Make America Better Again

redbluestatesWhatever the problem, be the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles. – Tina Fey

I know everyone or at least half of America is angry with Donald Trump becoming the next president. The stunning election has resulted in protests throughout the country and social media meltdowns by a lot of people like myself. No, the election wasn’t rigged, and Jill Stein and Gary Johnson didn’t spoil the race. Hillary Clinton just wasn’t popular enough and ran a shady, misguided campaign. Even I have said here multiple times that I wasn’t a staunch Hillary supporter and that I was only voting for her because she is the lesser of two evils.

However, I do think this should also be a time to reflect on what happened and how to use our energies towards making America better again.

It is time to have some real talk. This might offend some people… but, whatever…

  1. Get informed: I have mentioned here time and again that there is a basic civics deficit among the American citizenry. We can’t be surprised an ill-informed man just became president when many of the people voting for (and against) him are just as uninformed. The quality of the candidates that run for office today generally reflects the electorate.  It is seriously time for everyone to put down People magazine and turn off TMZ and start reading books, magazines, and newspapers that distribute real news and information. Only then can we make better, informed choices for the way our government is run.
  2. Stop sanitizing intolerance: A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the disgraceful effort by some people to try to sanitize slavery. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who think racism is over and we should either just stop talking about it or try to whitewash or sanitize this intolerant history, like calling slaves “migrant workers.” The problem with this is that when we don’t talk about and truly understand the past, history has a way of repeating itself. Trump was elected partially because a lot of people just assumed someone like him couldn’t get elected because everyone is so tolerant in 2016. But in reality, this denial actually shows how intolerance works today. We just went from the first black president to a president endorsed by the KKK.
  3. Call out intolerance: If you see intolerance happening, do something about it. Tell that person why their bigotry is wrong. Sitting on the sidelines being silent doesn’t help.
  4. Practice nonviolence: Protesting is great, and it is our first amendment right, but don’t turn your anger into physical violence. It doesn’t help, and it’s uncivilized in a democracy.
  5. Vote: Voting is the only way in our democracy things get done. When you don’t vote, you are a part of the problem. A lof of people didn’t vote this cycle, including blacks and millennials. It is always interesting that the people who complain the loudest about societal ills don’t vote, like Colin Kaepernick and a lot of the protesters. When you are not part of the solution, no one will take you seriously. Also, not voting is a slap in the face of so many who came before us who struggled so we can all have the right to vote.
  6. Engage in local politics: I know it is more interesting to follow national politics, but participating in local politics is just as, if not more, important as what is going on in Washington. It was great to see a high turnout at my local voting precinct last week for the presidential election, but just two months ago, there were barely any people in the same precinct for local elections. Your city councilor, state representative, alderman, the mayor, and other local elected officials have a greater impact on your day-to-day life. For instance, if you are a person of color, you should definitely care about who your local district attorney is, as that person will be in charge of making major life and death decisions about you if you get in trouble with the law.
  7. Volunteer in your community: Doing volunteer work for a local nonprofit is a great way to give back to your community. It also gives you better insight into the many challenges facing your community and how to make things better for everyone. I volunteer my time at my local library, supporting literacy issues, as well as work for my local economic development committee and mentor at-risk young women. I also “think globally and act locally” by doing a lot of international pro bono work including organizing fundraisers for humanitarian concerns in developing countries and provide media development and technical support to international journalists.
  8. Organize in your community: If there is an issue you care about and there isn’t a group for it yet, why not organize your own group! It is very easy today to organize. A couple of years ago a neighbor started up a group to better address pedestrian and walkability concerns in the community. Today the group has regular meetings with local politicians and are really making an impact on community relations by improving sidewalks, road crossings, and bike paths.
  9. Support organizations that do good work: If you don’t have the time to volunteer, provide support to organizations doing good work in other ways with monetary or in-kind donations.
  10. Talk to someone who is different from you: Yes, everyone would benefit from widening their social network to include all types of diversity, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, religion, geographic location, and even political persuasion. I had a good, long conversation on Saturday with a very good friend of mine who is a Christian, white guy from rural Michigan about why he and others in his community voted for Trump. Even though we respectfully disagreed on many issues, it was good to talk out our differences and understand where each of us is coming from.
  11. Actually talk to someone in person: Social media and all the accessible technology we have today are great, but sometimes things that are said on these networks can get lost in translation. Also, it is easier to say hurtful or untrue things about people online than to a person’s face. The internet has become a cesspool for cyberbullying and bigoted vitriol. Instead of getting on Facebook, pick up the phone or better yet talk to people in person.
  12. Stop the empty gestures: I just started seeing people the other day wearing these safety pins as a way of showing they are “safe and welcoming” to marginalized groups such as people of color, immigrants, Muslims, women, and LGBT folks. But in reality, these are just empty gestures that don’t mean anything if you are not actually doing something to create a safe and welcoming space. For many people, the safety pins give temporary satisfaction and the false illusion that you are doing something by wearing it when you are really not doing anything.  Instead of wearing safety pins, please do any of the above activities. Trust me; marginalized groups would prefer that.

