Monday, June 27, 2016

Vice-President Elizabeth Warren? Not So Fast

Madame Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton Von DemocraticParty is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the Presidency of the United States.  Senator Bernie Sanders is out of contention, but has not conceded yet.  But Sanders has expressed that he will vote for Clinton.  We are now at the state where we get to speculate on the Vice-Presidential picks.  

One name has been coming up, time after time.

Progressive firebrand Senator Elizabeth Warren.

"Hm.  How many more ways can I get under Donald Trump's skin?"
I love Senator Warren.  She has been bringing the pain on progressive issues for a little while now.  She has been very vocal about such issues as reining in the payday loan industry.  Recently, she has been taking the fight straight to Republican nominee and ignorant f&%*muppet Donald Trump (thanks, Scots, for the beautifully obscene insults).  She has been consistent and relentless, and as Ice T put it back in 1987, Warren is "like a pit bull lockin' on a doberman's neck."

Senator Warren had a recent joint campaign event with Hillary Clinton, and continued to stick her thumb into Trump's eye.  And the bloviating fleshbag and clueless numpty's only response was to call Sen. Warren "Goofy Elizabeth" and "Pocahontas."  Warren has demonstrated that she runs circles around Trump by doing this:  POCAHONTAS.  <--- go ahead.  Click on the link.  Sheer genius.

Does that mean that she would make a great Vice President?  She's obviously a great surrogate.  And personally, I think that Hillary Clinton should be thanking sweet baby Jesus that Warren did not make a run for the Presidency.  She would have given Hillary more fits than then-Senator Obama did.  But she didn't, a slue of others including Bernie Sanders did, and now here we are.  But let's discuss Senator Warren as a Vice-Presidential candidate.

NO.



It's not due to qualifications, as she is imminently qualified.  Elizabeth Warren should not be Secretary Clinton's running mate for the following reasons.

1:  MAKE-UP OF THE U.S. SENATE
If Senator Warren becomes Vice President, that creates a vacancy in the Senate.  If we have learned nothing over the last eight years, we should have learned that a sitting President needs all the support in Congress he/she can get.  We have been dealing with partisan obstructionism for most of the past 8 years.  There are no guarantees in politics, including the type of Senator that would replace Vice-President Warren.  This segment from this ThinkProgress article pretty much sums it up.

// Massachusetts currently has a Republican governor, who would be able to name a temporary replacement to fill Warren’s senate seat if the Massachusetts lawmaker became vice president. And, even though this seat would eventually be filled by the winner of a special election, there’s no certainty that Massachusetts voters will choose another Democrat to fill Warren’s seat. Just ask former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA). //
As crucial as this election is, and considering everything that's at state, we can't afford to have a Republican fill a seat vacated by Warren, no matter how temporary.  And as the segment lays out, there's no guarantee that a special election would seat a progressive.  After all, the late Liberal Lion of the Senate was replaced by Scott Brown.

2.  THE GOOD SOLDIER
One of the things that makes a good Vice-President is the ability to be a good soldier.  No one has proved that point better than President Obama's own personal enforcer, Vice President Joe Biden.



Throughout President Obama's two terms, Joe Biden has been loyal to a fault.  And like the best lieutenants, he did not outshine the man in charge.  Even with his so-called gaffes, he did not draw attention away from the President or steal the President's spotlight.  

Which brings us to Senator Warren.  As much of a surrogate that she is for Secretary Clinton, does this mean that she will take a back seat to President Clinton?  Hillary Clinton needs someone who wouldn't overshadow her, and Senator Warren's current status as a progressive firebrand could run the risk of stealing the spotlight from the always-pragmatic Clinton.  Whoever Clinton picks, it will be someone that won't have the crowd thinking "Why didn't THIS person win?"  And the LAST thing that she needs to pick is someone who will run the country from behind the dark curtain.

Yeah... "Vice" President... yeah, right.
3. KEEPING PRESIDENT CLINTON HONEST
I have a theory that President Obama governed as a center-right Republican and got a pass.  And to quote the great philosopher Herman Cain, I don't have the facts to back that up.  But I believe that overall, we were so focused on the obstruction that President Obama faced, and getting what seemed to be the most basic things done, that we didn't hold him accountable enough for such things as support for the TransPacific Partnership and not bringing criminal charges to the bankers and hedge fund managers that collapsed the economy.

