Michelle Obama Jumps to Freedom!

The First Lady continues to keep it very, very real in the White House. Seeing Michelle Obama get down on the double-dutch at the White House Healthy Kids Fair makes me wonder if Paul Mooney’s prediction that we will never have another White man for President is actually true.

People seem to be responding with impassioned interest in the fact that our First Lady proudly participates in her cultural heritage, showcasing her unpretentious nature. Almost every Black girl in America can remember the back and forth jutting of your arms and neck before breathlessly jumping in-between the dual ropes, navigating them to the rhythm of your childhood (or at least trying to-I never got that down).

As my grandmother never thought she’d see a Black man be elected President I never thought I’d see the First Family engage in this level of fun and freedom with an activity that harks back to the days of the sweetness of Stevie Wonder’s voice floating through the radio, landing on your ears like the taste of black licorice on your tongue, or like the unmistakable scent of Royal Crown grease lingering on your scalp right after getting your hair braided before you go outside into the summer sun. It’s a good thing.

Michelle Obama’s willingness to display her double-dutch skills reminds us that we need fun, we need lightness, and we need to preserve the child inside. When’s the last time ANY political figure reminded us of that?

The positive response to the images of Michelle Obama’s unhampered joy only further affirms that this country has been in desperate need of something new; new leadership, with a new face and a new spirit. Michelle Obama demonstrated that we also need to have the courage to be authentic; un-bothered and un-worried about what others may have to say. So be free, be fun, be yourself and get your jump on!

How did you feel seeing Michelle Obama get her double-dutch on at the White House?

Ice-T Sells Guns!

This week on the “Tonight Show” actor and rapper Ice-T talked about his foray into the virtual world industry when he discussed his partnership with IMVU, a website where users can adopt virtual personas in a virtual world and buy virtual things from virtual vendors. Users never actually get the things they pay real money for. (Even Ice-T had to remark on the ignorance of the users who utilize that feature.) Ice-T is one of these virtual vendors, having set up (no shocker here), a tattoo parlor and a gun store. (No surprise from a grown man from the hood who proudly recounted his days wearing rollers and house–shoes…to school!) It is what it is, but it’s nothing to brag about. And neither is Ice-T’s “Twitter gang”.

Ice-T explained how he encourages his Twitter followers to gang-up on fellow Tweeters if they express disagreement/discontent with something he Tweets. Ice-T commands that his “Twitter gang” intimidate the dissenting Tweeter until s/he surrenders or closes the account. The need for this kind of control is pathetic, and only perpetuates the stereotypes of the frightening Black man.

One of the sad things about the Hip-Hop culture is that it doesn’t encourage its community to grow up. Grown men are walking around with their pants to their knees and sporting t-shirts and hoodies like honor badges letting everyone know they’re part of a sub-culture that promotes the immature attitudes of misguided youth, not to mention the ever present violence.

You can take the boy out of the hood and you can actually take the hood out of the boy-if you chose. The fact that Ice-T has created a longstanding career as an entertainer and surpassed the circumstances of his childhood environment is a pretty outstanding achievement; one that should come with some sense of responsibility, and some basic common sense.

Too many young Black men are still dying-being murdered by each other with guns. Just this week here in New York Brian Scott, a Black eighteen year-old high school senior was gunned down after school while hanging out with his friends over nothing. With great opportunity comes great accountability. A Black man in the public eye should feel compelled to be part of the solution, not the problem.

Okay, it’s just a virtual game but it promotes a violent attitude and lifestyle. In fairness, Ice-T does his share of charity work, but if he in fact has a level of commitment to youth, then can’t the commitment and consciousness be carried over into his money making ventures? There are plenty of ways to make money that don’t further contribute to the crisis of violence among young people and society as a whole. Does Ice-T need money that badly? (How many outfits from Frederick’s of Hollywood does Coco really need?)

Again, it’s time to redefine “keeping it real”. It should no longer mean being illiterate, insolent and hostile. We shouldn’t need to use the fact that a Black man is President to motivate other Black men in or out of the spotlight to step it up-period. We’re not asking Ice-T to turn into Hill Harper, but to think of the real ramifications of his choices. A Black man selling virtual guns is an actual shame.

What do you think of Ice-T's new venture?

It's a Big Girl World!

