What Did You Think Of The President's Address?

President Barack Obama addresses a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the Capitol in Washington. Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool / AP Photo

 

Share your thoughts below.

Geoffrey Bennett

12:22 PM ET | 02-25-2009 | permalink

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Obama To Address Congress, Nation On Economy

President Obama will address a joint session of Congress tonight, focusing mainly on his plans to fix the flagging economy. Here's more of what you can expect, via the Detroit Free Press:

-- First, as he did with the middle-class tax cut in the stimulus bill, he'll talk up intentions for another campaign promise: health care reform, with guarantees of better access for more people.

-- Second, Obama will work on bolstering the public's trust by recognizing the cost of the stimulus and promising to cut the federal deficit in half by 2013, the end of his term, by trimming some spending (especially by scaling back in Iraq) and raising taxes on the wealthy, as advertised by his campaign.

-- Third, he'll talk about resolve, about commitment to change and about how all these efforts will take time. Don't be surprised if he cautioned against attaching too much importance to a day's or week's swing in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

What do you want to hear from President Obama tonight?

Geoffrey Bennett

11:27 AM ET | 02-24-2009 | permalink

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The 'Post' Cartoon And The Phenomenon Of Dehumanization

Viewed in an academic context, the controversial New York Post editorial cartoon, which some believe mocks President Obama, belongs to a category of racist -- and dangerous -- "cognitive associations."

That is the conclusion of Phillip Atiba Goff, an assistant professor at the department of psychology at the University of California.

Read part of his essay written in response to the furor, excerpted here:

For the better part of the past seven years, my colleagues and I have conducted research on the psychological phenomenon of dehumanization. Specifically, we have examined cognitive associations between African Americans and non-human apes. And the association leads to bad things. When we began the research, we were skeptical of whether or not participants even knew that people of African descent were caricatured as ape-like -- as less than human -- throughout the better part of the past 400 years. And, in fact, many were not. However, even those who were unaware of this historical association demonstrated a cognitive association between blacks and apes. That is, when they thought of apes, they thought of blacks and vice versa -- when they thought of blacks, they thought of apes.

But the fact of this cognitive association was not the most disturbing part of the research. Rather, it was the fact that the association between blacks and apes could lead to violence.

Click here to read more of Goff's findings. Hat tip to Baratunde Thurston of Jack & Jill Politics.

Geoffrey Bennett

3:01 PM ET | 02-19-2009 | permalink

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What's My Name?!

We had one of those conversations on News & Notes today that I think hits home for everybody.

What should you be called if you're an adult and a child addresses you? What about strangers? Or, what if you've achieved a status that has earned a title of one sort or another?

This all started with Barack Obama, of course, whose I'm-just-one-of-the-guys demeanor belies his elected status as the leader of the free world. What further complicates it, is the nasty history of racial subjugation that is so stingingly present when people of color, any color actually, are reduced by the insult of being called "out of their name." The "N" word comes to mind here.

My NPR colleague Karen Grigsby Bates literally wrote the book on the subject of name-calling etiquette, and, coming from a black perspective, she knows full well the reasons why we sometimes call people what we call them.

Having Kevin Ross, a former Los Angeles Superior Court judge, join the conversation made it even more compelling, since his original on-air reference to the president as "Barack" got a lot of listeners upset last week. He didn't back down, but he explained himself.

We all have stories of people mispronouncing our names, not using our titles (if we have one), or being too familiar with us before they know us. Throw in the racial dynamic, and there is the potential for all sorts of unpleasant encounters. Check out the conversation we had, and give us your feedback.

What's in a name depends on who's talking and who they're talking to. I'm reminded of what my dad used to say, tongue partly in cheek. He said, "Call me what you want, just don't call me late for dinner."

Tony Cox

2:05 PM ET | 02-18-2009 | permalink

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Sharpton, 'New York Post' At Odds Over Political Cartoon

Sean Delonas, New York Post

 

Al Sharpton says a political cartoon in today's New York Post (above) "is troubling at best," when viewed in a racial context. The cartoon appears to spoof yesterday's police shooting of a raging chimpanzee in Connecticut and President Obama signing his billion-dollar stimulus bill into law.

Sharpton issued this written statement:

"The cartoon in today's New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this when in the cartoon they have police saying after shooting a chimpanzee that "Now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill."

"Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?"

The Post followed with this:

"The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist."

What do you think?

Geoffrey Bennett

11:35 AM ET | 02-18-2009 | permalink

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Senator Burris Now Admits He Raised Funds For Blagojevich

U.S. Senator Roland Burris addresses allegations at a news conference that he lied under oath during during his testimony at the Illinois House impeachment hearings for former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.Scott Olson, Getty Images

In the latest round of news coming out of Illinois, it appears Senator Roland Burris' ethical credentials are still up in the air.

According to the Chicago Tribune:

U.S. Sen. Roland Burris has acknowledged he sought to raise campaign funds for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich at the request of the governor's brother at the same time he was making a pitch to be appointed to the Senate seat previously held by President Barack Obama.

Burris' latest comments in Peoria Monday night were the first time he has publicly said he was actively trying to raise money for Blagojevich. Previously Burris has left the impression that he always balked at the issue of raising money for the governor because of his interest in the Senate appointment.

Read the entire back-and-forth here.

What is your take on the Burris matter? Please leave your comments below.

Geoffrey Gardner

4:23 PM ET | 02-17-2009 | permalink

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Read & Respond: 'Confessions Of A Reluctant Flag-Waver'

iStockphoto.com

Though he hasn't yet been in office for a full month, President Barack Obama's presence in the White House has sparked a wholesale reevaluation of long-held beliefs and assumptions about race in America.