Now, we are in a position to keep the White House Democratic, and we may be in a position to take back the Senate and the House of Representatives, and reshape the United States Supreme Court.  So, we will need to make sure that President Clinton has all of the Congressional support she needs, to pass her legislative ideas.

But remember, as much as Clinton campaigned about being a progressive, she's pretty much as center-right as President Obama is, and even moreso on issues such as national security.  We have to make sure that President Clinton is fulfilling her promises, and not giving away the store to Wall Street.  This is why Senator Warren is still needed in the Senate.  Senator Bernie Sanders has done a great job of pushing Secretary Clinton to the left on a lot of campaign issues, including things like a living wage.  Senators like Warren, Sanders, and others more to her ideological left will (hopefully) assure that Clinton's pendulum won't swing more towards the right.

4.  DE-FANGING SENATOR WARREN
This is probably the biggest reason why I don't feel that Warren should be Clinton's VP.  As mentioned earlier, Senator Warren is becoming a progressive firebrand, with the gravitas to be taken seriously and not dismissed as a loon.  A Vice-President Warren can't call out President Clinton if Clinton decides that fracking is cool, or that payday loan institutions have no pals in the White House.  A Warren Vice-Presidency pretty much silences Warren, and relegates her to the role of Clinton's lieutenant, Clinton's second-in-command.  

Senator Warren needs to continue to bring the pain from the Senate floor.  And there are plenty of other qualified people who will gladly fulfill the role of Clinton's Good Lieutenant.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Inside The GOP Convention... A S.A.L.T. Exclusive

Through the magic of time travel, I was able to view the last day of the GOP Convention, and I am here to tell you how it all unfolded.  Buckle up, kids.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ted Nugent and Scott Baio just finished their rendition of the National Anthem.

Oh Say Can You Gun, by the gun's early gun... 
Chachi was in rare form, blaming President Obama for the fact that crescent rolls aren't called "Big C bread", and the audience applauded with glee.  Shouts of "USA, USA" rose from the audience, and the White Aryan Resistance and members of the Ku Klux Klan embraced each other in this new spirit of renewed brotherhood.  They exchanged cross-burning techniques and figured out the best angle in which to give the Hitler salute.

She's baking KKKookies and bringing milk.  WHITE milk, of course.


Everyone is stoked.  They know that today is the day that they will pick their new Supreme Leader, who will finally fulfill the promise of making that pesky Barack Obama a one-term President.

Suddenly, all the lights go out.

The crowd gasps with anticipation.

A single spotlight shines on the stage, and it follows a lone tricycle to the center of the stage.

The crowd starts to go wild!  They can't possibly figure out what's going on, but they figure that it's something that will completely destroy the liberal media.

"Maybe it's like when that Clint Eastwood feller talked to that empty stool!  YEE HAW!!! I gits it!  Oblammo is the empty tricycle!"
The spotlight on the tricycle remains, and the house lights flicker.  A buzz and crackle of static emanates through the sound system.  The static clears, and this song begins playing.


While this song is playing, the giant ReaganTron6000 monitors flicker between a series of test patterns, static, and random error messages.  Then, this image appears on the screen:



Most of the crowd think that this is yet another mockery of President Obama, and the clap and yelp like rabid hyenas on bath salts.  The yelping dies down as some Republicans begin to recognize that face, and connect it to the tricycle and the music.  The excited and victorious atmosphere is now transformed to an atmosphere of terror.  At that moment, the "keynote speech" begins.

"Hello, Republicans.  You have been misleading the populace with the trickle-down prophecies of St. Ronald of Reagan, and you have been demonizing poor people, minorities, and anyone who isn't a white, Christian male for decades.  With the election of President Barack Hussein Obama in 2008, you turned dog-whistle rhetoric into full-blown, uncompromising bigotry.

"You formed a cabal to block every initiative that this President offers, promising to make him a one-term President on the day of his inauguration.  You gave voice to, and legitimized, a weapons-grade moron in the form of Sarah Palin.  In 2010, you took advantage of voter disaffection and ushered in a wave of do-nothing politicians in the form of the Tea Potty Party.  The rise of the Tea Party gave political birth to the likes of Ted Cruz, Joni Ernst, Tom Cotton, Mark Kirk, and other people who aren't qualified to write bylaws for a game of tag, let alone write laws for the United States.  You have stepped into the abyss willingly and gleefully.

