From the monthly archives:

January 2009

What I’ve Been Up To

by Jose on January 29, 2009 · 2 comments

in life

Jose Vilson, #1 Knicks Fan (at least for one night)

Jose Vilson, #1 Knicks Fan (at least for one night)

This might be the shortest list ever because I’m working on a million things, but here’s the rundown:

- Celebrated my birthday this past weekend (1/24/1982, and if you add up all the digits there, yes, you get a number divisible by 3, my favorite number. Yes I’m that random).

- Worked on the first draft of this site. (I’m not sassy, but some of my best friends are.)

- Trying to get a manual ready for the most non-secret secret on-line African Diaspora organization / think tank there is.

- Doing my research on English Language Learners and best practices, so I can be an ELL-expert like my girlfriend :-)

- Helping to write up grants so our school can get money to actually make things happen (against all odds)

- Writing a poem for a teacher whose retirement comes this Friday (tomorrow), and I’m roasting him so badly. Here’s a few lines I’m using:

“I worked so hard on this poem:
15 minutes hard!
1 to come up with the insults
and 14 to write them all down.”

- Oh yeah, and this teaching thing. To interpolate what’s been happening at the school lately, I went to a mess and a class broke out. I broke up my second fight between a surly 16-year-old and a not-so-surly 13-year-old … in the same grade. But very few people actually believe the stories I’ll tell them about my school, or any other school.

- Speaking of retirement, when I get the opportunity to retire (and by the looks of things now, my retirement age will be 80 or something crazy like that), I’m going somewhere nice. Really nice.

Jose, who’s off to write a poem I’ll be sharing with all of you this weekend …

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Am I Not Human: Guantana-Close

by Jose on January 27, 2009 · 7 comments

in life

Guantanamo Bay, the Parody

Guantanamo Bay, the Parody

This morning on NY1, I saw some random meeting between some of the families of 9/11, and, when they were asked about President Obama’s closing (essentially) of the Guantanamo Bay detention center, they were outraged, OUTRAGED, and wanted them tried immediately. While I sympathize with their point of view about 9/11, I also have to wonder if they can get past the myopia and noticed that, like most Americans, they’ve been hosed.

Imagine having 775 hostages (because the word “detainees” sounds like the US government was following the Geneva Conventions to the letter, and it wasn’t) who were allegedly enemy combatants in a camp somewhere in Cuba, and very few people had any idea when any of them would be tried or whether any of them were even going to live. Our country just kept them there and whenever they felt like it, you released them. And they did it with all the money they needed because it would a) show the Muslim world that our country means business and b) they can and no one’s going to stop them.

I don’t know about you, but to say that the logic of having those hostages contained (in a foreign land, mind you) is akin to refrigerating a rotten egg: a reactive solution to a pre-existing problem. If we’re saying that the 775 original hostages or prisoners of war were guilty as sin, then why were 505 of them released through May ‘08? Why were only three of them actually convicted of anything? Why, then, if they are just detained, did we decide to let them rot there when, upon release, they’ll be even more invigorated and create even more soldiers when they go back to their respective countries?

Now, I’m not saying that the detainees were innocent men (seems like there are no women in there). I just know that, as far as 9/11 is concerned, I just think that the families are sniffing up the wrong trees (or forest in this case) when it comes to finding who helped blow up the buildings. Rather than demand for answers from those hostages, they should demand answers from the ex-Commander-in-Chief who’s preferred corporate interest over true peace in the Middle East, who planted troops for private infantry than any actual fighting, and who used all that money we now so desperately need for this tomfoolery.

Or for that matter, why your families were used as the “image” of the average suffering American, but when it came time for answers, those using your images never really responded. I’m glad we’re getting rid of Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp; maybe we can focus on the prisons in the United States first.

Jose, who doesn’t always advocate for the devil …

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Michelle, My Belle

by Jose on January 25, 2009 · 3 comments

in life

Barack and Michelle Obama, Behind the Scenes

Barack and Michelle Obama, Behind the Scenes

We stand at the precipice of history
Feet on the one end grounded, cemented
And on the other, afloat and steadily adaptable to change
Our palms meet, love and lifelines crossing
Sweat dripping from yours
A cool breeze stemming from mine
A comfortable temperature somewhere between us
Our facial expressions match in their intensity
I am reminded of the moments we spent together
When success did not come so facile
When my youth came and went with the weird and wild ways
Of the rebel in the suit and tie
Pen in left, fist in right
And you,
Hair streaming from your cuticles
In strands evoking my own visions of time
Complicated, thick, multi-layered,
Something I may have my fingers on
But its majesty I can never quite grasp
No matter how far my fingers trickle down your jaw
Down to your nose,
Lips which on both ends have kissed and heard
So often just to feed from this source of intellect
Down to places where we’d create others in a rather immediate future
In a place where I admired soon after looking at your face
My hands reach out to you
Where my hands slide onto your waist
So curvaceous yet so sturdy
So sensitive and so steady
Your caresses so hypnotizing and so inspiring
Where men have moved whole lands for their beloved
I simply had to convince one that I was good enough to lead
And my thoughts turn to a practice we’ve partaken in so frequently
Love,
Love-making,
and the eternal answer to the question
As to what may happen when humans like us
Believe in something far greater than the sum of our parts …

