What About Long-Term Senior Healthcare?

from NewsOne.com

LEFT OF BLACK: Conventions in Rearview--Senior Healthcare Remains
by Mark Anthony Neal

With the inclusion of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin on the Republican Presidential ticket and Barack Obama's equally historic emergence as the standard bearer of the Democratic Party, both national conventions took on a larger than life quality. Now that the battle lines are fully drawn-celebrated veteran vs. upstart elitist; small town values vs. a cosmopolitan sophistication-it remains to be seen whether this election cycle will produce any meaningful conversations about day-to-day issues. The senior healthcare crisis would be a great start.

In a nation in which nearly 50 million people lack health insurance of any kind, most seniors over the age of 65 are nominally covered by Medicare. The Medicare system has its faults, particularly with regards to affordable prescription drugs. And the system also offers little for long-term care, except under specific circumstances.

As Americans increasingly live longer lives and with millions of seniors suffering from Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, long term care options, such as nursing homes, assisted-living environments and retirement communities, have become increasingly prevalent. The struggle for many seniors is trying to find ways to pay for long-term care.

Read Full Essay@

Melissa Harris-Lacewell on Smalltown, America

from The Chicago Tribune

Obama's own small-town values
by Melissa Harris-Lacewell
September 8, 2008

Speakers at the Republican National Convention talked a lot about small-town values. They told America that a man from Chicago could not relate to the homegrown ethics of ordinary people. I know better. Barack Obama was my state senator. Right in the middle of that Senate district is my beloved small town, Hyde Park. There is no small town that knows more about sacrifice, honesty, hard work, community and patriotism.

We know about terrorism. In Hyde Park, I was embraced by dozens of neighbors on Sept. 11, 2001. We stood at Lake Michigan and turned our eyes toward our precious Chicago skyline. We kept vigil over our city, wondering if we would be targeted next.

We know how to be neighborly. Hyde Park is where a homeless man caught me when I stumbled while walking home in the snow eight months pregnant. He carried my bags 10 blocks. He wasn't rich, but he was righteous. Hyde Park is where we make room for each other to set up tents and barbecue in the parks on warm summer days. We parade down 53rd Street on Independence Day and together we listen to blues and jazz. We celebrate America with the flair and flavor of the best patriots.

We know about the energy crisis. In Hyde Park we walk to work, take Metra or catch the No. 6 bus downtown. We are city people, but we share our trees with the monk parakeets and feed the pigeons in the park.

We know about the power of faith. In Hyde Park we brave the bitter winds to gather in Rockefeller Chapel on Thanksgiving morning. We are welcomed by African drums; we are blessed by rabbis, priests and preachers; then we are sent home to our holiday feasts by the smell of burning sage offered by Indian tribal leaders.

We know about caring for our young people. In Hyde Park I watched a young woman turn down corporate job offers so that she could take over as principal of a failing public high school. With the help of parents, the commitment of students, and her own powerful determination, she is making Kenwood Academy one of the best schools in the city.

We know about diversity. Blacks and whites share a chess game in the park. Jews and Muslims work together to feed the hungry. Immigrants and citizens share the lakefront for a jog.

Read the Full Essay@

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Melissa Harris-Lacewell is a professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University. She lived in Hyde Park and taught at the University of Chicago from 1999 to 2006. She misses it every day.

Book Signings! Book Signings!

The Gothic Bookshop cordially invites you to a celebration and book signing for J. Kameron Carter’s new book,

Race: A Theological Account

Tuesday, September 9th, 2009
from 4:30 to 6:30pm
on The Schaefer Mall, Bryan Center
Duke University

"Jay Kameron Carter has written an extraordinarily insightful and sophisticated analysis of race as it has been constructed in modern philosophy and theology. His study reconceptualizes modernity and demonstrates the centrality of religion to any understanding of racism." –Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College

"An intellectual tour de force! This book demonstrates great intellectual range and theological imagination; it should be read by all students of theology, religious studies and African American religion and history. I have nothing but praise for this work by a young African American scholar who must be reckoned with." --James H. Cone, Charles Augustus Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology, Union Theological Seminary

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Friday, September 12, 2008 8:00 p.m.

Charis Books & More
1189 Euclid Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30307
Tel:(404)524-0304

Stephane Dunn with Baad Bitches& Sassy Supermamas

Local author and Morehouse College professor, Stephane Dunn, has written a lively study that explores the sexualized, subordinate positioning of women in low-budget blaxploitation action films. Her book, "Baad Bitches & Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films," is hot off the press. Come hear Stephane at Charis as she talks about a distinct moment in the history of African American representation in popular cinema, touching on Black Power and feminist influences. Following the discussion, Stephane will sign copies of her book for fans.

"Dunn puts the whole blaxploitation experience into logical context, explaining the social conditions of the era relating to race and gender that affected how the black community observed these films. . . . An essential companion to the black film studies genre. Recommended."--Library Journal

"With trenchant intellect and sassiness that is only matched by the larger-than-life characters she examines throughout "Baad Bitches" and Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films, Stephane Dunn provides a fresh perspective on intersections of gender and sexuality within blaxploitation-era black film. This is a very important addition to scholarship in African American cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, and American studies."--Mark Anthony Neal, author of New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity

Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City

The pre-ordained rise and expected fall of America's hip-hop mayor.

Living Down to Expectations
By Natalie Y. Moore | TheRoot.com

Politicians are bound to have tension with the media performing a watchdog role. But many black politicians don't seem to understand that part of their job is media relations. After being elected to positions of power, black politicians often reflexively assume a beleaguered stance, which is understandable, given the historical representations of blacks in the media. But many of them seem to forget that the whole point of electing black leaders is for them not to be helpless actors, but to wield power and influence, yes, even with the media.

