"It's just too easy!"

Many times I speak with Dr. Winger, and as we discuss the events we have come across in our lives the phrase, "It's just too easy", always seems to find a way in. The most recent occurence of "It's just too easy" occured on the Feb 12 episode of "The Flagship", in which Winger and I were discussing gun control and how easy it is too buy a gun. However, many times that we use this phrase in the midst of conversation we are usually referring to a personal matter.

For example: I recently flew from Valdosta, GA to Pittsburgh with a connection in Atlanta. My flight from Valdosta to Atlanta was do around 6pm and the connecting flight was due to leave Atlanta at 7pm. The airline had a problem with its flight crew causing my flight to be delayed and not leave Valdosta until 6pm and arriving in Atlanta until 7:30pm. Therefore, I had to wait until 10pm to get on the next plane to Pittsburgh. I eventually made it back at midnight rather than 8:30pm. When I rebooked to get on the next Pittsburgh flight, I asked for a phone number to customer service, so I could let them know of my inconvience. I was given a small strip of paper with the corporate customer service number on it. The next day I called and described the events in which you have just read about. The agent responded with an apology, and said, "I am going to give you a voucher for your next flight, if you choose to fly with us again." All I had to do was make a phone call to get a voucher, it was just too easy.

The reason I bring this up is because things may not be as easy as we think. Depending on how you look at it, one could say I got a voucher because I called; therefore I "DID" something. Doing something, according to Winger, is not easy. As I reflected on our many "It's just too easy" conversations I noticed that we "did" something and then stated, "It's just too easy." So my question is: Should the phrase be "It's just too easy when you do something."?

Do Black People NEED to be Around Each Other?

So it finally happened. I had been teaching at this southern rural college for 3 and a half years. I was the only black tenure track professor. There were only dozens of black students out of the population of 1000. But there they were last Friday at my door ready to change things...
We had a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration on campus and that provided the spark. The spark wasn't unusual. MLK day celebrations definitely will (and should) do that. But this time it seems like it's going to turn into a wildfire.

"I really think we need a group as men of color on campus," one of them said. I was stunned. Of course they would ask me to be the adviser for this newly formed group. But this wasn't about me. I continued to listen and ask questions:

"What do you want his group to be?"

"What are you hoping to accomplish?"

"Why do you feel you NEED a group?"

The last question is the the real issue. I have struggled (and continue to struggle) with it for most of my life as most men of color should. Why do we feel we NEED to be around people who look like us? It may seem natural. Indeed, when I asked them to explain exactly why they needed the group, they stumbled over their words in trying to explain. It's not an easy question. Being trained as a mathematician, I clearly have been influenced by and surrounded by peers who were not black. Moreover, I have never had the need to be around people of my own race. I have always enjoyed it, but never NEEDED it. That may have to do with my background; being a graduate of Howard University and a native of DC may have something to do with that. Maybe I am just used to it.
Intuition however, would argue in the opposing direction. Why don't I feel a need to be around my own people when my past has me being around them all of the time? Why am I not struggling having the problems that people thought I would have in adjusting down here in a rural area? Why don't I have a problem with it? If I don't have a problem then why am I thinking about it? Is there something that I am missing?
I pose the questions to you; Explain your need to be around people like you. Would you go crazy if you couldn't hang around black people? Why? I haven't heard an eloquent explanation, but I am looking for one. We'll be talking about this issue on the show this Tuesday. Feel free to call in to show and express how you deal with this situation. We should be talking about this topic around 9:30pm. You can get info about the show at dcsouth.com under the radio show tab. Look forward to hearing from you.

Peace and Love,

Winger

No Bounds

My co-host Michael Young and I seem to argue about this every week on our radio show. Someone says something stupid about black people. I get upset and wonder what the hell is going on. He says "they are stupid, ignore them and move on." I can certainly see his point. It would be nice if whenever someone said something stupid to just discard it. As a matter of fact I did just that on one of our previous shows about Kathy Griffin's comments about Jesus when she won an Emmy (www.dcsouth.com/podcasts under Week 3). She got up there with her Emmy and made a disparaging remark about Jesus. I said she was being stupid and let's move on. Jesus takes no hit by one stupid remark.

In the later weeks, a number of people were saying things about black people. This ranged from fellow radio host John Gibson (Week 5.5) to Nobel Prize winners (Week 7) to TV personalities like Dog the Bounty Hunter (Weeks 9 and 10). And of course Imus. It seems as if every week someone is saying something bad about black people. Well it's a new week:

The Associated Press
February 1, 2008

A county judge was reprimanded for calling three black female lawyers "the Supremes" in court and advising the defendant to get "an experienced male attorney."

