FILM(S) MONITORED
SMOKIN' ACES
CONSTELLATION

The monitor of the film(s) listed above is farther down in this eNewsletter.

The whole purpose of BN-W is not only to significantly reduce the use of the intentional international mass marketing of the N-word through music, song, dance, and comedy – but to also be a valid and valued source of current and historical information that is accurate and reliable.   After all, knowledge is power and we feel that if people feel truly empowered, they could never fall for such marketing tactics – even when it is marketed through people who look just like you.   We want this site to be an insightful source that provides a wealth of useful and free information that is – literally – at your fingertips.   And thus you’re forewarned that the BN-W site is not a quickie or drive-by, it’s a drive-in, so be prepared to stay for a while.

And on that note, we want to bring your attention to some of what we believe are exciting permanent additions to the BN-W Web site.   In a previous eNewsletter, we wrote about the inclusion of Nina Simone’s uplifting Young Gifted and Black video link.   We also wrote about Dr. Tony Martin’s excellent video link on the African slave trade – this is a must-see if you haven’t seen it already.   We’ve also provided the links to Dr. Asa Hilliard and Dr. Joy Leary in numerous eNewsletters in the past and because of the importance of the information provided in Dr. Hilliard’s 13-part Free Your African Mind series with Listervelt Middleton and Dr. Leary’s Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome book, we felt it appropriate and necessary to permanently link these to the BN-W home page.   While we’ve also mentioned and linked to different sites on Dr. Amos Wilson (Blueprint) and Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop (Origins of Humanity) in previous eNewsletters, we were absolutely thrilled when we found some video footage to share with our readers on these two courageous men who both – by the way – died mysteriously.   What’s most amazing about these men is that they just present the facts – historically and scientifically factual – without the “superiority” issues that permeate the American society.

All of these permanent BN-W links provide factual and historical information that you will NEVER – repeat NEVER – get through the curriculum of the normal or typical public or private school system – and that’s from kindergarten up through post-graduate school and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a low-middle-upper-wealthy income school district.   What’s in these video links, reading series, and book will not be promoted in the American educational system.   For that reason too, whatever we have on our site, we also like to provide within the eNewsletters (just in case our site starts having some type of “technical difficulties,” at least there’ll be more than one way for us and our eNewsletter subscribers to always access the info).   The only links we’ve never included in any of our eNewsletters are for Dr. Wilson and Dr. Diop, so the links for them are below.   And, of course, the best thing to do is to purchase any and all books available and also download whatever written works are available online for all of these individuals.   The video is good for the visual but it’s always better to have the documentation right along with it.

[Note: Due to changes by the site's poster for the below links, the links below have been changed from the originally posted ones but they all provide superb lectures from these great scholars you rarely hear about.]

Dr. Amos Wilson:   Part 1   -   Part 2   -   Part 3   - Part 4   -   Part 5

Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop:   Parts 1 and 2

And, of course, the BN-W mainstay links are still there:   Historical Timeline; Term of Endearment?; Why Does BN-W Exist?; Blacks & Self-Esteem; Suggested Readings; Dave Chappelle; Diamonds/Africa 2006; and Diamonds/Africa 1994.   There are also the “Video Links” and “Music Monitors” sections.   We’ll be adding an “Essay Links” section soon with some of what we feel are strong writings against the N-word, and many of which we’ve already included in previous eNewsletters.   There’ll also be a section with some strong historically factual writings from other African-centered scholars.

Listervelt Middleton, who also passed away, interviews Dr. Diop and Dr. Hilliard on the permanent links on the BN-W site.   He wrote a popular poem called The Origin of Things that has the following lines:   “minute by minute, hour by hour, as you lose your history, you lose your power; so sharpen your eyes, and tune your ears, so you’ll understand what you see, understand what you hear.”

