Race Divide Still Wide Open and Jesse Ain't Helpin'

Wassup, Y'all!

It seems our boy J-Jack had more to say on his 'hot mic moment' than just his desire to castrate Smooth Barack. Fox News has been cagey with the complete video from jump street, but somehow, via an inside job, Mediabistro's TVNewser got a hot copy of the transcript and quickly published the fact that not only did J-Jack wax violent about Smooth Barack's nuts, he also said that Smooth is 'telling ni##ers how to behave..'.

That hypocritical comment refers to Smooth's unrepentant decision to continue speaking out against absence fathers and for more self-accountability within the southside nation. Here's a clip from an MSNBC interview with BET's Jeff Johnson that seeks to put this n-word madness (and Jesse's willing use of it) into context. (Update: Sorry, y'all - that clip has expired since the Red Lasso service has been temporarily discontinued - my bad on that...)



It seems to me that all of Jesse's comments during his 'hot mic' moment are going to drop sooner or later anyway, so what's holding Fox back from just giving up the whole off-the-cuff discussion? To his credit, Rev. Al jumped on Jesse just as he would any other serial n-word abuser but I think it's time to park Jesse in whatever undisclosed location they parked Rev. J-Wright - out of sight, out of mind.

At any rate, I'm sure we'll be hearing more of that in the days to come, but what's already in the hopper is a recent New York Times/CBS News poll that shows - unsurprisingly - that Smooth's candidacy has done little to close the American racial divide...

I say unsurprisingly since ol Ty knows our racial feelings in this country run deep. Things continue to get better, but there's no better way to speed that process along than by folks gettin' to know one another better and to stop staying so isolated in their own sides, but until that day arrives, here's where we currently stand:

• Favorable opinion of Smooth
  
  • Southside: 80%, Northside: 30%
  
  
• Race relations generally bad
• Southside: ~60% yes, Northside: 34% yes


• Progress made eliminating racial discrimination?


• Southsiders: 40% none, Northsiders: less than 20%


• Too much made of racial barriers facing Southsiders?


• Southside: 50% no, Northside: 25% yes

True, a southside presidential candidate or president can go a long way toward dispelling misconceived notions about southsiders, but we won't see real progress until we all are a lot less nervous to mingle with players from the other side. As my boy 'Tini Mack and I observed the other day after he returned from a trip to Paris - France, y'all not Texas..tho the culture there can be equally foreign... - there is so much more that we have in common as people than things we don't.

We need to meet halfway on this y'all. In fact, there's a little bit of that going on here in the Malone Zone. Y'all have seen the comments from my boy D-Splash from TheDarkStuff.com. D-Splash is a northside homey from Nebraska who's been readin' The Urban Eye for more than a few - a blog that caters to the southside point of view. No one is forcin' him to read it. He reads it to get the southside view of things and he enhances the conversation by providing his northside view of things. We don't agree on everything but we respect each others views and learn from the expanded conversation. Ol Ty's got mad respect for D-Splash and that's an attitude we need more of. Read, learn, listen, challenge and respect. It ain't that hard, y'all. Really.

Peace@Least,

Tyrone