"In 2012, you had a chance to redeem yourself, and to prove that you were not clinically insane.  But you rejected relative moderate John Huntsman as your party's candidate for the Presidency, and went with billionaire vulture capitalist Mitt Romney,  Romney, of course, was defeated handily.

"Your party's members have been disrespectful to the President, even yelling 'You lie' during a State of the Union address.  You have descended into the mouth of madness when you convinced yourself that the President is a Kenyan-born socialist Muslim communist anti-American, exotic 'other.'  The National Rifle Association has convinced you that this 'usurper' is coming for your guns, causing you to panic and buy every gun in stock.  The NRA, the gun manufacturers, and the hedge fund mangers that invest in them are laughing at you, all the way to the bank.

"You made your choice this year when you selected a leader of the Birther movement to be the standard-bearer for your party.  You allowed Donald Trump to ascend from reality TV show host to the presumptive Republican nominee.  And Mr. Trump, rather than tone down incendiary rhetoric to move towards the 'center' of political discourse, continued to wallow in racism, bigotry conspiracy theories, and vicious innuendo that would make TMZ blush with pride.  Your candidate has revoked press privileges for any media outlet that has not kissed his ring.  Reporters are finally beginning to hold Mr. Trump to task for his comments about President Obama having allowed a madman to murder 49 people and injure dozens more in this country's latest mass shooting.

"Now, you must make one more choice.  Choose Donald Trump as the nominee, and you seal your party's fate as that of racists, bigots, the hateful, and the ignorant.  Every down-ballot candidate in your party will be connected to the nominee.

"Choose another person to be the nominee, and you will create chaos from the rabid, violent mouthbreathers that Donald Trump has encouraged throughout the campaign.  Your party will be splintered into tiny racist shards, unable to reassemble and take the White House.

"But understand this, Republicans and your delegates.  No matter which option you choose, the end result for the Republican Party will be...

** Jigsaw removes his mask, and the true terrifying mastermind reveals himself **



...GAME OVER."

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Attention, Protesters: Stay Away From The RNC Convention!

This is Donald J. Trump.

"The mushroom clouds and apocalypse are gonna be YOOOOJ!"


He is the presumptive Republican nominee for the Presidency of the United States.  Later, we can discuss how we got here.  But for now, let's focus on the near future.  And the near future is the upcoming Republican National Committee Convention.  This is the huge event where they officially nominate the candidate as their party's standard bearer.

Now, Trump campaign rallies have been rife with violence against protesters, so much so that a video superimposed Trump encouraging violence against protesters with footage of civil rights protesters being beaten and attacked by the police, and the result is truly horrifying and terribly accurate.  Yes, we've been here before, and this is the America that Trump wants to take us back to.

I'm hoping that the protesters stay away from the RNC convention this year.  Not because they may be subject to assault by Trump staffers, and harassed and attacked by Trump supporters.

No.

Protesters need to stay away from the RNC protest because it will be a cataclysmic disaster.  Every day that passes presents a new opportunity for Trump to alienate a potential voter base.  His most recent remarks put him square against the U.S. Army, when he accused "an" Army of stealing cash meant for Iraqi citizens.

Yep, Trump is attacking the troops.

Trump's campaign is a living, breathing dumpster fire.  Or, as my friend who runs the Primarily Politics Facebook Page says, it's a Trumpster Fire.

Pictured:  Donald Trump's Campaign, coming to an alley near you

The reason why protesters should stay away is because the Republican Party is in the verge of collapse.  Republicans everywhere are either trying to disavow Trump, or having regrets about endorsing him, or hint at some sort of palace coup at the convention.  They will either nominate Trump, signaling Republican Armageddon, or they will work behind the scenes to nominate someone else, much to Trump's and his supporters' chagrin... which will also signal Republican Armageddon.

What we need is to let this entire cataclysm play itself out.  The last thing any of these warring factions needs is a common enemy to unite them.  We don't need to see Trump supporters distracted by things such as immigration reform, Trump's racism, Trump's sexism, Trump's failed businesses, Trump's comments about the military, or any of that.  We need for them to focus on Trump, and whether or not Paul Ryan will stab Trump in the back.

This is a grand opportunity for anyone opposed to anything that the Tea Potty and the Republicans stand for.  And when it comes time for the Convention to roll around, all we have to do sit back and watch it all unfold.

The RNC Convention concludes on a positive note.


But hey, if you must go, stay out of the blast radius and bring the hotdogs and marshmallows.  S'mores for everybody.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Media, DO YOUR JOB REGARDING DONALD TRUMP.

