The Snob has left Blogspot! (No hard feelings, Blogger. It was great. Really. The way you just put the Google Ads wherever you pleased and I couldn't get rid of them. I LOVED that. Never change!) Please check us out at our new, fancy-pants, Obama Era digs! Just click blacksnob.com to continue to read my complaints about everything! No fuss! No muss! Love, peace and Sparkle Ponies!
Tu amiga,
Danielle Belton, aka "The Snob"
The urge to smother those two in kisses is so strong that I may lose control of all my faculties!
When ever I see little Sasha and Malia Obama I think of me and my two "sisters of Snob," Baby Snob and Big Sis, and our childhood together. I especially think of how long we had to sit still for our mother to press our hair to make it look like Sasha and Malia's (and our mother only let us wear it down on "special occasions," like piano recitals. I'm going to assume "Daddy's going to be president" counts as a special occassion). The pressing was murder, I tell you! I detest having my hair straightened to this day even though I love how it looks whether natural or straight.
Like the Obama girls, the Snob sisters spent 99 percent rocking braids or twists. And it's amazing Mama Snob still has an arm from welding that hot comb. That said, those coats are ADORABLE! (And no, I don't know who made them!) But everything about them is adorable. Cheeks must be smothered in smooches!
More pictures of the soon-to-be First Daughters (as well as Michelle and Barack and the Bidens) on my Obama Inaugural Flickr page!
Remember! The Black Snob is moving to Squarespace! The new site will officially be "live" on Inauguration Day, featuring sign-up memberships, my personal journal, The Secret Council of American Negroes blog, new "Hot Topic" discussion boards, easier access to the Snob store, a new layout and design, more interactive options and more!
If you are an RSS feed subscriber, sign up for new "Snob Blog" Squarespace feeds at here. The site's main blog feed will also continue to be available through Feedburner.
The site can also be accessed at the blacksnob.com address, as well as theblacksnobblog.com and daniellebelton.com. You can currently go to the new site now via those addresses.
PS. You will be able to read most old comments and all the old posts on the new blog, and come tomorrow (crosses fingers), this blog will automatically point to BlackSnob 2.0. Thank you for reading and making this site possible. Because of you and your donations I am able to take the site to the next level! Let's keep the ball rolling in 2009!
For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957, when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself until the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:
O, yes, I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath?
America will be!
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. "Beyond Vietnam"
If you are a Christian, Jesus Christ of the New Testament is very specific about what he wants you to do: follow him.
And just like you'd expect a Messiah would, he has a lot of "followers," must most of them don't go the whole way. They try to be good people. They find their own ways to serve God and their communities, but martyrdom is something most Western-based Christians haven't put in a lot of stock. It's easier to worship, donate, pray on it or ignore it, then ask for forgiveness for the ignoring. After all, you simply want to live your life, but if you've read the New Testament, so did Jesus, and he went through with the whole crucifixion anyway.
This isn't to compare slain Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr. with "the King of Kings," but to explain what it means to do the right thing even when it would be easier on you and everyone you love to just be another garden variety Baptist minister who tells you to be a good citizen and pray for your salvation.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was not an overwhelming popular man when he was alive. Very few martyrs of any faith are. People tend to forget that in the afterglow of his death and the positive results rendered by his labors, that he was questioned, harassed, ridiculed and even called crazy by other black people. Years ago for The Bakersfield Californian I interviewed a member of the local chapter of the NAACP, now a minister, who said he thought King was a mad man. Young, angry and living in the segregated South, he was sure that the only way out of American Apartheid was bullets. But his anger subsided and he joined King's movement anyway -- joining the NAACP and working to register people to vote. It wasn't until he was an adult and King was gone that he could finally see the enormity of the work. But King was loved by the few who could see where he was taking us. He simply angered and befuddled the rest.
From the politicians who openly referred to him as "Martin Luther Coon" on television, to J. Edgar Hoover's fevered sex dream obsessions with getting King to commit suicide over infidelities, to getting beaten, jailed and beaten again every time he stood up. To his children and wife being threatened. To the families of those who followed him being threatened. To the many people who died for the privilege of being treated as a human being.
