President Bush has embarked on a whirlwind tour of Africa - 5 African countries in 6 days! A few things strike me about this trip. First, how do you visit 5 countries in 6 days? Are you hoping to really visit or just touch down and make a point? For instance, if I am traveling to England and have a 2 hour layover in, say, Paris, have I visited Paris?

Secondly, he has waited till the end of his tenure to visit a continent that has been ravaged by genocide and war. When asked by a Tanzanian reporter why he has waited this long, Bush said he had no excuses except for the fact that he has been a “pretty busy guy.” Most reports I have read comment on the fact that Bush is probably trying to use this trip to improve his legacy as a compassionate president. After all, he has given millions of dollars in aid to some African countries to fight HIV/AIDS. I certainly applaud this. However, all I can see as a counter to this point is Darfur.

With the hundreds of thousands who have died and been displaced in Sudan, President Bush has grappled with his responsibility - first as to whether it actually was genocide, and now on how to handle China, a country that does healthy business with the suspect government of Sudan. Many international organizations and individuals are questioning China about their friendship with the Sudanese government. For example, Steven Spielberg has resigned as an adviser to the Beijing Olympics because of China’s involvement with Sudan. Bush said he would not boycott the Olympics in China because he views the Olympics as a “sporting event.” How compassionate is he, really?

The third aspect of this trip that has made me ponder is the fact that in Benin where, according to the BBC, he stopped over just long enough to refuel Air Force One and hug the president, he was awarded a medal - the highest honor in the land. What? The president of Benin and Tanzania have showered Bush with praise, saying they hope that the next president is as good as Bush has been. This reminds me of the imbalance of power in the world today. Would Bush receive and award any of these presidents in the same manner that he is being treated on his visit? I doubt it.

Bush in Africa reminds me a little bit of Michael Jackson in Africa in 1992 when he was treated like a returning prince and given an honorary kingship. Yet there were reports of him covering his nose when he was walking through the hundreds of adoring African fans. These visits remind me of a famous line from George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

I find it extremely disturbing that Larry Elder has chosen to call his new book “Stupid Black Men”. I have not read the book. I skimmed through it while sipping a cup of tea in a bookstore. I suppose Elder is capitalizing on Michael Moore’s bestseller “Stupid White Men” (the same way Chris Rock seemed to use the popular “Everybody Loves Raymond” to title his sitcom “Everybody Hates Chris”). That is smart marketing, I guess.

So, I understand that Elder wants to sell books. Titles have to be sexy and eye-catching. Stupid Black Men” certainly makes you stop and pick it up. There is a big photo of Elder on the cover so this makes it seem even more interesting. Wow. A black man is calling other black men “stupid.” I’m sure the mainstream public is anxious to hear a confirmation of their perceptions about black men straight from the horse’s mouth. The editors and publishers at St. Martin’s Press must have thought they had a bestseller when they agreed to publish this book.

Elder states in his preface that “this book calls out black men and women, men and women of other races, the ‘empathetic’ liberal media, and Democratic party sympathizers for their racism-done-me-wrong statements and policy measures that maximize victimhood and minimize personal responsibility.” So, if the book is about how all the ethnicities in the mainstream should stop whining about racism, why not call it “Stupid People” or something more accurate? Why call it “Stupid Black Men”?

One of his chapters is titled, “Three Things that Need to be Said to Stupid Black People: Grow up, Grow up, Grow up.” In all the pages I skimmed, Elder seems to be saying that racism is a thing of the past and folks need to move on and stop complaining. I agree with the sentiment behind much of what Cosby has said in the past couple of years. But I also agree with the opposite side of the argument that says that we need to seriously consider the impact of history when we discuss the overall condition of African Americans today. When we look at the wars and the coups that constantly plague Africa, we should certainly point out the internal problems of corruption and bad leadership. But we must always remember how key historical events have played a vital role in contemporary problems – slavery, colonialism, globalization, and the oppressive policies of the international banking systems.

Perhaps Elder really wants to help people, but in my skimming, I find no reference to the past. People like to know that you are thinking widely about their experience before they take any directives you have to offer. I don’t know that any of the “stupid black men” and “stupid black people” he is referring to will be drawn in to happily read and take his advice.
I think, for all his good intentions, Elder wants to sell as many books as possible. Perhaps he will land on the bestseller list and lots of “unstupid” people will buy it. I did not.

Forbes has just published the list of top ten music money-makers for 2007. I excitedly surveyed the list to see how many African-American rappers made the list. After all, throughout the 20th century, Black popular music – and most recently, rap music – affected and gave birth to various manifestations of pop culture around the world. In the United States, it has been reported that rap music (and here I deliberately refrain from using the term “hip-hop”) is consumed largely by urban youth and young white males. Utilizing this power and popularity, television advertisements for a wide range of products use rap music liberally to attract consumers. The image and message of a lot of rappers and their music revolves around money and all the things money can buy. Watch “Cribs” or any of the usual music videos and you may be convinced that rap is the way to financial glory.

The controversial messages in commercial rap have been debated so much that the debate may now be redundant. What is interesting though is that those who justify the misogyny and the explicit lyrics say that they are “keeping it real.” The recording companies seem to encourage this model of performance obviously because they feel that this is what their audience wants, this is what the audience buys. “It’s all about the benjamins, baby!”

So I was shocked when I looked at Forbes’ top ten list and found no black artists. Most of the money the top money-makers earned came from concerts. Police, Hannah Montana, Celine Dion, Rascal Flatts, Justin Timberlake, Kenny Chesney, and Josh Groban all raked in the dough from both music sales and concerts. Rap artists held concerts too. Where were their fans; where were all the young people of varying ethnicities who buy the music? Don’t they flock to the rap concerts as they do to the CDs and the downloads? I’m not expecting the thoughtful MCs with deep and provocative messages to make the Forbes list (that is basis for another blog posting), but I thought I’d find the more commercially conducive rappers breaking into the top ten. I was wrong.