on the dig

Between 2000 and 2001, I worked at 7 World Trade Center for Salomon Brothers. Three to five times a week, I would take the elevator to the 37th Floor, put on a tux, and serve fresh fruit and coffee to VPs in lavish conference rooms. The job didn’t pay well [no tips], but it was a…

After weeks of confusion and discussion over Caster Semenya’s gender, one abominable thing has happened.  She’s been put on the cover of South Africa’s YOU magazine.  And no, she’s not holding her gold for winning the 800m and cheesing it up winner-style.  She’s wearing Michelle Obama, or should I say, looking like a Michelle Obama…

Does the Tyler Perry trademark ever take a rest? With Lionsgate Film in his corner, Perry has decided to adapt and direct Ntozake Shange‘s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf.  The classic 1975 choreopoem about black women that started at a woman’s bar in Berkeley and landed on Broadway. …

I’m sure you’ve noticed domestic abuse has dominated the news lately.  In People Magazine Chris Brown claimed Oprah made an unfair jab at him on one of her domestic abuse-centered segments.  You know, after Chris went over to Africa for Oprah and sang at her school.  Oprah responded and said thanks for the song, but…

The recent case of sexual offender Phillip Garrido is a complicated one.  Without question.  Garrido was convicted of rape and kidnapping in the 1970s.  He registered as a sexual offender with the state of California and then a decade later abducted 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard.  He checked in with local authorities regularly.  He followed all…

Contrary to popular cyber-belief I do not dig through the internet searching for news of a racist globe.  Well, unless I’m feeling particularly marginalized on a given day or frenzied due to a weekend overload of carbs and sugars.  ANYWAY… Moscow is having some problems with their African community.  And no, Africans are not trumping…

We all know hundreds of hospitals are staffed with smoking, out-of-shape, McDonalds-eating employees.  I’ve sat in the offices of nurses and doctors who hurry me through yearly physicals and then run out for a smoke break or a bite of pastrami on white bread.  If you haven’t had a similar experience then you’re lying to…

Quentin Tarantino’s recent cinematic success Inglourious Basterds is on everybody’s To-See list.  The “Holocaust Revenge” story follows a group of Jewish soldiers who seek revenge on Nazi soldiers by bashing their heads with baseball bats.  Yes, it’s supposed to get gloriously gory.  I haven’t seen the film yet, but I’m anxious to support what I…

I came across an interesting article from Derby, England.  A group of black men, aptly called Men of Black Ancestry, have decided to walk through the streets of Derby to promote positive black male role models.  The men will walk through areas where gangs and violence between young men of color are rampant.  The mission…

In 2007 Malaysian model and Muslim Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was caught drinking a beer in a bar.  In July 2009 Shukarno was sentenced to six strokes of the rattan [bamboo-like] whipping cane for drinking the beer.  Note to reader:  Sharia Law prohibits alcohol consumption among Malaysian Muslims.  Now I usually pride myself on not…