But when King was killed in 1968 he'd moved from just being the de facto leader of the Civil Rights Movement to a pivotal figure in the human rights movement, protesting against the war in Vietnam and joining in the call for worker's rights. He died supporting a sanitation worker's strike. This did not set well with many American blacks who wanted him to focus solely on African American issues, but if you claim to be a servant of the people, of the underrepresented, of the downtrodden, and you happen to be a follower of Christ, as King was as a Baptist minister, what was his choice? Nothing he did was easy, but he could have spared himself some grief by staying out of the larger human rights movement, but he didn't. Because what he did, as unpopular as it was, was the right thing.
Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same, and this is the story of every martyr. He had a choice. He could have lived a quiet life and lived to an old age. But if not him, who? And if not now, when? He asked himself those questions, and when the elders called on him to lead that flock in Montgomery, Ala. he rose to the task that would eventually lead to a brutish, short life. One where he would not see his children grow up. One where he would never see what his hard work had wrought.
I am not one who sees King as a saint. He was a human being with all the good and bad that comes with humanity. If you assume he was a saint it makes what he did seem unobtainable and impossible, something only a superhero could accomplish and soon, we are defeated, waiting on another superhero to save us.
But he wasn't a being of superiority. It took someone with the courage, patience and tenacity to do it. But it was not some Christ-like eunuch who did it. It was a man with flaws and dreams and ambition and I'm almost positive he did not set out in life at age 15, when he attended Morehouse College, knowing he would be dead at 39.
A lot of people have made the comparisons between King and President-Elect Barack Obama since Obama won Iowa. While I consider myself an admirer of both men, I truly wish people wouldn't put them in the same category. In many ways, it's unfair to Obama, who deserves his own accolades for what he achieved in a post-Civil Rights Era and diminishes the adversity those in the movement faced to pave the road for this achievement.
Both King and Obama are from different times with different struggles under different circumstances. Other than they are both black, male family men and racial pioneers, that's were all similarities end. Obama is a politician, beholding and serving the people through government. King was a minister, who was beholding to the community, but operated under an entirely different set of rules, one where breaking the rules was often the only option.
Obama, like me and many of you reading this blog, is the benefactor of King and other civil rights workers' efforts. We enjoy the fruits Medgar Evers never tasted. We attended the colleges Emitt Till, Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, and Cynthia Diane Wesley never visited. We had the families and children Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney never had. Where Obama received protection from the Secret Service earlier than any other presidential contender in history, all King had was his most loyal and trusted friends and followers.
No matter how you feel about them today, Ralph Abernathy, Jesse Jackson, Hosea Williams, Andrew Young and a few others were King's friends, fellow activists, supporters and security. They were the last and only line of defense when everyone from white supremacists to the FBI wanted the man dead and any of them could have died that day on the balcony of the Lorraine.
But James Earl Ray was an apparent good shot.
His death spelled the end of the movement. It's been documented that King's disciples fought each other constantly, disagreed on tactics and ideas, and in the end, while they were all once willing to serve and die for one man, they wouldn't do it for one another, and went their separate ways. With Jackson, later becoming the most influential of those who were there until the end.
Everyone adores Martin now, now that he can't call any of us on our slacking, on our defeatism, on our hypocrisy. Matin Luther King, Jr. can't call you out in a speech anymore and tell you to "follow him." He can't make a wealthy individual depart with his or her change to bail poor black teenagers who marched out of jail. He can't make you turn the mirror onto your soul and see the cynicism that lies in your heart. He can't make you be both rational and irrational with fear, hope and anger and still take this work seriously.
Not anymore. And he's not there to do it for Obama either. The President-Elect will have to find his own mirror to look into his soul to find the way.
And we are not guaranteed to always like what our president will see in his mirror. And it is almost assured that there will be times when we will be angered, disappointed or unhappy. After all, King was an antagonist to the government, only beholding to the black and the poor. Obama will be the government, elected as a politician, not an activist. We are a minority that has struggled with government. How does Obama's presidency change that fight? How does that change expectations? How will that change attitudes or tactics?
I joke with my parents that in a year to six months for many the high will have worn off and the Obama will face what everyone who has to make life altering decisions has to face -- harsh criticism and derision. Already guaranteed a spot in history, but not spared the grief that comes with it, there will be many who will question what Obama can or will do for black Americans. And if people could question King's motives, when he lived, breathed and died for the movement, Obama is hardly above the law.
It's important to remember, despite the beautiful afterglow of "King was right," King was not a simple, benevolent figure. He was not one-dimensional. He was not a saint. He was a human, like you and I, who chose to push himself to his ultimate potential and died for something bigger than himself.
