Kanye West Doesn't Care About Taylor Swift

Was just reading about both the Kanye West and Serena Williams situations and I'm just shaking my head, felt like weighing in. It's more of a monologue but feel free to comment...

Really, I don't even want to discuss right-or-wrong. Quite simply, and inarguably, Kanye West was wrong for what he did. It was immature and unprofessional; distasteful and unbecoming conduct of someone in his position. However, so was his ever-so-acclaimed statement that "George Bush doesn't care about Black people."

My issue is, why are people so shocked and appalled now? It seems legions of people are (at least publicly) turning away from him and his music over it, even though this is the way he's been his entire career. He is who he is, and those are things that Kanye does, as we should have come to expect by now. Not saying it's something to accept, but it's expected.

The other part of the ordeal is that people are actually rejecting his public apology, saying it's unreliable and backhanded. After reading it, I disagree. Kanye understands he was wrong for what he did and is apologizing for it, but he's not apologizing for being who is his or for what he said. He meant what he said but apologizes for doing it in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

Bottom line: let Kanye be Kanye. If you rock with him, rock with him; if you don't, don't. But I just find it crazy that people are letting this be the defining moment where they force Kanye to walk the plank.

I guess I'll also comment on Serena while I'm at it. Clearly, she lost her temper. But the official know how emotionally invested atheletes of her caliber playing at this level can get, and the least the official could have done was admonish her with a verbal warning, try to calm her, something. No person wants a tournament to end in a default decision. I just think Serena letting her emotion get the best of her was unfortunate and unprofessional, but at the same time, the official should have understood the situation and not have essentially completely disqualified her. A clear example of the old addage that "two wrongs don't make a right."

N. Talekt


Links:
- Article on the Kanye West Situation
- Serena Williams Loses It

Apology Unnecessary

This is somewhat unrelated to music, but it hits home personally and if you know my music, you know how closely my personal life can get woven into it...

So, as you probably heard by now, an apology has been formally issued for slavery and all its injustices. While I understand what they are trying to accomplish, that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

While I could rant about my stance on the matter, I think most of my thoughts have been summed up quite nicely in an article I found written by Katrina Browne (a White woman, which will be apparent as you read my snippets):

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/19/browne.slavery/index.html

A particular point that stood out to me:

"It now feels really natural to want to express regret -- not an apology (that's for institutions; Congress was right to step forward) but deep regret and sadness about what happened, fellow citizen to fellow citizen. I try to imagine what it would be like if we went so far as to extend tenderness toward each other. We could actually all use more of it when we're talking about race, racism and anything to do with slavery.

"Instead, we are full of protestations, distrust, dismissiveness, resentments. For those of us who are white, what's the resistance really about? It may be, at core, that we don't want to feel guilty or blamed or responsible for the outrage of slavery. I didn't.

"But here's the funny thing: While we white Americans are busy establishing our innocence, it turns out that many black Americans are not personally angry at us for slavery. Many do want authentic acknowledgement of what happened, but not for the sake of guilt-tripping. I've witnessed a generosity of spirit that I have been humbled by.

"Meanwhile, many African-Americans are upset about the disparate outcomes that persist and want to see everyone step up to address them. There are so many lingering "structural inequalities," as President Obama put it -- ones without clear racist villains but that are embedded, like the fact that schools are funded with property taxes, so poor black neighborhoods, the legacy of earlier eras of discrimination, are not able to fund the quality schools that we say all our children deserve."

I think the last paragraph of that drives home exactly why I think the apology is useless. "I'm sorry" is not going to bring better schools to poor neighborhoods. "I'm sorry" is not going to give me access to those "certain" jobs that seem to continue to be dominated by the same group. "I'm sorry" is not going undo the labeling and stereotypes derived from racism that cause men to empty 59 shots into a man lying on the ground.

I understand the motives of the apology, I just think it was a waste of time and effort. We all know it was wrong, and understand that the lines of communication need to be opened. However, time and effort is better spent addressing the effects of slavery today instead of apologizing for yesterday.

My feeling is that I was never enslaved, so I can not even begin to attest to knowing what it was like to be in that position, and doing so would be ignorant and disrespectful. But I do know that my life has been heavily influenced by my ancestors and my position in society has been shaped largely by that same history.

To close, I want to note that I am not blind to the progress being made. Barack Obama is indeed the Jackie Robinson of this era. However, I look to the position of the common Joe and feel there is much more to be attained.

Much more than which an apology will suffice.

NT

Interview: So Cold Pt 3

Part 3 of the interview is up, discussion my thoughts on the imminent success of the mixtape as well as The Freedom Trail.

OR

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7254485

N. Talekt

Mixtape "So Cold" is Official!

I'm pleased to announce that the mixtape is finally official!

It will be called "So Cold" and be released in January 2009. I decided to push it back as I wanted to include a few more songs on there that I just couldn't turn away from.

While I'm not quite ready to release the artwork or the names of any releases quite yet, I can tell you that new songs from the mixtape should be coming very soon, at least a couple in December!

Keep checking back often for the lastest news, reviews, and developments -- this blog is going to be very active in the coming weeks.

It's gonna be a cold winter...