Read the Full Essay @

Hating the Message or Hating ON the Messenger?

William Jelani Cobb on the Black Left: "Obama and the Suicidal Left"

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Not a response, but this from my Vibe colleague Jalylah Burrell gets to the heart of something at the root of some displeasure with Obama:

Rev. Jeremiah Wright proved himself to have some foolish tendencies at his wild press conference, but damn it, he will always have a special place in my heart and my psyche and that of so many African Americans for cultivating a space in which we can be UNASHAMEDLY BLACK. We don't have to shrink from our color, our names, our musical tastes, our everything.

A Right on Hadley Street: Solange Knowles

from Vibe.com

CRITICAL NOIR: Up-and-Coming R&B Diva # 19
by Mark Anthony Neal

You have to feel for Solange Knowles or any up-and-coming R&B Diva. There's always gonna be somebody prettier (those doe-eyes notwithstanding), somebody grittier, somebody who dances better, somebody who plays the piano finer, somebody with more curves, somebody who is thinner, somebody who is more exotic, somebody who is Whiter and of course--in a perfect world--somebody who can sing better. And in Solange's case it doesn't help that your older sister is, arguably, the hardest working person in the industry and heir apparent to a Hip-hop Soul Queen who by all measure is not going anywhere, anytime soon.

So what's an Up-and-Coming R&B Diva to do?

A year ago, uber-critic Greg Tate elicited much chatter when he described Alicia Keys's As I Am as "very much an album in the old-fashioned sense, a complete work: one you shouldn't subject to shuffle before you've given Keys's sequencing a chance to work its magic, its rising and falling arcs, its gut-punch-and-goose-bumps denouement." A year later Keys's "Teenage Love" was as ubiquitous as summer, her love anthem "Like You'll Never See Me Again" bought a beloved black soap opera star back from the dead, and "Superwoman" has many dreaming of the first black First Lady and first baby-gurls in the White House.

Yet, I would argue that Solange Knowles's Sol-Angel and the Hadley Street Dreams realizes what Keys's As I Am only hinted at: a fully blown black pop that is in conversation with its 1960s predecessors like Dionne Warwicke, Barbara Lewis and The Shirelles. Hadley Street Dreams is more Maxine Brown and Diana Ross than Aretha Franklin and Mabel John and too many folk can't make that distinction as they conjure the Soul Goddesses from a time long-gone--but not as long as we'd like to believe it was. Truth be told, Ms. Knowles probably can't make those distinctions either, but damn if the music don't speak for her.

Read the Full Essay @

Gov. Sarah Palin: A Double Take

from The Root

From Clarence Thomas to Sarah Palin, nobody plays cynical identity politics like the GOP.

The Grand Old Bait and Switch
By Salamishah Tillet | TheRoot.com

Sept. 3, 2008--John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as the GOP vice presidential nominee has re-inserted the "woman" question into the presidential debate.

By choosing the second white female vice presidential candidate, McCain is trying to fashion himself, Sarah Palin, and, by extension, the entire Republican Party as more committed feminists than the Democrats.

But what is being called a "maverick" decision by McCain, is in fact just another version of the old Republican game of bait and switch with identity politics. Starting with George H. W. Bush's nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, the GOP has been trying to convince Americans that any "woman," "African American" or "candidate of color" will do. And while the argument can be made that any diversity is better than no diversity, this Republican version is especially egregious because it often appoints minority candidates who vote against public legislation that insure that other members of their group have the same opportunities, choices and paths to success as they did. In effect, diversity, which dismantles affirmative action programs and women's reproductive rights, is the worse form of political fraud.

Read the Full Essay @

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Salamishah Tillet is an assistant professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder of the non-profit organization, A Long Walk Home, Inc., which uses art therapy and the visual and performing arts to document and to end violence against underserved women and children.

ALSO

When did single parenthood and teen pregnancy stop being important to the family values party?

All in the Family
By Stephane Dunn | TheRoot.com

September 3, 2008--The Internet was buzzing with rumors that Gov. Sarah Palin's 4-month-old son is actually the child of her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol. To silence these rumors, Camp McCain-Palin released this bombshell: Bristol couldn't have had the infant because she is five months pregnant.

Whew! This is the stuff of Access Hollywood.

McCain claimed he knew about the pregnancy, but the timing was suspect. The announcement, squeezed in-between a pared-down Republican Convention and Hurricane Gustav's impact on New Orleans, allowed the bomb to fall more like a leaf.

Now, the storm has subsided, and the political one is roaring back up. The Republicans are in defense mode with some arguing that it is in poor taste to make Palin's family situation a campaign issue.

Really? When one considers the high-wattage criticism surrounding the year's most-famous pregnant teen, Jamie Lynn Spears, and all the talk about how the actress's high-profile glorified teenage pregnancy and the news reports of a teenage pregnancy pact that followed, it's hard to pass off Bristol's pregnancy as a kind of private family affair.

But even worse, some Republicans are spinning Bristol as a poignant example of the-right-to-life and an opportunity for the potential second family to relate to regular folk.

This is the same Republican Party of the mid- to late 20th century that solidified a careful ideology of "family values" with emphasis on traditional mores and thinking. Cracked-face or not, the rightist swing of Republican politics doesn't neatly allow for such "mistakes" as teenage pregnancy for a candidate, especially during a major election year.

Read the Full Essay@

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Stephane Dunn is a writer and author of Baad Bitches & Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films (August 2008). She is also an assistant professor at Morehouse College.