What path Obama blazes will be out of the shadow of King's effort. The work he leaves behind must stand on its own. And may he continue to choose the road less traveled even if we all question if he's going the right way.
As what every person who reaches this pinnacle must realize, this is all much bigger than himself.
More pictures of the Obamas on the way to the inauguration (this time, now in Washington, D.C. for a concert televised on HBO) can be found on the Flickr page!
Are you ready, baby? It's the Dick n' Bush Unrepentant to the Mutha Fuckin' End Tour! Inspired by 43rd President of the United States George W. Bush and the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, Vice President Dick Cheney and their sudden need to jump in front of the cameras and "get the record straight!" The Bush Era may be over, but the hits can last forever!
They've been on every network giving the good news that we won (Everything!) and nothing that bad really happened. A mixtape for those who were living in caves during 9-11, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, Hurricane Kartina, Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Ike, the subprime mortgage crisis, the overall collapse of the banks, the rise of Iran, $4 gasoline, the tanking economy, Guantanamo Bay, illegal foreign renditions, Valerie Plame, Homeland Security, duct tape, the US attorney firing scandal, Anthrax, the collapse of our infrastructure, the violence in Gaza, tainted toys, rising medical costs and pick-a-tragedy, any tragedy!
Twenty-one slamming, unforgiving, borderline annoying, in your face, "it's all yo' fault not mine and I APOLOGIZE FOR NOTHING!" tracks. From Bush telling you to "Hate Me Now!" to hollering "Party Like A Rock Star" at the White House with all your cronies and military contractors while it was nothing but "Bombs Over Baghdad" and "Welcome to the Jungle" for our troops.
While you on a roof waiting for help when the levees breached or dying out in front of Superdome, George and Condi were singing Scorpion, promising that as soon as she was done shoe shopping they would, in fact, rock New Orleans like a hurricane! And remember that last press conference where Bush basically sang the Sex Pistol's cover of "My Way" without the actual lyrics -- likely because he couldn't remember them! Salute the victors of the war on Terror to Queen's "We Are the Champions," then watch Dubya take that last wave as he leaves the White House to the sounds of SKKKKKYYYYNNNNAAARD as he tells you that he's a free bird now and "He can't change!"
Lord help, Bush! He can't change! He can't chaaayy-yyyiiee-ange! And remember, as Tupac would say, only God can judge him now! (Thanks to my buddies Negro Intellectual and Adeshola for the help and idea!)
Do you know any songs Georgie Porgy and the crew will be bumping on their way out? Make your recommendations in the comments below!
So many cute pictures! No room for them all! Check out the full roster on my Flickr page or check back at the BlackSnob 2.0 site later today! (Don't forget to poke around and check out all the new pages and services! Especially the new "Hot Topics" discussion boards!)
And what a time to have a birthday! You're about to be First Lady, Michelle LaVaughn from the South Side! It's your world. We're just barnacles on the side of history. Go on with your handsome "Leader of the Free World Husband," adorable little girls, Ivy-league pedigree and success on top of success with a thick layer of strawberries and cheesecake on top.
My friend (and reader) Dorothy snapped these pictures in Washington, D.C. Friday of soft drink maker Pepsi's "president-elect" inspired ad campaign. Using their new, modified red, white and blue circle logo like a half-grin version of the Obama rising sun logo, the Pepsi sphere has replaced the "O" in their one-word adverts, which include "hope" and "together." Some banners even blatantly read "Yes You Can" in case the others were too subtle in their connection to the Big O.
Curiously, some banners read "Oh boy," which depending on how you feel about the word "boy" can be seen as a little clunky or at worst, condescending.
Dot thought it was personally outrageous that anyone would use "boy" in an ad campaign obviously derived from the successful presidential campaign for an adult black man considering the negative history of the term and its use (usually to put black men "in their place"). Once my grandpa, then in his 70s, was called a "boy" by an Arkansas police officer young enough to be his son. We're almost positive that wasn't a term of endearment. But these banners were likely created by some clueless "boy geniuses" on Madison Avenue who know about as much about the history of "boy" and black men as they know what hominy grits are.
But this is just the latest reflection on Obama's dynamic campaign and essence popping up in advertising. This time to peddle corn syrup sweetened, carbonated water. It would be offensive for being opportunistic, but this is America and this is capitalism at work. In light of the recession where people are cutting back on their pointless consumption of useless things, you can't really blame Pepsi for trying to squeeze a good will, Obama dollar out of you by any means necessary. If Rocawear can sell "Roc-Obama" T-shirts at Macy's and Pookie n' em can sell bootleg Obama merch on the streets of D.C. this week, Pepsi is gonna get theirs.
