Black History Month

Today is the last day of Black History Month. I so have to bring up a Jackson and so it shall be the one called Janet.

So Janet Jackson went from this :

To this :

One of the things that strike about these three women is how they've laughed their way to the bank selling themselves as empowered yet arm-candy women.

They play the perfect game of well-kept women whenever alongside their men. In their videos or ad campaigns, they work the high end prostitute look.

And no, I don't think Madonna (as in Ciccone) has anything to do with it. Madonna successfully turned men all around her into accessories to match her latest look. With these three women though, their mates were integral to their image making.

MC Hammer Blog

MC Hammer's blog at Blogger.com and you can certainly touch it. .

The whole 22 minutes of The Boondocks' "Return of the King" :

La negra here likes her gossip and pop culture blogs. After a day of being high on mothering, politics and web development I have to wind down on a more earthy note. My nightly treats include my first blog love, The Corsair (exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment), my new BFF Perez Hilton, Ms Thing Miu Von Furstenberg and my new loves, D Listed, Crunk and Disorderly, Concrete Loop. Then there's FourFour.

Rich Juzwiak has become my go-to guy for the hysterically funny blow-by-blow recaps he turns out every week for America's Top Model, Project Runway and the "because the parody writes itself" of Being Bobby Brown. Rich has turned TV digesting into a comedic tour de force.

He also has become one of my music sources. It's his writing of pop music, sometimes supplying his own mashups and mixes that makes this man shine as a pop culture critic.

It's no wonder I have turned into Steve Jobs wet dream.

Can someone please explain to me how Flavor Flav went from Fear of a Black Planet to this?

After his failed romance with Brigitte Nielsen, Flavor Flav is ready for a new and true romance. In "Flavor of Love," 20 single women from all walks of life, selected for their expressed love for Flav, will move into a "phat crib" in Los Angeles and vie for his affection. With help and advice from Big Rick, Flav's gigantic body-guard and chauffeur, Flavor Flav will date all of the women, weed out the ones who are only after his fame and fortune...and in the end will choose his one true love.

Along the way, Flav will put the ladies through several challenges including a lie-detector test administered by Brigitte Nielsen herself, a cooking contest judged by Flav's own mother, and the dreaded blind-fold sniff test! Plus, there will be several other surprises throughout this ten-part series including clock ceremonies, dates at Red Lobster, and a new set of gold teeth signifying true love!

Mommy, am I African?

Mommy, was I slave once?

Mommy, how come I don't look like you?

People look at me and my kids and they immediately say, that Thing 1, the oldest, looks "exactly" like me. Then they look at Thing 2 and as if on queue, over and over again people will say, "Oh, he must look like the father".

You will have to google for pictures of the father of my children because he's very skittish about his image and personality being conflated with his art. You want a hint? He's the one in the art events. There is even on pic of me from when I was 200+ pounds of post-partum baby weight. When you come across one of those, take a gander at the guy and come back and tell me, does Thing 2 really look like his father? To me he doesn't. To me he looks like his abuelo negro.

Look at him! The big brown eyes, the shape of the face, the dimples and the cleft chin. The shape of the mouth. My white son looks more like my black father than any of his own children, including me.