Jose, whose not talking about Barack here …

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The JLV’s Top 5 Greatest vs. Top 5 Favorite MCs of All Time

by Jose on January 22, 2009 · 17 comments

in life

Hip-Hop MC

Hip-Hop MC

On Facebook, I came across a slight problem that most hip-hop heads come across whenever a major hip-hop event happens (i.e. the release of Notorious, the movie): how do we qualify our short-list of greatest MCs and favorite MCs? I put up my thoughts to the masses and got a good 30+ responses, ranging from super-duper-stars to underground All-Stars. I tried my best to hold my lip about the topic because it’s rather controversial, but unlike the 90s when things got hostile, it’s now become a rather fun conversation where we all get to share our favorite moments in hip hop.

“Yo, son, you remember when Illmatic dropped?”

“I still can’t decide between the Wop and the Smurf!”

or how about,

“There’s no doubt Hip-Hop as we know it was born in the South-South BRONX!”

But by and large, this is the best conversation anyone can ever bring up. It’s usually the rambling you hear before or during a cipher, or the conversations we hear at roundtables somewhere in corporate offices with magazine editors. With that said, I naturally have to contribute my own lists. You’re all gonna look at me crazy, but I don’t care much.

Criteria: Much like Blaze’s ill-fated top 50 MCs of all time, I use the thought that “Greatest” MC includes cultural impact, lyricism, records (critical and popular success), and influence. Now that we have that rubric down, check my steez:

rakim2

Rakim

Top 5 Greatest:

1. Rakim
2. 2Pac
3. Jay-Z
4. Biggie
5. KRS-One

1) That was a tough pill to swallow. #1 will always be #1 to me, strictly because of his ability to take rap lyricism light years above where it was. It was no longer simple a-b-a-b: with Rakim on the mic, the rhyme could have been placed anywhere in the lyric, and yet, it was always perfectly placed. He had commercial success, had songs for the party and for the purist, ate every MC he came across with one line, and he paved the way for at least a third of the MCs out there. And even when he could really lyrically embarrass his contemporaries, he never overdid it, and that’s where his magic lies.

2) 2Pac gets HUGE points now for still being alive even when he’s no longer alive. When you rank on lists that include John Lennon and Elvis Presley, you deserve it. Lyrically, he was alright, but what he actually said and how he was one of the most sincere rappers, if not the most sincere, clearly put him above and beyond.

3) Jay-Z’s been the most consistent rapper of the last decade, and his longevity surpasses LL’s because LL hasn’t been relevant since 2003 … maybe. Despite a large portion of his lyrics being borrowed from other sources (and I use the word nicely), we also know that, without them, as he so thoroughly explains in “What More Can I Say?”, he’d still be better than 1/2 of the MCs out there. Plus, he didn’t get with the trends: he stayed one step in front of them and made them every step of the way. Oh yeah, and there’s also the fact that his christening of the South with his “Ha (remix)” with Juvenile and “Big Pimpin’” with UGK turned a lot of the East’s eyes towards our Southern brethren.

4) Biggie may have ranked higher when he was alive, but unfortunately, his untimely passing cut off his potential that much more. I don’t rank on potential; I rank on action, and Biggie doesn’t pass that litmus test. He may still have a huge following all across the nation, but like I said, he doesn’t have enough material for him to go any higher, no matter how much emotion we want to go with.

5) KRS-One, while not my in my favorite list, had a tremendous impact on Hip-Hop. He was its evangelist, and also its symbol: bombastic, witty, contradictory, rugged, snarky, awesome, and super-lyrical. Woo!

But then there’s this funny little list for my Favorite, and while 4 out of 5 of these men on this list occupy my Favorites list (sorry, KRS), I also have a couple more that I have some emotional / hip-hop attachment towards:

A Reasonable Favorites List

Ghostface Killah, On Stage

Ghostface Killah, On Stage

1. Talib Kweli
2. Ghostface Killah
3. Eminem
4. Kanye West
5. Common

honorable mentions:

6. Redman, 7. Joe Budden, 8. Andre 3000

I know that list sounds like a Who’s Who of “underground to mainstream love”, but honestly, these are my favorites. I lean heavily on these gentlemen for most of my rap music. I have Kanye’s, Eminem’s and Talib’s whole discographies at this point, and am working towards the other gentlemen’s discographies, too. I’ll have to get into each and all of these men at some point, but suffice it to say that when we talk about the greatest, I don’t think any of these men crack the top 10. Honestly. At least not yet.