It extends beyond, for instance, rehashed debates about the continuing relevance of Black History Month to something deeper, which frequent News & Notes guest and Spelman College associate professor William Jelani Cobb considers in a post titled, "Confessions of a Reluctant Flag-Waver."

He writes: "These are strange days. Last August, I was caught on camera waving an American flag at the Democratic National Convention. This from the man who, as a student activist at Howard University, was caught on camera lowering the flag and raising a red, black and green one in its place." The following is an excerpt:

(L)ike all else concerning black people in this country, the interconnectedness of black history and American history has become more complex with age. Since Nov. 4, 2008, it has seemed little more than an indecipherable riddle of identity. There are those who saw the election returns and divined from them a declarative statement, a reply to Frederick Douglass' enduring question, "What to the slave is the 4th of July?" Or maybe a libation poured for those souls who died clearing the route to this moment.

These are strange days. Last August, I was caught on camera waving an American flag at the Democratic National Convention. This from the man who, as a student activist at Howard University, was caught on camera lowering the flag and raising a red, black and green one in its place. The same man who scowled when a military chaplain handed my mother an American flag at my father's funeral. During the uproar over the Confederate flags flying in Georgia, I frequently pointed out that black people suffered for far longer under the stars and stripes than we ever did under the stars and bars. And there are still no simple answers.

There are still voices that see Obama's election as the ultimate gesture of cynicism, the moment at which a black face was put to the service of this nation's global schemes and third-world adventurism. As the 44th president, Obama has necessarily fallen in with a checkered crowd: Washington, who laid out precise numbers of slaves to keep a perfect gender ratio of the Negroes he owned; Jefferson, who crossed out the lines in the Declaration of Independence that condemned the slave trade, copy editing black freedom out of existence. Jackson, who strangled abolitionist efforts and bought a black girl at an auction for his own entertainment; Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed civil rights laws but never relinquished his profane noun of choice for black people. Even Barack's boy, Abraham Lincoln, was arm-twisted into glory and penned the Emancipation Proclamation as he struggled to exile freed blacks outside America's borders. It's this kind of thing that will make your head grow weary of pondering.

On the day after the election, one of my students announced to me that the question was no longer "What to the slave is the 4th of July" but "What to the African American is the 4th of November." I didn't have an answer for her then -- and I still don't. But when I figure that one out, I can holler back about the meaning of Presidents Day.

Read the full post via TheRoot.com, and share your thoughts.

Geoffrey Bennett

12:09 PM ET | 02-17-2009 | permalink

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Asa Blends French, Nigerian Musical Influences

Singer/songwriter Asa was born in Paris but spent her childhood and adolescence in Lagos, Nigeria.

She returned to Paris as an adult to test her talent on the French music scene. But it was in Nigeria where Asa first discovered the sounds that would influence the music she creates.

On today's show, Tony Cox spoke with Asa about her burgeoning career, and then she performed her song "Jailer" for us in-studio. Below is a video excerpt of that interview and performance.

Geoffrey Gardner

1:41 PM ET | 02-10-2009 | permalink

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Maiysha Defies Genres With Soulful Debut

Minneapolis-born songbird Maiysha is a true blend of beauty and talent. The graduate of Sarah Lawrence College is a former model and teacher.

Now, Maiysha is a Grammy-nominated artist -- recognized for her single, "Wanna Be." Her debut album, This Much is True, is a genre bender, mixing hip hop rhythms with jazz and funk grooves.

She spoke with host Tony Cox on today's show. Listen to the full interview, and watch her live, in-studio performance of "Wanna Be."

Geoffrey Gardner

5:21 PM ET | 02- 6-2009 | permalink

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Reid & Dreesen: An Odd Couple Of Comedy

In the late 1960s, when assassinations shook this country to the core and race riots engulfed whole neighborhoods, Tim Reid and Tom Dreseen -- one black and the other white -- decided that America was ready for interracial comedy.

But most audiences didn't quite know what to make of them.

On Wednesday's show, Tony Cox spoke with Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen about their new book, which chronicles their partnership: Tim and Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White.

Click here to listen to that interview.

Geoffrey Gardner

3:48 PM ET | 02- 5-2009 | permalink

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Rev. Wright Talks Blago, Burris, And Bailout

News & Notes regular bloggers' roundtable guest, Amani Channel, recently got the chance to ask a few wide-ranging questions to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Wright, you'll remember, is President Obama's former pastor, who found himself embroiled in a YouTube-fueled controversy during the campaign.

Here is the story, courtesy of My Urban Report:

Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright who gained notoriety during the 2008 Presidential race for his well publicized comments about America made a stop at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta on Friday to receive an award at the 2nd Annual H.O.T.E.P Lecture Series.

After he was presented with his award he sat down for about fifteen minutes to speak to local media. We were instructed not to ask him any questions about his relationship with President Obama. It seems a local newspaper reporter got a little aggressive with the questions earlier in the day and he almost decided to nix the rest of the interviews.

WXIA-TV, WAGA-TV, The Atlanta Voice, and a Morehouse student reporter all respected the request, but we did ask him questions about the bailout, the Blagojevich situation and Senator Burris. As a reporter, when you're asked not to ask a question, you have to find ways to ask around the question, so when I got my chance I asked if he thinks America is really on the cusp of change.

Geoffrey Gardner

11:28 AM ET | 02- 2-2009 | permalink

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Did Hudson's 'Anthem' Surpass Houston's?

Jennifer Hudson (2009):

Whitney Houston (1991):

Which is better?

Geoffrey Bennett

1:59 AM ET | 02- 2-2009 | permalink

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