Based on the concept of BN-W, we naturally must weigh in on the “controversy” over the N-word and the attempt by those same marketing strategists to equate it with the sexual orientation slur (in this instance, the word “faggot”) used by actor Isaiah Washington.   Our take on this issue is that there is no other racial – or otherwise – derogatory slur that offends like the N-word.   This word is rooted in the historical makeup of this country (United States of America) where it was used by one group of people (White) in an attempt to completely dehumanize another group of people (African/Black) on the basis of their skin color to maintain and justify a system of chattel slavery that was legally and brutally enforced (mostly through trickery, threats, violence, no education, and conditioning) for nearly three centuries.   This chattel slavery – human slave labor – is the root cause of why America is what it is today, which is the most powerful nation in the world.

When the most inhumane atrocities were being committed against Black people because of their skin color – raping women and children, torturing, maiming, murdering, breaking up families, selling/auctioning humans, medical experimentations (see more on that under “Medical Apartheid” below), constant terrorism and psychological warfare to maintain a system of slavery for economic purposes here in America; then the Jim Crow era of the lynch mobs, which included a large number of people from government agencies, such as deputies, sheriffs, cops, etc. lynching, castrating, and burning human beings and then distributing/selling body parts as well as sending postcards with pictures of burned, hanging, dead people, this N-word was right in the mix and being used to accent these acts.  These inhumane atrocities committed against the Black people by the White people were mental, physical, and spiritual abuse through force, torture, as well as – actual and implied – threats.   No other group experienced this by the triple-digit millions over 246 years – starting from when we were stolen from Africa, then all the Middle Passage savagery, and then onto the so-called New World to deal with the unknown dangers lurking in the form of cruel and vile human beings. Thus, no, there is no other slur – racial or otherwise – that stands in the same category as the N-word here in United States of America because it is at the foundation of this country.   America’s pathology is racism, again, with the N-word to accent that history.

So, what do you think?   From a strictly historical accounting, can those two slang terms really be categorized as the same or equal?   For more on the hypocrisy of the White gay community on this topic, read the links below by Jasmyn Cannick.

INTERESTING WEB SITES/LINKS/ARTICLES OF THE DAY :

We only had one eNewsletter for January, so this is a long one and we’ve got a smorgasbord of stuff below.

The only thing that can be said about this book is to just run – not walk – and buy it immediately.   Harriet Washington’s Medical Apartheid:   The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present is a groundbreaking book on the atrocities – yes, that word once again – that started with the enslaved here in America, never really fully stopped since then, and that appears to be picking up steam again with kids in the foster care system and prisoners.   Washington discusses a range of topics, including (amongst many other physicians), Dr. James Marion Sims, an Alabama surgeon, and how “all of his medical experimentation took place with slaves.   He took the skulls of young children, young Black children – only Black children – and he opened their heads and moved around the bones of the skull to see what would happen, posited as a cure for disease, but there was no rationale for that….But he’s most infamous for his reproductive experiments with Black women.   He bought, or otherwise acquired, a group of Black women who he housed in a laboratory, and over the period of five years and approximately forty surgeries on one slave alone, he sought to cure a devastating complication of childbirth called vesicovaginal fistula.   This cure entailed repeatedly doing incisions on their genitalia [using no anesthesia]….”   Sims became a prominent doctor and was eventually elected as president of the American Medical Association with these accounts written up in medical journals “but they never characterized them as abusive experimentation, because it was accepted for them that you operated on slaves who couldn’t say no.”   These quotes were taken from Democracy Now! and the complete transcript as well as an MP3 download and other streams to the live interview with Washington can be found at:   Harriet Washington Transcript/Live Interview

You can also go to the Web site at Medical Apartheid.   Entertainment critic Kam Williams did an excellent book review where he concludes with “So, when you encounter an African-American who harbors a deep distrust of doctors, that might not be paranoia but simply a sensible survival instinct still intact.”   Book Review by Kam Williams