Washington County Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone has acknowledged that his comments suggested racial and sexual bias. In his written response to a complaint, Boone said he was trying to protect the three public defenders from representing a difficult defendant.

The Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities concluded the comments Boone made during a court hearing last April were "undignified and disparaging." The notice of reprimand was published Jan. 18 in the Maryland Register.

A stipulation by Boone and the Commission said that in June the judge offered to recuse himself from other cases the three attorneys handled.

Offering to recuse himself was the right thing to do, said Maryland Public Defender Nancy Forster, who filed the complaint in her official capacity.

Boone told the Herald-Mail of Hagerstown that he apologized to the three attorneys and that even though he offered to recuse himself, each has appeared in his court since the April case.

"I appreciate their acceptance of my apology," he told the newspaper Tuesday. He also said he had never before had a sanctionable complaint filed against him.

The defendant in the case pleaded guilty in June to assault and cocaine possession and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

It's just not every week either. People say bad stuff about black people everyday. That's obvious. But on NATIONAL TELEVISION?? On NATIONAL RADIO??? In the COURT ROOM?? From the JUDGE no less?

Yes, we know that TV and media outlets have always portrayed black people (among others) in negative ways. But all of that is a subconscious attack. Some people actually think that seeing tons of naked black women in videos surrounding one man has no affect on black women when it clearly is an attack. But at least in this case someone can argue the other side (Michael has done a good job at that.)

But now it's out of control. Just blatant attacks left and right. I had argued in week 5.5 of last year's show that whatever level of sensitivity there was to the disenfranchised in this country was certainly in decline. Michael as always provided a good reason as to why that might be good. I agreed with him to a point. But we are in dangerous territory.

We'll be talking about yet another idiot this Tuesday at 9pm on the show (it's webcasted from dcsouth.com). This time it's a judge and I will be angry and I'm sure Michael will be ready to move on. "Just another idiot," he will say. But I will ask him, "How many idiots will we need to say something before there is a problem?" I am looking forward to his answer.

People are very quick to say that the biggest difference between the hatred and racism of the past and today is that it's very subtle today.

No longer.

Peace and Love,

Aris Winger

The N word in Music

I wonder whether those hard core black rappers who think only black people can say the N-word get upset when their non-black fans inevitably say it when repeating the lyrics. Imagine a rapper who feels this way rolling up to do a concert in Iowa and having his whole audience saying the n-word along with him. What does he or she do then?

Or even worse imagine the black rapper who is vehemently against it being said by non-blacks but then has tons of other people saying it in bars across the country to their song!

Our show is tonight! We'll talk about that and more on 90.7 WEHC RADIO. You can catch the webcast at www.dcsouth.com under radio show.

New Show Starts Tomorrow!

The Flagship on 90.7 WEHC Radio returns for the new year. We are excited about the new year. The first show tomorrow will feature only me as big easy is out of town but we are going to do it up well anyway. We'll be talking about a bunch of stuff tomorrow so tune in! Go to www.dcsouth.com and click on the tab that says "radio show" from 9pm-11pm to hear the show. We have a few new surprises for you out there.

Tomorrow's topics include

1. talking about souldja boy or whatever the hell his name is.
   
2. the lack of powerful women in hip hop.
3. the dcsouth.com artist of the week
4. a ton of current events
5. and much much more!

Hope to hear from you tomorrow!

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

Anyone who thinks that wars in general are not tragedies in and of themselves baffles me.

I was reading Paulos' book and it simply amazing. Thanks brother! There are so many insightful things said in that book that just make so much sense. However, one of the lessons i got from the book is the following: there isn't a time that disregards life more than during a time of war. it's insane. Paulos notes during the Vietnam war:

"While 58,000 Americans perished, an estimated 2-2.5 million Vietnamese (out of a population of about 65 million) died."

And we lost that war.

How is it possible that ANY situation arises that we as people are ok with this? I was not around during the time of this war really, but i wonder how many of the protesters of the war were saying the war should stop because MILLIONS of people were dying instead of the thousands of Americans dying. I guess that would not have mattered.

How can the press today simply ignore how many people are dying on the other side? How do we as people allow ourselves to believe each of us in our country is worth more than a person in other countries? When we agree to start a war, then we agree that each of us is worth more than them. that is exactly what happens when war starts; Our hope is to kill more people than the number of people on our side. It is implicit in any war strategy basically. If we are ok with that, then we are saying that we are more important. Roughly 4000 vietnamese died for every american soldier in that war and if we only mourn the loss of our people, we devalue the lives of the other side.

2008

We at DC South would like to wish all of you a Happy New Year. In 2008 we will bring many new and exciting things to you through dcsouth.com and The Flagship. We will also bring back many of the faithful favorites.