Time To Chill

rosemeadow-1600x1000This election season has been the most stressful event in political history.   I am mentally exhausted.  We all need a moment to chill.  I like to listen to this relaxing music when I want to de-stress and zone out – something all of us need to do now.

I can’t quite bring myself to call Donald Trump president yet, so I will be listening to this for the next several days.

Enjoy!

The Case For Hillary Clinton

hillary-clinton-1754429_640Yes, I am very disappointed in the multiple email scandals Hillary Clinton has been involved in for the last few months and wished she had handled it differently. However, I am still voting for her because the alternative is worse. This country can’t afford to have an uninformed, bigoted, misogynistic buffoon like Donald Trump running the country.

If you need to be reminded of why she would be a better president, here are my reasons:

  1. She is smart and has over 40 years of public service experience.
  2. She has the right temperament and character to act appropriately as president.
  3. She would possibly be the most experienced president.
  4. She has in-depth foreign policy experience gained from being a state secretary. It also helps that she will form better relationships with other countries.
  5. She will appoint responsible, thoughtful judges to the Supreme Court.
  6. With firsthand experience dealing with her hacked emails, I would like to think she would now make cybersecurity a national priority.
  7. She will create better employment opportunities for ex-offenders.
  8. She’ll hold irresponsible gun dealers and manufacturers fully accountable by repealing the gun industry’s unique immunity protection.
  9. She is not going to ban Muslims, or anyone else.
  10. She is not going to build a wall along the Mexican border. Immigration enforcement must be humane and targeted. Hillary will eliminate family detention and close private detention centers.
  11. She is pro-choice.
  12. She doesn’t call black people “the blacks” and doesn’t identify Hispanics with taco bowls.
  13. She wants to address police brutality.
  14. She wants to provide more funding to make sure body cameras are available to every police department across the country to increase accountability.
  15. She wants to address mental health care and drug addiction, especially in prisons.
  16. She believes we should use alternatives to prison for low-level, nonviolent marijuana users, and she will reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II substance.
  17. Hillary will invest in STEM and computer science education because we need to prepare our citizens to be more competitive in the global economy, something President Obama has already done well with doing.
  18. Hillary is the only candidate with a plan to expand opportunity in low-income communities and make housing more affordable.
  19. Unlike Trump, Hillary actually has plans for the country’s most pressing issues, such as the economy, terrorism, immigration, minimum sentencing, health care, and gun violence. Again, you may not agree with her plans, but at least she has plans.
  20. It’s about time America has a female president.

Another big complaint about Hillary by some Americans besides that she is corrupt and shady is that she is also cold and unfriendly. This is not a congeniality contest! You are not electing your next BFF. As Oprah said, you don’t even have to like her.  You might think that I am settling for the lesser of two evils by voting for Clinton over Trump.  The sad reality is that all politicians bring some kind of unwanted baggage with them, and in this case, Hillary has a bag of bad emails and Trump has a bag of deplorable behavior.   It’s a matter of how much baggage you are willing to deal with.  I am not a staunch Hillary supporter, but neither Jill Stein or Gary Johnson have proven that they are better alternatives to Trump.

This likeability issue is why George W. Bush was competitive back in 2000 (I say competitive, not elected because he stole the election…). People were saying that Bush was the kind of guy they would want to have a beer with, while Al Gore was robotic and boring because he only talked about lockboxes. If we could go back to the 2000 election knowing then what we know now, there wouldn’t have been a need to recount Florida’s hanging chads because I bet everyone would vote for Gore. The simple fact here is that we need to elect someone to run the country with efficiency, logic and reason, not poor judgment, incompetence, and idiocy.

Let’s not make this same mistake again. Vote for Hillary Clinton.

Are African Americans Guilty of Cultural Appropriation?

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africapolitmapI was reminded recently of a valuable lesson about understanding and respecting other cultures. I went on another business trip to Washington DC a few weeks ago and had some time to catch up with my business partner Marjane, who splits here time between DC and Nairobi. She is a native Kenyan and she is always amazed at the differences between black Africans and African Americans.