Isn’t it astounding that America has this long legacy of enslavement and these kinds of atrocities – yes, that word once again – yet nothing is taught in the school system about these historical facts.   Slavery in America officially lasted for 246 years and then there was another century of Jim Crowism in effect; America had its independence since 1776, which makes it 230 years old.   So America has been a slave-owning and Jim Crow ruling country longer than it hasn’t been.   If that’s the case, then why have we not been taught in detail about America’s slave legacy as well as an African curriculum?   As Dr. Amos Wilson said in one of his many speeches:   “a sound approach to history represents an empowerment of a people.”   And Dr. Adelaide Sanford, who should have been the NYC Schools Chancellor (how and why Joel Klein got the position isn’t a mystery if you’ve been following the school system and our eNewsletters, but he’s not qualified for that position) said that even if just world history is taught without any direct focus on any of the continents that the accurate use of a timeline will automatically tell the facts anyway – and that timeline history will properly place Africa, Asia, and Europe in all their correct historical origins.   Come on, Black educators and administrators, when are you going to step up and step it up?

For those students who enjoy writing about interesting topics, following are some student essay-writing contests happening in New York and New Jersey.   New York City Councilmember Leroy Comrie and Abolish the “N” Word Project Inc. (ATNW) are asking NYC middle/junior school students to write a 250-word (or less) essay on “Why The N-Word Should Never Be Used.”   The deadline is by 5pm on February 21^st.   Winners will be notified on February 26^th and honored by the NYC Council at City Hall on February 28^th.   For mailing address and contact info, please go to:   Councilmember Comrie/ATNW.   For Essex County, New Jersey students, The Knowledge is Power Project (KIP) is asking students from 1^st – 12^th grades to write a 250-1000 word essay (depending on grade level) on “How I Would Change the World.”   The deadline is March 15^th.   Winners will receive a cash prize and be recognized on the KIP Web site.   For more information, please go to:   KIP Project Essay Flyer.

Although Black history is celebrated by us year-round, in the spirit and recognition of Black History Month 2007, here are several good links to a little bit of Black history:   BN-W #10; BN-W #42; BN-W #43; and Playahata's Figures in Black History Directory

Kai Beasley is a senior at Emory University in Georgia and he wrote two very entertaining articles for Black College Wire.   One dealt with the films Freedom Writers and Blood Diamond and the ridiculous image that these films try to represent of Whites “saving” Blacks; and the other dealt with the N-word.   What’s most interesting about his viewpoint is that it’s coming from a college student, so it’s good to know that even though many adults haven’t stepped up – and some are even dressing and acting like their kids – that students realize that there’s a real need for change and that there are many who can see through the marketing tactics.   Here are the stories:   Hollywood Says Only White People Can Save Us and Dude Dropped the H-bomb of N-bombs.

Jasmyne Cannick is a social/political writer and commentator who’s also openly gay.   On the topic of Isaiah Washington and the sexual orientation slur he recently used, she’s had some issues with the hypocrisy of White gay America and the acceptance of an anti-Black White gay male comedian named Charles Knipp who’s created a blackface character named Shirley Q. Liquor who he describes as an “inarticulate Black welfare mother with 19 children.”   Amongst other Black oriented sketches, Knipp (Liquor) also has a Kwanzaa routine where’s he mocks that holiday celebration.   Following are three links to Cannick’s articles, which also include audio/video of Knipp (Liquor) performing in blackface as a Black woman and some photo links to the MLK College “ghetto” parties:   Blackface in Drag; Hypocrisy of White Gay America; Who’s to Blame for Negative Stereotypes of Blacks [Photos 1   -   Photos 2]

Here are two links with Paris Hilton (dancing with her sister Nicky) partying and using the N-word along with the sexual orientation slur.   Considering the N-word and the fact that it’s America’s pathology, it’s really no surprise that many in White America still use it – some openly, but most covertly or silently through their thoughts.   What’s most interesting about this video is seeing how effective, once again, the marketing strategy of this word is – you have people digesting this word through music, song, and dance.   What’s particularly problematic is that others, including Blacks, digest it the same way – and that’s the magic of marketing along with miseducation at its best, isn’t it?.   In the first video, the link is still accessible for now (her attorneys were able to get it disabled on some sites); in the second video, the link has been disabled but there’s more text about the contents of the video.   Hilton Video 1   -   Hilton Video 2