Karl Lagerfeld believes that no one wants to see a woman with curves. Well sorry dude, because big girls seem to be taking over! From the “Queen of Talk” Oprah, (yeah we know her weight fluctuates, but right now, she's "fluffy") to “The View’s” Sherri Shepherd, The Food Network’s Sunny Anderson and the newest additions of Wendy Williams and “The Mo’Nique Show”, it would appear that it’s all about the big (black) girls! And if you look around, big girls are popping up all over the place! (And here “big girl” is a compliment. At almost 6 feet tall and no size six, I’m a big girl too!—and loud and proud about it!)

We all know Sherri Shepherd just premiered her new sitcom, aptly titled, “Sherri” on Lifetime, which in a time when network television seems to be in a Black-out with no Black shows on the fall schedule is a big damn deal. (Oh, I forgot about “Brothers” on Fox-I think everyone has.) Yvette Nicole Brown, who’s transitioned from a thriving career in commercials co-stars in “Community”, provides the sitcom with some of its most hysterical moments. And comedian Loni Love makes regular and hilarious appearances on “Chelsea Lately”. (I love it when she goes off when Chelsea turns to her to explain some ridiculous thing some ridiculous Black person has done—as if she’s the authority on ridiculous Black people!)

Also, we just saw Kym Whitley display her signature comedic talent in a guest appearance on Sherri’s show, and will be featured in the upcoming movie, “Black Dynamite”. And though we’re waiting for Star Jones’ next move, (yes we know she lost weight, but before the transition), she put herself on the map with her legal expertise and (in)famous stint co-hosting “The View”. Even though she’s skinny now, she will always be a “big girl” in my head, and I mean that in the best way!

Queen Latifah was one of the first modern media figures to truly transcend the stigma and stereotypes of being a woman of stature and has consistently represented big girls in a way that conveys confidence, undeniable talent and proves that beauty manifests in all shapes and sizes. Conquering Hip-Hop, television and film, Queen Latifah has been a big girl doing it, and doing it well.

From Billie Holiday to Aretha Franklin to our new crop of big girls who leave indelible impressions with everything they do, big girls rule!

These women are not defined by their size, but by the talent and skills they bring to the game. And any woman can be a big girl with big talent, big beauty, big intellect and big love!


Peace!

The Mo'Nique Show

Mo’Nique’s late night show finally debuted on BET (I’m still not convinced it’s a real network) and um, can I just say that it made me miss Arsenio?—damn near made me miss Magic Johnson!—okay, it wasn’t that bad. Late night television can definitely use some cultural diversity not to mention a dose of estrogen, and while this new endeavor is appreciated, it would actually be refreshing to see a new host who may not have a lot of experience but can pull it off without letting us know.

Mo’Nique’s syndicated radio show was cancelled after being on the air for less than a year due to a rumored dip in ratings which may speak to the theory that Mo’Nique’s forte isn’t hosting. "The Mo’Nique Show" isn’t a complete disaster, but it’s pretty much exactly what I expected. Read into that what you will...

As a comedian Mo’Nique is top rate. And as a comedic actress she’s a consistent scene stealer who never holds back which makes her performances notable and hilarious. In the upcoming dark drama "Precious", surely she’ll continue to show us her ever evolving range, but that doesn’t mean she should host a show-just yet-not before she learns how to stop yelling.

Why is Mo’Nique so loud? She screams every other word and punctuates everything with “oh, baby!” She also gets oddly and unnecessarily dramatic. It’s not that deep Mo', really. As Kandi on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” would say, “bring it on down!” For real ‘dough!

When someone is really good at what they do, they make it look easy, and clearly, hosting a show takes a bit more than the ability to do a stand-up routine. And ugh, do we have to have the ghetto sidekick? The suit doesn’t make any of his jokes any funnier, just fancier.

Now, two cute things about the show are the big girl dancers. They put it down! But Mo’Nique is losing weight, so will the dancers get smaller too? The encouragement award presented to Steve Harvey was also a nice touch that hopefully foreshadows the possibility that “The Mo’Nique Show” has potential--whether or not it will live up to it remains to be seen. (Tyra still hasn’t gotten it together, continuing to trip over simple words while trying really hard to appear articulate.)

Just because television lacks diversity doesn’t indicate that we should accept/settle for just anything. So hopefully improvements will be made and "The Mo’Nique Show”, while currently pretty average, will take advantage of its room to grow. I’ll keep watching. Will you?

Have you seen “The Mo’Nique Show"? What do you think?