When I met her for lunch recently, Marjane was particularly riled up about the issue of cultural appropriation. No, I am not just talking about white people appropriating cornrows, hip-hop and other aspects of black culture. Marjane was talking about African Americans appropriating from African culture.

She began telling me about her recent encounter with a 20-something African-American woman who sported an Afro and wore a Kente cloth “inspired” sari and jewelry at some natural hair meetup. This woman had the audacity to tell Marjane that she wasn’t proud to be black because she straightened her hair.

Marjane responded by saying that she flat irons her hair because she likes how it looks straight and it is easier to manage. She also said that she certainly didn’t do this because she hates her blackness.

I always found the way some people in the natural hair “community” who harshly judge others who don’t share their same taste in hair texture as offensive and off-putting. Not that there isn’t merit to what this woman is saying to a certain extent. Black females have been pressured to mimic Western standards of beauty for many years. Because of this, many black females have felt ashamed of their hair.  Luckily, these standards are slowly changing and black women are becoming more comfortable wearing their natural tresses. However, I don’t think black women should be judged by other black women negatively if they still choose to straighten their hair for whatever reason.

Furthermore, in my experience, many of these judgmental naturalistas tend to be not well-informed or educated about their own black heritage. As a matter of fact, Marjane was more offended that the African-American woman who was judging her hair texture didn’t seem to know anything about Africa. Marjane asked the woman where she got the Kente cloth she was wearing. The woman replied that she bought it at Wal-Mart (really!) and that “it looked like it was from Africa.” She then asked the woman why she was wearing it as a sari and asked if she was South Asian. The woman said she wasn’t South Asian and that she was wearing it as a sari because she liked the way it looked on her.

Marjane proceeded to go all the way in on this clueless woman!

As the story was retold to me by Marjane with a strong accent:

“I told this stupid woman she had no right to criticize my hair and she is walking about dressed the way she looks. She would be laughed out of all of Africa and India dressed the way she was. I told her that if she was going to wear African clothing, she should know where it is from in Africa. Africa is not a country; it is a continent of 54 countries with thousands of languages, ethnic groups, and cultures. Don’t just tell me it’s from Africa, woman! Kente cloth is from Ghana. Ashanti! Akan! West Africa! You are not Asian so why are you wearing a sari?”

Yeah, that really happened.

Marjane does make an excellent point. Just because you are black, doesn’t mean it is okay to appropriate from the cultures of other black people or other people of color for that matter, especially if you don’t know or understand the context you are appropriating. A recent example would be many of the attendees at this year’s AfroPunk Festival, which was a dizzying mess of appropriation. It’s great that African Americans want to reconnect with their lost African roots, but there is a right way and wrong way to do it.

I attribute my strong connection with diverse African cultures not just to my media development work in many African countries, but also because people of Caribbean descent have had a stronger relationship culturally with the African continent. From the maroon uprisings to Marcus Garvey’s Pan-Africanism, Jamaicans always take pride in their black heritage and connections to Africa. Some of the most conscientious African-American activists throughout recent history were of Caribbean descent like Shirley Chisholm, Stokley Carmichael, Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X. Also, because slavery ended in most Caribbean islands well before America’s emancipation in 1865, many Caribbean folks have been able to retain their African roots better, and this can be seen in our music, fashion, hairstyles, cuisine, and storytelling.

With that said, I think we could all learn from this incident. Here are some tips I have learned over the years.

1. Know your history: If you truly want to be informed, or what the millennials say, “woke,” learn and know about the history and culture of Africa. In addition to reading books and watching educational programming to better understand your cultural identity, you should also talk to African people (and other people of color) and listen to and respect their histories.

2. Know what you are wearing: If I am wearing anything that is African inspired, I try to make sure I know the history behind it. For example, I like to wear box braids. If someone asks me about them, I will say they were done by a woman from Guinea, and box braids have their roots in many parts of Africa, including in Namibia, where Eembuvi braids were worn by women of the Mbalantu tribes.

3. Support African businesses: Instead of buying African products from a Western department store support an African business. I buy a lot of my handbags, jewelry and clothing from the Maasai market in Nairobi when I travel there. Of course, not everyone can travel to Africa to shop, but you can support a local African vendor so the money will go back to that black-owned business, and not a Western big box.

4. It’s not what you wear: it’s who you are: It really doesn’t matter how long your dreadlocks are or how good your Dashiki looks on you. At the end of the day, it is more important to know who you are as a person of African descent and how to pay respect to our ancestors for future generations.

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