We already know Tropicana may have got themselves an early start. (To see more of Dorothy's photos and art, click here.)
Ever since Barack Obama popped up on the scene with his handsome mug, gorgeous family and fascinating multicultural background people have become obsessed with recreating the look, either in parody, in respect, in art, in advertisement or just for poops and giggles. I have become fascinated with collecting this army of "FakeBamas," mostly because they are (well, most of them are) even better looking than the original model. Some don't look like him at all, but that's the point. Obama has become the black, multiracial "everyman" for the unnaturally good-looking FakeBama. Here is my collection of who is "hawt" and one who is not.
Iman Obama: Iman "Alphacat" Crosson, actor/internet superhero
A YouTube sensation, many individuals from random bloggers (like me) to better known bloggers (like Andrew Sullivan) think someone should give this brother a job. Like Saturday Night Live. It's not that we all hate Fred Armisen's Obama for committing the Cardinal sins of "not-funniness" and "light Egyptian pancake brown-face" (even though Armisen is technically brown, being part Lebanese). It's that Alphacat is THAT GOOD, as evidence by his T.I. parody of Barack.
It also doesn't hurt that Alphacat is as good or better looking than Obama, which is the key to being a hot FakeBama. Really. It's insulting to pick an unattractive person to play the president-elect. As good looking or better, it's the only way to better exemplify the "Obama Fetish" everyone is rapidly developing like a full-body rash.
Parody skills: **** (four out of four stars)
General Hotness: ***1/2 (three and a half out of four)
Staff Sgt. Obama: Derrick Brooks
He stood in for Barack during the Inauguration rehearsals. Obama didn't see the resemblance, and yeah, they really don't look that much alike, other than the "light browness," but he's hot, so he's here.
Parody skills: None. He was just doing his job like any ridiculously sexy man in uniform would.
General Hotness: ****
Tropicana Obama: Michael Duvet, model/actor
Tropicana swears they were not trying to capitalize on "Hope Fever" when they cast this incredibly good looking actor for their print ad campaign.
Suuuuure. He's just Fake Obama Sexy for no damn reason at all.
Parody skills: *** (If it's a parody of looking cute while brown, he passes with flying colors.)
General Hotness: **** (That is a beautiful man, my friend. Once again, doesn't really look like Barack unless you squint, but ... ahem, he's dreamy.)
Keegan Obama: Keegan Michael-Kay, comedian
Now unemployed due to the slow death of SNL rival, Mad TV, Keegan Michael Key put up a serviceable Obama that was delightfully goofy and madcap (to match the sophomoric and weird energy of Mad TV). Keegan's only sin is that he's not as good looking as Barack, but he's good-looking enough to meet the standard.
Parody skills: ***
General Hotness: **1/2
Lamar Obama: Michael Lamar, professional FauxBama
Lamar, a professional Obama impersonator, recently went to France to spread some of that "Hope and Change" to our struggling black n' brown French homies. (One love to my Frenchie Snobs!) I don't think he looks anything like Obama (he looks a bit like an old, you know? Obama's younger looking and this guy's face is much more elongated). I think it's better when more youthful people play Obama, even individuals younger than him because it plays up the fact that Obama doesn't look "grandfatherly" like past presidents. He's energetic and hip.
Parody skills: Unknown (I've never seen the man do his thing)
General Hotness: * (He's cute, but not Obama cute ... if you know what I mean)
Roman Obama: Roman Watson, Jesus-loving male model
He starred in a Harper Bazaar's editorial last summer, helping Tyra Bank's indulge in her Michelle Obama fantasies. We weren't really impressed with Tyra's playing pretend, but Fake Barack was incredibly delicious looking, ears and all.
Here is what I initially wrote about RoBama:
He's a Miami-based, 6-foot-2-inch, Jesus-loving hunk of a male model who works for MC2 Model Management. I suggest restraint while looking through his portfolio. He really does look like Barack's insanely hot half-brother.
Parody skills: **** (All he had to strike a pose and that pose was hot)
General Hotness: **** (Did I mention he's a professional fashion model?)
Fred Obama: Fred Armisen, Saturday Night Live comedian/Habitual offender
You know how I all feel about Fred and his sometimes piss-poor forays into Barackatude. He kind of sucks at it. It's gotten better, but ... you know? Still kind of sucky. My fair Alphacat -- he's no you!