Jose, who wonders how many haters I’ll have to add to my list after this barnburner …

p.s. – My favorite femcee is Lauryn Hill. Yep. That felt good to say. Favorite group? A Tribe Called Quest.

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Success Is A Process, Not An Event

by Jose on January 21, 2009 · 3 comments

in life

Barack Obama as Jackie Robinson

Barack Obama as Jackie Robinson

The following is an excerpt from CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewing Former Gen. Colin Powell, who commemorated the inauguration of Barack Obama, our 44th President.

BLITZER: Did you ever think, Gen. Powell, that you would be alive to witness this day?

POWELL: I didn’t know if I would or I would not. I knew the day would come eventually. I watched over the last 50 years, the 50 years of my adult life, as my country went from Jim Crow and discrimination and segregation, and I couldn’t get a hamburger in a hamburger joint in the South. And slowly but surely, things changed, things improved, America looked at itself with Dr. Martin Luther King holding the mirror up for us to look at ourselves. And we said, this is not who we should be or what we should be. This is not the inspiration to the world that we present ourselves as.

And so, slowly but surely, we changed. And then, in recent years, more rapidly, to the point where a man of enormous skill, enormous capability was elected president of the United States, and not just because he is black, but it’s a sign of our society and our democratic system that he is black and he made it. A lot of people said, white folks will go into the booth, but they wouldn’t pull the lever for him, no matter what they said outside. Well, they did. And he ran a brilliant campaign, an organized campaign, and it was a very successful campaign.

I had a flashback to a lively discussion I had with a few public safety officers when I was a “safety agent” in college. I just remember how everyone was still annoyed at the first election of George W. Bush. We witnessed the apparent travesty unfold, but wondered who were the viable candidates at the time other than Bush in 2000. Al Gore? John McCain? Maybe. Then, someone brought Colin Powell’s name up, and hysteria ensued!

“You mean to tell me that this country’s not racist when COLIN POWELL, a DEDICATED WAR HERO, would get shot, SHOT!, if he even contemplated running! He’s got as many credentials as anyone we’ve ever seen, but even liberals won’t elect him because they’re afraid he’s gonna get assassinated as soon as he takes his hand off the Bible!”

I’d never seen this White lady, bespectacled and in uniform, a former Armed Forces soldier herself, get so animated. Moments like that kicked some of my own theories about voting blocks in the teeth. Maybe Tupac was finally wrong: we were ready for a Black president. Maybe, as the Onion mentioned, it had gotten so bad that we were desperate enough to have a Black president who on the one end embodies our hopes and changes but also was such a clean slate that we could transfix our own views onto him.

But more importantly, Barack Obama’s ascendancy came as a result of time.

So yesterday, after watching the inauguration with my students, I immediately went into a few remarks (if anyone’s down for the soaring allegory, it’s this writer):

Today, ladies and gentlemen, is a result of a long series of events. Barack Obama didn’t just get to be President of the United States just because of who he is. Just the way that Civil Rights leaders paved the way for you all to be sitting here with the same calculators, the same books, in the same seats that anyone else can sit in, and have the privileges you do, in a time when they got arrested just for sitting in front of a bus or hosed because they wanted to walk into the same diner that others did, THAT’S the privilege.

So when people like me see that, and we get a little emotional, understand that we think about kids like you every night, and how events like the one you saw today only mean that now you get a chance to do what you want to do. You now have to carry that message of hope and change into the future generation. It’s up to you now.

Success is not an event; it’s a process. And the process is far from over.

Jose, who wonders if 80% of blacks really believe Obama sealed up MLK’s dream …

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I Shall Fear No Man (Y’all Don’t Hear Me Though)

by Jose on January 19, 2009 · 3 comments

in life

Backstage at the Democratic National Convention

Backstage at the Democratic National Convention

My favorite speech from the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King has been called “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop” and it ends something like this:

And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I’m happy, tonight.

I’m not worried about anything.

I’m not fearing any man!

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

The thoughts swirling through my head with the recent release of Notorious and the pending inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama all have a focal point of the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Particularly, I’m always concerned with a few parts of his legend that have turned into fable, and have almost made it impossible for the younger generations to feel empowered by the Civil Rights Movement. (Some of the inspiration for this post came at the behest of CNN’s Soledad Brown’s interview with Fred Gray, Rosa Parks’ lawyer during the pivotal bus sit-in, who is still quite sharp.)

These are a handful of things everyone can take to the younger generation in case even we forget what’s truly possible:

1) Rosa Parks was neither lazy nor stubborn. She was a protester who knew what she was doing when she sat on that bus, and she knew who had her back.