Every now and then we’ll put something interesting in about hair and/or beauty issues.   We simply must, especially when we see films that overwhelmingly try to depict only one form of beauty – and attempting to have everyone else convert to that “standard.”   There are also some films on the way where the trailers don’t seem to be too promising and it’s more of the same “standards” applying.   So here are two pieces that caught our attention – My Turn:   I Freed Myself When I Embraced My Locks and Ethnicity and Its Impact on the Beauty Industry, a press release from NPD reporting that “African American women are less likely than Caucasian women or other ‘women of color’ to use either makeup or skincare products” and – not surprisingly – that’s interpreted as a “significant opportunity” to market makeup use to Black women.  

By now, everyone probably heard the following statement by Senator Joseph Biden about fellow Senator Barack Obama:   “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.   I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”   Both men are Democratic Presidential candidates.   What we find most interesting is the mindset that still so prominently exists no matter what level of education or professionalism a Black person reaches, which is why we’ve got to start our own independent institutions because this system will never teach what will decrease its system of control.   Turning our kids over to others to educate them is not working for us.   Think about it.   Following are some stories, including that University of Chicago Black Youth Survey – studying us again – that fit in line with the effects of that system of control that, quite frankly, is not working for us, will never work for us, and is not intended to work for us:   Survey: Black Youth Feel Alienated, Yet Think They Can Make a Difference.   Two links to the actual survey are:   Black Youth Survey – Research Summary and Black Youth Survey – Writings.   Be sure to check out the information under the “Fact Sheets” links.   Here’s more on the NYPD’s Stop & Frisk results, you’ve got to love the spin that Commissioner Ray Kelly and the media are already putting on it, that officers are “stopping those they reasonably suspect of committing a crime, based on descriptions and circumstances and not on personal bias.”   So, what he’s saying is that the more than 250,000 (out of a total of 508,540) Black men who were stopped and frisked in 2006 were stopped and frisked because victims or witnesses described the suspect as being Black.   Yeah, okay!?!   The Daily News link is here:   NYPD Frisked Blacks at 5 Times Rate of Whites.   This next report is not based on the findings of this particular NYPD Stop & Frisk report, but it is a June 2006 report based on stop-and-frisks and racial bias:   An Analysis of the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Policy in the Context of Claims of Racial Bias.   And in conclusion, here’s an article written by Ronald E. Childs for the Louisiana Weekly:   Accept It Everyone:   Black Men Aren’t Going Anywhere.

Based on recently released Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) documents, late Chief Justice William Rehnquist was dependent on a heavy dose of painkillers for insomnia and back pain for at least 10 years.   Documents also seem to indicate that he was involved in voter intimidation efforts against minorities during the 1960s; there was also a covenant on his home that it couldn’t be sold to individuals of a certain race, religion or ethnicity.   What’s also interesting is the participation of federal officials not only to cover-up these things but to scare and intimidate witnesses during both his 1971 and 1986 confirmation process.   The late Strom Thurmond and recently resigned UN ambassador John Bolton were also involved.   Following is a transcript from Democracy Now!:   FBI Documents Reveal Nixon, Reagan Intimidated Rehnquist Witnesses, and Detail the Late Chief Justice's Addiction to Painkillers

Tavis Smiley’s annual State of the Black Union is happening this weekend – February 10^th – at Hampton University’s Convocation Center.   General information and registration details can be found here:   SOBU 2007 Info Flyer

We’ve just shared a whole lot of many things with you, so on a MUCH lighter note, Greg Thomas and Jewel Kinch were kind enough to share their Voices of Romance Web site with us again this year.   The site is “ devoted to strengthening the bonds of affection and love among couples.”  There are even more unique and creative ideas offered this year, so check out the site and have fun………

As we mentioned in BN-W #54 the conclusion of Part II:   Black-Jewish Relations will be included with our new bi-monthly Music Monitor.   As we also stated, we’ve got a lot of information, and, for that reason, until Part II comes out, we’ll be filtering stuff to you so it won’t be too overwhelming in the buildup to Part II’s conclusions.   Refer to BN-W #53/54 if you need a repeat of our feelings on the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).  

