My New Name Is Just The Facts

While the rest of y’all just adjust the facts
Put words together just to match
I say what I feel, y’all adjust to that
I do the opposite of y’all so I just attract
The realer audience, usually unjustly black
…
I just tackle the subject, flack from the public is nothing
I know real [thinkers] happen to love it

We’re doing big things! Big things indeed! First, look around…you like? Hotness, no? Yeah, we stay fly in the “Fell Clutch,” cause we ballin’! (Funniest thing I’ve heard tonight- “I don’t really mess with Africa. Them niggas is starvin’, and that’s not ballin’ to me”, and this is a “I was pressed to stick that shit in my post” digression!)

Least I’m ballin’, Lucky is a student. Students don’t ball. (Just like revolutionaries don’t dance, Hostess; and “Charlie don’t Surf!” Sonny “If not ‘Apocalypse Now,’ apocalypse when?” Redd.)

Anyway, not much has changed since last we spoke. Cept' that Lucky spiffied the joint up a bit. Ahh, henchmen. Every evil villian should have at least one. So we applaud the young man for applying his myspace abilities to the evil headquarters.

Let's see, what else is going on? There is still war in the Middle East, gas prices still suck and I am still the most electrifying blogger in show business. All’s right with the world or rather, there isn’t too much we can do about it, now is there? So let us do what we do best-address us.

This weekend I had the misfortune of being called a black conservative. Me. Can you believe that? Man, I’m like Rick Ross – “I know Che Guevara, the real Che Guevara, that nigga owe me a hunnert favors.” Okay, so maybe not.

So I did one of those self-analysis that is all the rage among emotional people. First, I am a born capitalist. Been one since I was eight and figured out that old people will pay children to shovel the snow off their walk. Okay, so I'm a hustler. I guess I have a strike against me. But, I care about people…um…sort of? I care that they don’t steal my car. That’s caring, right? Okay, so I don’t have the caring thing down. What’s left? Well, I’m not an elitest prick who feels that he is better than the common folk because he was born. My better-ness derives from my God given talents, brains, natural good looks, education and regal bearing. Damn, I’m screwed.

But all that, and I still ain’t a conservative. The things that make me come across as a conservative (aside from my lucid arguments, love for America, and disdain for most social programs) were things that, prior to 1965, were thought of as progressive “colored” philosophy; be better than white folk, don’t rely on white folk for anything, take care of my family, my neighborhood and don’t embarrass black folk. Nothing too complicated really.

And do you know what? My line of thought is coming back - like Mitchell and Ness throwbacks and light skin-ed-ed dudes (Self promotion! The Rock, Vin Diesel, Sonny Redd! Yeah, redd is the new black! And this is a “Wesley who?” Digression.)

For instance, Sunday night, Dateline NBC ran a story profiling a year in the lives of several black students in Jackson, Mississippi (I can’t spell Mississippi to save my life. Spell check can though. Whew.) The story, “Separate But Unequal” follows your typical formula. A group of students, two troubled and two on the right road all attend Lanier High School. Lanier was a successful school prior to desegregation. After segregation…well, let’s just say, not so much. And the tone of the story was supposed to work to uncover where the breakdowns were in the school. Except, as the report progressed, it became apparent that the problem wasn’t the school.

See, the school has a black administration, in a black city, with a black Mayor, and black teachers. The report started out ready to rip into all sorts of “the school lacks this’s” and “the school lacks that’s”. But the school is staffed by people who want those kids to succeed.

And in fact, most of those kids succeeded. Lanier graduated 141 students according to dateline. Of that, 116 were off to college. That is over 82%! Not bad for one of the worst schools in Jackson?

Interestingly, Lanier has a 65% graduation rate. Which, when applying simple mathematics, means that a freshmen at Lanier has a 53.3% of going on to college. That is better than 50/50. Not great. But workable. (I’d point out that there are white high schools in America that send less than 53% of their students to college, but some of y’all would think that I was lying, trying to confuse y’all with them things they call numbers.)

The point of this post, however, is an interesting round-table near the end. One family, all from Jackson, with degrees from fancy schools – like Harvard – all sat around and discussed where we are as a people.

We gathered three generations of the Priester family to talk about race. Their roots are in inner city Jackson, in the days when segregation was often violently enforced. Seated in one room for an interview were four lawyers—one is also a judge—graduates of Harvard, Stanford, Boston University.

Brokaw: 30 years ago, when you were going to law school at Harvard, and that was unheard of in many of the neighborhoods in which you grew up, did you think we would be a much different society at this point?
Pernilla Priester: Oh, certainly. I thought all the problems would long since have been solved. The ones we’re dealing with now would not be here. Because these are the same ones that we grew up for the most part.
...
Jonathan Priester: When my parents were younger, they always tell me the stories of not being able to go to a white only water fountain or not being able to go to certain restaurants. You could see that form of racism. Where today, it could be more subtle.

The older generation says frank discussions about race are all too rare these days.
But the younger generation also says that blacks today have opportunities unparalleled in American history.

Melvin Priester Jr.: The amazing thing about switching from an industrial to an information economy is that people with brains and with education can create billion dollar empires. If we could produce a group of radically educated individuals, the jobs will follow.
…
Charlene Priester: One of the things I think is very difficult is trying to determine what part of what we see going on now is race based, and what part of it is economics, what part of it is education.

I don’t know Charlene Priester from a hole in the wall, but I could kiss her. She summed up my position from jump (and simultaneously explained why I’m no conservative. Conservatives don't acknowledge that racisim exists. I know it does. I just won't let nobody stop me from doing what I need to do, because my grandparents certainly didn't. Sonny “See, I tie up all lose ends”Redd.)

We face a three headed monster ladies and gents. One part race, one part economic and one part educational.

When tackling a problem, the first thing you do is eliminate anything that you can’t control. I can’t prevent racism. It exists, and I trust that the Cynthia’s of the world (Mckinney and Daniels) do a fair job of raging against the machine.

But the other two, economics and education—those we can address. And that’s what we do here. From every point of view, every political ideology, every aspect. We’ll present it, vet it out, and hopefully come to some meaningful conclusions (which I will promptly publish, making myself the richest man in the world, hahahahahaha. Did I write that? Sorry. Count this as a “master plan” digression.)

Welcome to the new, “Fell Clutch of Circumstance.” Enjoy your stay!

Signed,

The Evil Genius
Sonny Redd
a.k.a.
The Black Lex Luthor