Two Voices on Obama

Nightshift Contributors Kamau B and D-Nice recently chimed in on the Barack questions.

Kamau B begins a series of Obama posts on his blog with the following:

For Blacks, Blasting Barack a Myopic Mistake

Black Americans are cool, at best, in their support of Senator Barack Obama. Central to that lack of enthusiasm is the criticism that he is not really black in the specific African American sense of the term. It is repeatedly noted that his father is Kenyan, his mother is white, he did not grow up in the United States and he was not outraged by Senator Biden’s simple remarks; therefore, he cannot intimately relate to the legacy and identity of the black American....Read more


Writing for Color Lines Magazine, Dorian Warren-aka-D-Nice offers the following:

Rainbow Redux
By Dorian Warren

I never thought I’d think or say this: I miss Jesse. With all the distracting hubbub about Barack Obama’s blackness, I’ve been missing the Reverend’s voice. Where is Jesse Jackson and why is he M.I.A.?

It’s hard for me to think about Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s campaign for presidency without immediately contrasting it with Rev. Jackson’s two runs for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988. We’ve gone from “Keep Hope Alive” to “the Audacity of Hope”, from the “Rainbow Coalition” to “There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America..." Read More

A Postmodern Porgy and Bess?

A Postmodern Porgy and Bess?
By T.N.

Now that Jennifer Hudson safely got the Oscar and had her day, I can finally voice my reservations about Dreamgirls and that song.

Firstly, as Jennifer Holliday explains in a recent interview, that song basically ruined her career. She was more or less Effie herself when was cast in the role, which she played a significant part in expanding into both acts of the musical (originally, that song was meant to be her swan song). Just a teenager, whose talent and ambition got her basically used and dumped by show business. It was pretty desperate and ungracious to sing it Oscar night from a neighboring roof-top, but basically, whose to tell her she hasn't the right? The song both made and ruined her career.

As for the song itself...Read More at Blue Gum