Flag, show us on the doll where the orange monster touched you....

Donald Trump is several things.  He's a misogynist, a bully, and a racist.  He's a blowhard, he's crass, and his ostentatious display of wealth represents the worst of humanity.  He is the living embodiment of the Scripture that teaches that the love of money is the root of all evil.  He only measures a person's goodness by relating it to what they can do for him, personally (work for him, do business with him, tell great stories about his wealth).  He has no use for anyone that can't do anything for him directly.  This includes the idiot voters who mistake the rantings of a power-mad lunatic for qualifications to be the President of the United States.

Donald Trump is also the presumptive Republican nominee for the Presidency of the United States.  Time and time again, he has proven just how unfit he is for office.  His response to every tragedy around the world is to somehow bring it back to how great he is.

The horrific Orlando shooting is no exception.  Rather than offer support to the families of the dead and injured, Trump took the moment to humble-brag by accepting congratulations from his supporters about how right they are about Trump's stance on Islam and terrorism.  He also went to one of his familiar trope of attacking President Obama.

Let's be clear.  Trump has been attacking President Obama from the beginning, by launching and supporting birtherism.  Trump has been peddling in the filth of racism and bigotry for years, and his "campaign" to prove that President Obama was not a U.S. Citizen led to a demand that a sitting President "show his papers" to prove that he's a citizen.  So, Trump's latest salvo against the President comes as no surprise.

This time, Trump suggests that President Obama is either weak, or secretly a Muslim terrorist sympathizer.  These were Trump's words.

 “What I want them to do is be tough and vigilant. Our government, we’re led by a man that is a very– look, we’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind. And the something else in mind, you know, people can’t believe it. People cannot — they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the ways he acts and can’t even mention the words radical Islamic terrorism. There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable. There’s something going on, and I know there’s gonna be.”

Seriously.

Now, it's time for the real media to do its job.  Jake Tapper did a brilliant job of holding Trump to his comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel.  Tapper did not let up on calling Trump on Trump's insistence that Curiel's Hispanic background somehow disqualified the judge from the case involving the fraudulent Trump University.

Again, Trump is the Republican Party's standard bearer, and that party's nominee for the Presidency.  Tapper interview notwithstanding, the media outlets have literally been letting Trump phone in the interviews, direct the conversation, and dictate what should or shouldn't be discussed.  In light of Trump's callous and un-statesmanlike response to the Orlando shooting, the media should be asking him tough questions.  Questions like:


  • Early on in Trump's campaign, he stated that he knows how to defeat ISIS, and that he knows more than the media and the generals.  What does he know, how did he acquire the information, and why is he holding it from the American people?  If his response is that he won't reveal his plans to defeat ISIS unless/until he is elected President, ask him why he is blackmailing American citizens.
  • Since the attacker in the Orlando shooting was born in America, how would his plan to deport Muslims affect American-born Muslims?  Will they be rounded up and placed in concentration or internment caps?
  • Would he agree with President Obama's comments about someone on an FBI terrorist watch-list still being able to buy a gun?  Or does he support the NRA's assertion that everybody should have guns, and regulation is for commies?
  • What is he willing to do to address conservative supporters that wallow in Christian extremism, who treat the Orlando shooting as an example of God's divine retribution?


The media should be asking him these questions all the time.  And they should not let him off the hook.  They should demand that he answer the questions, or declare that the interview is over.  They shouldn't allow him to phone interviews in, as he has abused phone privileges.  Media outlets, hold him accountable or you risk a journalistic catastrophe on par with the appalling run-up to the Iraq War.

You have a job to do, media.

DO YOUR JOB.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Democrats, Progressives, We Gon' Be Alright...

...to quote Kendrick Lamar. Here's why.

During the 2008 campaign...

...P.U.M.A. was so much of a thing that people thought that it would split the Democratic Party...

...then-Senator Clinton invoked Rev. Jeremiah Wright, stating that he would not be HER pastor (side note: People who never listened to the sermon don't know that during that "infamous" sermon, the oh-so-terrible Rev. Dr. Wright praised President Clinton as "an intelligent friend in the White House", as opposed to the "dumb Dixiecrat" that succeeded him).

...then-Senator Clinton stated that she wished the primaries were run like the Republican primaries...

...Bill Clinton showed his behind in dismissing then-Senator Obama's South Carolina victory...

