Chilli and the Dark-Skin Division

 

                                                      
         

 Channel surfing the other day, I caught about 2 minutes worth of  What Chilli Wants, a reality show about the dating life of Rozanda "Chilli" Thomas from the group TLC. In the scene, a girlfriend of Chilli asks her why she doesn't like dating black guys. Chilli responds by saying that she likes to date men of all races and nationalities. Then she goes into a rant about how black men date outside of their race all the time and yet for black women the idea is much more taboo; the double standard is stupid. This is not a horrible sentiment in and of itself. In theory, it could make for more peaceful society if we could lay down prejudices and mingle a little more. I'm not some jealous black chick and in no way am wholeheartedly against interracial/ cross cultural dating. But let's not be naive. Let's look at other factors at play, that I sometimes think people don't want to see or acknowledge based on their position in the world. Acceptability of physical and cultural features, real and/or perceived racism and tokenism often keep back women from pursuing or accepting romantic relationships with non-black men.

The So-Called Conscious Clique: In Too Deep

We've all seen enough coffee house scenes and poetry readings in movies where the audience snaps their fingers in appreciation instead of hand clapping. Perhaps you even taken part in something like this, hell even been around a group of black vegans to catch the wind. It looks cool and different in elevated awareness kind of way. Everybody jibing and talking about the struggle, what we need, and preservation of the culture.  If you've ever sat in on the spiritually aware, conscious or natural set you've felt this feeling of embrace, unity, and ultimate goodness that come from being taken to another level or simply being equally yoked with your brothas and sistas. (Snap, Snap).   

A Good Black Flick?

It's not always as easy to come by a good black movie. I don't mean nigga flicks. Those movies, produced a dime a dozen and are often set in the impoverished inner city. The acting is bad, the characters are flat & inconsistent, and they focus more on dazzling the audience with onslaughts of violence, Ebonics, and stereotyped behavior. After sitting through what seems like a thousand of these at the request of friends, I wonder, is it really that much easier for people of color to relate to nigga flicks, action, and bad comedy than any other kind of movie? Other times you find that you have slept on a good one because you can't make heads or tails out of what the film is supposed to be about based on the trailer.

Sadly, What a Father is Not

By now the phenomenon of black children growing up in homes headed by single mothers is no secret, especially when socioeconomic standing is considered. Nor is this occurrence merely a maliciously skewed statistic aimed at the detriment of intact African American/black families. There many reasons and causes for the lack of fathers present in the familial home in black community. Subsequently I've noticed there are many children who go into adulthood that claim an adult male they had known at some point in time to have been a father figure; dad.  However, I think it is sad that so many black children into adulthood wanting father so eagerly that they are willing to claim damn near anyone who had shown them the least bit of affection or interest as a dad. This is not an criticism of why no dad, but what is a dad?