for it. It's just blind and clueless." As the O. J. Simpson case demonstrated, some African-Americans believe that the criminal-justice system is so stacked against them, they almost don't care if a defendant is actually innocent or guilty. "I know it sounds crazy, but it's just nice so see a brother beat the system--the way I know white guys with money do all the time," said Lamont Gillyard, 25, a loan officer in Los Angeles. "It's not right, but there are so many black men in jail for stuff they didn't do, it's hard not feel like this is a way of balancing out the game that isn't fair anyway.''

I didn't support R. Kelly, nor do I know anyone of any color or gender who did. Ms. Samuels, you suck and blow, too, especially since you're a black lady "reporting" this nonsense. The words of Newsweek commenter thealtamiranos@cox.net speak for me:

Ms. Samuels where are the statistics to support your statement? Your article reeks of irresponsible journalism. The hand full of Black women who stood outside the court buildings with signs and words of support for R. Kelly and the rambling posts of Black women on blogs and gossip sites are not respresentative of Black women in general. I can assure you that the majority of Black women (myself included) do not support R. Kelly . Please stop perpetuating the myth "so many" Black women are ignorant and uneducated. If you're going to speak for or about a group of people don't assume their thoughts and beliefs rather do the proper research.

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"Just became self-aware. So much to figure out."

Still watching last night "Launch Party" episode of The Office. My favorite part so far:

Ryan: Yeah, I created a website. Look, at the end of the day, Apple's Apple is flying at 30,000 feet. This is a paper company. And I don't want us to get lost in the weeds, or into a beauty contest.

Ryan's boss, Thomas Dean: I told you, I don't want you doing these things in here. You can use your own office or do it in the hall.

Ryan (now crammed into his own tiny office): Convergence. Viral marketing. We're going guerrilla. We're taking it to the streets, while keeping an eye on the street--Wall Street. I don't want to reinvent the wheel. In other words, it is what it is. Buying paper just became fun.

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Next topic: Nobel Spurs Gore Supporters to Urge Presidential Bid, by Jim Malone, VOA News.

Hooray for Al Gore!

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Time to delve into the Yahoo dating advice files! by zuzu at Feministe. Clickety-click on the link, and note that I was First! in the comments. I'm so cool.

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Read my comment here, too: Color adjustment: The return of The Boondocks, by Todd VanDerWerff at The House Next Door, via South Dakota Dark. So far no one has responded to my brilliance under the post, but that's okay.

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From Defamer: Hollywood Women On Working In A Schlong-Obsessed Industry. My favorite comment:

By TheHMSBeagle:

I'm so, so, so tired of this retardo argument about how wah wah wah women should buy tickets to change the world.

Maybe if they gave us some movies that didn't

a) Suck
b) Treat women as disposable backdrops to the hero's journey of some dude
c) Act like Vera Farmiga's role in THE DEPARTED was "A fucking awesome part for a woman" (WHAT.)
d) Pretend that women die en masse at 29
e) Approach the world solely from a male perspective
f) Treat women as, at best, humorless authority figures out to force you to change and generally fuck with your good time, and at worst as sexual objects who exist only to strut across the screen once or twice and then service the hero after he defeats the giant robots

WOMEN WOULD BUY TICKETS.

And Lynda Obst is such a hypocrite. I know for a fact that she's been rejecting female-lead scripts because they have female leads for at least the past year.

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More sad news: Mychal Bell Of 'Jena Six' Ordered Back To Jail, by Kurt Orzeck, MTV.com.

"He's locked up again," Bell's father, Marcus Jones, told AP. "No bail has been set or nothing. He's a young man who's been thrown in jail again and again, and he just has to take it."

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To brighten your mood: Your feminist cute for the day, by Jessica at Feministing.



I'd move to New York to get my daughter into that school. Or, I could use the relocation money to put in her into a good girls' school here in LA. Ha! Like I have money.