...I was so concerned about then-Senator Clinton's upcoming speech, thinking that she was going to send the Democratic Party into chaos and give in to P.U.M.A. acolytes...

...then-Senator Clinton used the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and hinted that an assassination is still plausible (much to everyone's horror) as a reason to stay in the race and not concede...

...then-Senator Clinton was caught lying about being under sniper fire, to the point that comedian Sinbad fact-checked her...

...her campaign was run by Mark Penn, who proved to be completely outclassed by the Obama campaign in every area...

...then-Senator Clinton went to a Black church, talking about "I don't feel no ways tah'r'd..."

...lastly, Clinton gave, at that time, the most dynamic speech of her campaign, her concession speech which included a full-throated, unequivocal endorsement of then-Senator Obama. And gave an equally dynamic speech at the DNC Convention.

At times, the 2008 campaign was very nasty. It was a clash of sexism vs. racism. Then-Senator Clinton campaigned as if the Presidency was a foregone conclusion, and that campaigning was a mere formality. She took the Black vote for granted, and she paid dearly for it. She campaigned as if the "goodwill" generated by Bill Clinton's presidency would automatically be conferred upon her.

Then-Senator Clinton erased a lot of rancor and built bridges with her speeches congratulating and endorsing then-Senator Obama.

Now, the roles are switched, with Secretary Hillary Clinton as the presumptive nominee and Senator Bernie Sanders as the underdog candidate. This race has had its moments, with the rise of "Bernie Bros" playing the role that P.U.M.A. played last time around. And, the Democratic National Committee has a patently awful chairman in the person of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who makes RNC chief and useless tub of goo Reince Priebus look competent by comparison. Her obvious bias towards Sec. Clinton was the LEAST of Wasserman-Schultz's sins, as she oversaw tremendous congressional and gubernatorial losses for the Democrats in previous years.

But despite Wasserman-Schultz, and despite allegations of a "rigged" contest, we now have Madame Secretary Hillary R. Clinton as the presumptive nominee for the Presidency of the United States. And, love it or hate it, we gon' be alright.

Why?

Because after all of the venom and bile of the 2008 campaign, both sides came together, only leaving outliers to kvetch and moan about the results.

We gon' be alright because the Republicans have put up, without hyperbole, the WORST candidate in their party's history. This candidate is so bad that two living Presidents in HIS party won't endorse him, and Republican politicians are trying to jump ship to disconnect themselves from their party's standard-bearer. But it won't work. I'm looking at YOU, Senator Mark Kirk.

We gon' be alright because we were alright in 2008, when the candidate that didn't win lent her full support to the winner.

We gon' be alright if Bernie Sanders makes an equally dynamic speech, offering a full-throated endorsement of Secretary Clinton while still being a (better) advocate for progressive issues. I'm optimistic that despite it all, Sanders will "do the job" (to use a pro-wrestling fan term) and endorse the party's nominee unequivocally. The onus is now on him to help bridge the gap between his supporters and hers. If Sanders is the man of character that I believe him to be, then his concession speech will be graceful, eloquent, and positive. 

Lastly, we gon' be alright because President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and others will all be unleashed (Sen. Warren has already been giving Trump the "Samsonite Luggage Test" treatment). Robert Reich said it best when he endorsed Senator Sanders: Secretary Clinton is the best candidate for the system we have now. And like it or not, we're here now. We gon' be alright if we coalesce behind Secretary Clinton while the GOP dumpster fire rages out of control.

We can do this. We can vote down-ballot, to get rid of the Tea Potty once and for all, relegating them to the dustbin of history. 

WE GON' BE ALRIGHT.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

The Roots Remake - Is It Needed?

The History Channel went and did it.  They messed around and rebooted a groundbreaking series.  In a departure from their usual programming (which seems to be "All Hitler, All The Time"), they remade the classic TV series "Roots."

If you're my age, which is somewhere between "older than a Millennial" and "younger than a Baby Boomer", then there's only one "Roots" you remember.


THIS ONE.

As far as Black pop culture was concerned, this was the definitive telling of the horrors of the TransAtlantic Slave trade and African-American history.  We felt the pain when Kunta Kinte finally told the slavemaster that his name was "Toby."  I remember an older Kunta Kinte saying, after he got his foot chopped off, saying "I'm not gon' learn to walk... I'm gon' learn to RUN", and feeling a bit of pride.  And how many of us held up newborn babies to the moonlight?