As reported previously, the books we’re using for our Black-Jewish relations segments are:   The Jewish Onslaught:   Despatches from the Wellesley Battlefront   by Tony Martin; The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews:   Volume I by The Nation of Islam; How the Jews Invented Hollywood:   An Empire of Their Own by Neal Gabler; and The Jewish Phenomenon:   Seven Keys to the Enduring Wealth of a People by Steven Silbiger.   Of course, all books – and these are no different – have pros and cons, but these balance one another pretty well.   Most importantly, however, they all have sources from which you can further your research.

If you missed any other BN-W monitors, just send an e-mail to bannword2@yahoo.com and request that it be sent to you.   As always, we highly encourage you to see these films for yourself and, if applicable, make your own judgment call on the N-word usage – appropriate/inappropriate? necessary/unnecessary? sensible/nonsensical? does it add to or take away from the film’s concept? does the N-word have to be used at all? is there a valid reason for doing so? is it mandatory for the scene(s) to be effective? what are the circumstances/situation that necessitate any use of the word? is it just thrown in for humor, fear, crime, insult? are other culturally insulting slang terms used as much as the N-word in the film?   Lots of questions and a whole lot of reasons to wonder what’s the real purpose and thought process behind why these entertainers, writers, directors, producers, executive producers, distributors, and studios/studio heads and executives give the “greenlight” for these crews to liberally use (or allow to be used) the N-word.

FEATURE FILM(S) :

S M O K I N '   A C E S

[Release Date:   1/26/07]

Starring Common, Alicia Keys, Taraji Henson, Ben Affleck; screenplay written by Joe Carnahan; directed by Joe Carnahan; produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner; executive produced by Robert Graf, Liza Chasin; studio – Universal Pictures
 

NOTE :   Critical thinking is once again paramount when watching all films.   Why were all of the Black actors the only ones using the N-word and the bitch word excessively?  Almost reminded you of a rap song/video and the ghetto image commonly portrayed along with such videos when you saw the Black actors – was that the intent?   We have to again ask, what is the underlying message being sent to the international society – and especially to the youth – when you have a word with this history used so unnecessarily throughout a film by all the Black characters.   What’s even more odd is that Common’s character had the nerve to describe himself as being treated like a “f ield nigger” when he described himself as a nigger/nigga throughout the film.   That’s why he’s not on our list of so-called conscious rappers – Common, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, The Roots, and other rappers considered to be “conscious” all use the N-word in their albums and justify it as a friendly term.   No way, Brothers!

C O N S T E L L A T I O N

[Release Date:   2/2/07]

Starring Billy Dee Williams, Gabrielle Union, Hill Harper; screenplay written by Jordan Walker-Pearlman; directed by Jordan Walker-Pearlman; produced by Shannon Murphy, Jordan Walker-Pearlman; executive produced by [Not Listed]; studio – Bigger Picture
 

NOTE :   The one key thing we just simply never got from this film is why the deep connection between the Gabrielle Union and David Clennon characters and what was the bond.   Other than the Black/White aspect, the build-up to how they fell in love wasn’t there for the viewer.   Their relationship – or actually lack of it – is what’s supposed to tie the film together, but that “relationship” and why it even existed is a mystery.

BN-W Monitor Coming Soon:  “Norbit” [Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding, Jr.]; “Daddy’s Little Girls” [Gabrielle Union, Idris Elba, Louis Gossett Jr.]; “Black Snake Moan” [Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, S. Epatha Merkerson]; “Pride” [Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac, Kimberly Elise]; “I Think I Love My Wife [Chris Rock, Kerry Washington, Gina Torres]; “Reign Over Me” [Don Cheadle, Adam Sandler, Jada Pinkett Smith]; “The Kingdom” [Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner]; “Are We Done Yet? [Ice Cube]; “Perfect Stranger” [ Halle Berry, Bruce Willis]

Also Coming :   Part II:   Black-Jewish Relations; Bi-Monthly Music Monitors