Parody skills: **1/2 (He's hit or miss)
General Hotness: *1/2 (Fred actually looks better dolled up as Obama than he does in real life. I don't know how to score that one. But, I also thought Fred made a cute Mahmoud too! Maybe he should just start tanning or something. Couldn't hurt, my fair not-white-white-guy.)
Courtesy of Paste Magazine! Make your own Fairey! I made mine! It's a little slow and clunky, but still fun. (via Gawker)
PS. If you make a really good one, send it to me and I'll post it on the blog on Inauguration Day!
I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that we black people ran out of real problems and only had mock outrage to deal out over a bunch of girly-girls in Southern Antebellum Era, fantasy-fetish colored hoop skirts and stupid wide brim, ruffled bonnets.
From Daily Kos:
Montgomery, Ala. (WSFA) -- They're part of a long standing tradition that will soon become a part of Presidential history.
The head of the Alabama NAACP, however, wants Mobile's Azalea Trail Maids to stay home on Inauguration Day, claiming the group reminds him of slavery.
"These are not just regular costumes. These are the costumes that remind someone of the plantation in Gone with the Wind," Edward Vaughn said in a phone interview.
Vaughn went on to say the group would be the laughing stock of the Inauguration. County leaders say nothing could be further from the truth.
"We want everyone to know that these young ladies do not need to be identified with slavery," said Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine.
The Rebel Flag -- the stars and bars of the Confederacy battle flag -- is an offensive symbol a destructive, bloody Civil War waged by selfish, wealthy land owners who wanted to protect their "Peculiar Institution" by destroying America. Never mind that it involved the former enslavement of an entire group of people for having African heritage.
The great General Robert E. Lee, who passed over fighting for the Union to join the Confederacy, was not fighting for Miss Ann's right to dress like a wedding cake. This was not the "way of life" of which they spoke, considering most Southern women couldn't even afford the damn thing and it had nothing to do with slave owning. A stupid frilly dress is simply a stupid dress no matter what fictional Southern movie heroine wore it.
I hate to tell the genius at the Alabama NAACP this, but ... um ... free women of color wore the stupid dress too (if they were of means, especially in the Louisiana Territory), because, you know, it was the FASHION AT THE TIME! Invented by the Europeans! Inspired by the Victorian Era! And these dresses to be worn in the parade aren't even accurate. They're some Barbie doll nightmare version of them. Their only sin is that they are kind of ridiculous looking, reminding me of that crochet toilet tissue topper Granny Snob has at her house in Newport, Ark.
And some of these "offensive" throwbacks happen to be black girls (eight of them, in fact. Two others are Native American and one is Asian American) and the only crime I see here is the crime of being a little over the top.
Now, offensive would be if the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan got to march a "Southern Heritage" banner down the avenue in front of the motorcade, but if period clothing is enough to inspire Don Imus-level offense then everyone needs to stop wearing cowboy boots right now. I could have swore they were popular with the people who settled the American west driving countless Native Americans off their land and eventually into reservations, to the brink of extinction.
But strangely, you know? A cowboy boot is just a pointy-toed boot popular in the South and American West. Not a symbol of brutality. Neither is a stupid dress.
A noose. A burning cross. A Rebel Flag. A Klan hood. Those are the symbols of the South's tragic, violent, racist past (and in certain cases, present). Sometimes a dress is just a dress. The only thing oppressive going on is that corset underneath which once conformed Southern ladies to an unnatural standard of tiny waist size making them more prone to fainting.
Stories like these imply that there are no serious issues left to tackle involving blacks and racism in America. They also unfairly push the stereotype that only the South has racial hangups and dirty laundry. (Um ... What's the City of Boston's excuse? Do they have a frilly dress situation there too?) Petty complaints like this imply that all we have left are word police and now, fashion police in Blackland. An unarmed black man was shot and killed in Oakland, Calif. on New Year's Day and it spurned riots. Poverty and poor education plague our cities and many parts of the South, including Alabama. We just elected our first black president, president of color, non-white president, biracial president and THIS IS THE FIGHT WE'RE PICKING?
WITH POOFY DRESSES?
Picking fights over gauzy symbols of bygone femininity will not bring us any closer to equality. Perhaps they could focus on the OTHER 99 problems (but a dress ain't one) that trouble the African slave descendents of the great state of Alabama.