No, I didn't do this.  I was a kid when the original first came out, for goodness' sake.

The Original Recipe Roots gave us an almost complete timeline from slavery and captivity to freedom, to every aspect of American History, to Alex Haley going back to the Motherland to meet his family.  It was about as good a Black History class as what was being taught in the schools.

Fast forward to 2016.

We are in an age of reboots.  Batman has been rebooted to rescue us from the dark ages of the Schumacher era...

NEVER FORGET

...to Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne meets the Marlboro Man, to Ben Affleck picking up the cowl.  Spider-Man has been rebooted so many times that Aunt Mae is getting younger and younger at each reboot.  Ghostbusters is being rebooted with women.  Superman has... 

...there have been a lot of reboots, is all I'm saying.

Of course, the natural instinct is to boo and hiss at any idea of a remake of Roots, for several reasons.

1)  Original Recipe Roots was a classic, and should not be touched.  Clearly, Hollywood is out of ideas if they have to desecrate the sacred grounds of this classic.

2)  Aren't we TIRED of "slave narrative" movies?  Geez!  Every movie has to be about slaves and Black degradation and humiliation.  "12 Years A Slave"?  It was good, but come on... "Django Unchained"?  Really?  Who greenlit THAT?  Blah blah blah, rat-a-tat-tat, hibbity jibbity.

Funny thing about point #2.  This comprehensive piece completely dispels the myth that the majority of American movies with Black actors are slave narratives.  It also points out something that is more horrifying.  If you look at the timeline of movies from 2006 until now, you will see that Tyler Perry has released more movies than movies with so-called "slave narratives."  

THAT should horrify you.  (snark)

Of course, the new Roots miniseries is making the rounds in social media.  A person asked this:

// What are these slaves movies going to do besides piss us off again //

That's when I responded with this, as to what "slave movies are going to do":
How about countering the efforts of conservatives to rewrite history? A Texas history book tried to reduce the TransAtlantic Slave Trade to "migrant worker patterns" for people "looking for better opportunities."
If it takes a million reboots of "Roots" to report history accurately, I am here for it. I don't have to watch them, but at least more people will know that the horrors of slavery weren't part of a "job creation program."

You see, slavery has always been under attack by conservatives.  They have been telling Black people to "get over slavery", since it ended hundreds of years ago.  That point fails to mention the aftermath of slavery, from the Reconstruction to Jim Crow laws to the Civil Rights movement to modern attacks on the Voting Rights Act.  And if they aren't trying to minimize the horrors of slavery (something that's never said to any other group that has been subjugated and marginalized), they're trying to rewrite history.

A geography book publisher tried to rewrite enslaved Africans as "immigrants" or "workers."  And a map even had THIS picture:
Y'all see that, right?

Pet Negro Apologists like Jesse Lee Peterson try to give everyone the Black Conservative Perspective, by uttering such weapons-grade nonsense like "We should be thanking God for slavery!"  

And that's when it hit me.  Just as a meme that I saw stating that the Ghostbusters redo wasn't for the fans of the original, but it was for little girls who dream of owning their own proton packs and sending demonic spirits back to the gates of Hell, the Roots remake may just not be for me.

It may not BE for those of us who are fully aware of the horrors of slavery.  It may not BE for those of us who saw the original series in our formative years, and gave us a sense of a knowledge of who we are and where we come from.  We, the Black Generation X-ers who grew up on "Good Times", "The Jeffersons", Sugar Hill Gang, early Public Enemy, and "All In The Family", may not BE the target audience for this venture.

THIS venture may be for those who have no idea just how horrible and dehumanizing slavery was.  It may be for those whose only exposure to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the "I Have A Dream" speech that's played every February.  It may be for those who are being taught that the TransAtlantic Slave Trade was nothing more than "migrant worker patterns."

And you know what?

I'm here for it.  I may not watch the new series (more about my own personal preferences than taking a stand one way or another).  And I don't have to watch it.  None of us do.  But if it takes another "slave narrative" to combat any attempts to whitewash slavery, I'm here for it.  I'm here for it all day.  Because if we're not careful, the tales of horror and abuse and ungodly dehumanizing get reduced to happy-clappy stuff like slaves who are happy to cook for George Washington, and Sally Hemings/Thomas Jefferson is a torrid tale of a forbidden love affair.

In the meantime, I'll be over there waiting for the reign of T'Challa to begin.