2) The movement may have had male figureheads, but the movement wouldn’t have even been possible without the women in the movement, and everyone who’s anyone knows it.

3) From some reports, MLK Jr. was actually reluctant to even get into the movement, but eventually felt it was the best thing to do.

4) Most of the movers and shakers of the movement were really young. Some of the Black Panthers were late teens or college students. The same can be said for the Brown Berets, Young Lords, Yellow Fist, etc. MLK Jr. was still a preacher at 25, but he was assassinated at 39. Malcolm X was also assassinated at 39. Rosa Parks was 35 during the infamous bus incident.

5) Despite videos and tales to the contrary, the people who marched, protested, and made noise were relatively few. Thus, it only takes a few to shake millions.

6) Unlike many rappers who have professed their suicidal thoughts to the masses, MLK Jr. didn’t say the aforementioned “Mountaintop” speech because he was somehow depressed or disillusioned with the world around him. He, like other Civil Rights leaders, actually feared for their lives because they were HELPING ADVANCE EQUALITY FOR ALL!

Now some of these facts might come off as a little morbid, but the residuals of these ideas have almost made many of our young brethren ostentatious when unnecessary but timid when it comes to civil action. Rather than actually feeling some inspiration about these awesome figures in this country’s history, many of them cower and shun those times in favor of more individualistic goals and a lavish lifestyle.

Thus, tomorrow’s inauguration is truly symbolic not simply because Barack Obama’s a Black man in the White House or because it comes at the heels of MLK Jr. Day, but also because this president’s whole campaign was about igniting the younger generation, and relying on their expertise. Maybe percentagewise, it may not have been much of a difference, but the people who took to the blogs and the streets is impressive, and maybe then, too, we’ll have a new generation who finds value in giving life and limb for a cause that benefits the greater.

Jose, who doesn’t believe in this post-racial business, you need more people …

p.s. – Dick Cheney hurting his back moving out of the office? Wow. Not that coincidental.

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It’s Pretty Much Your Fault

by Jose on January 18, 2009 · 2 comments

in life

Uncle Same "You Fail"

Uncle Same "You Fail"

The Buffalo Beast dropped their 50 Most Loathsome People of 2008, and listed everyone from Barack Obama (#50) to … well you can figure it out (I’ll give you a hint: rhymes with nail-in), and everyone in between. As always, they take particular interest in everyone around them and the social trends that makes us all a critical part of the disgust they have for this country. So at #43, it’s all your fault:

43. You

Charges: You think it’s your patriotic duty to spend money you don’t have on crap you don’t need. You think Hillary lost because of sexism, when it’s actually because she’s just a bad liar. You think Iraq is better off now than before we invaded, and don’t understand why they’re so ungrateful. You think Tim Russert was a great journalist. You’re hopping mad about an auto industry bailout that cost a squirt of piss compared to a Wall Street heist of galactic dimensions, due to a housing crash you somehow have blamed on minorities. It took you six years to figure out what a tool Bush is, but you think Obama will make it all better. You deem it hunky dory that we conduct national policy debates via 8-second clips from “The View.” You think God zapped humans into existence a few thousand years ago, although your appendix and wisdom teeth disagree. You like watching vicious assholes insult each other on TV. You support gun rights, because firing one gives you a chubby. You cuddle falsehoods and resent enlightenment. You think the fact that 43% of whites could stomach voting for an incredibly charismatic and eloquent light-skinned black guy who was raised by white people means racism is over. You think progressive taxation is socialism. 1 in 100 of you are in jail, and you think it should be more. You are shallow, inconsiderate, afraid, brand-conscious, sedentary, and totally self-obsessed. You are American.

Exhibit A: You’re more upset by Miley Cyrus’s glamour shots than the fact that you are a grown adult who is upset about Miley Cyrus.

Sentence: Invaded and occupied by Canada; all military units busy overseas without enough fuel to get back.

Sorry for copying the whole section, but it’s all too true. Please read this: it’s gonna take a sitting, but as usual, well worth the read.

Jose, who is spending the next 24 hours with a special someone …

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Short Notes: On A Whole Nother Level

by Jose on January 18, 2009 · 0 comments

in life

A few links:

Oh yeah, and with the release of Notorious, a story about the famous Christopher Wallace a.k.a. Notorious BIG, my post, “It Was All a Dream,” my fictitious letter in the voice of Biggie Smalls, has suddenly become more relevant according to Google. Feel free to check it out and comment at your leisure.

Jose, who’s really having a hard time with the idea of “motivation” …

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Before You Become President (Dear Barack Obama)

by Jose on January 15, 2009 · 3 comments

in life

Barack Obama, Lincoln, Experience

Barack Obama, Lincoln, Experience

Dear President-Elect Barack Obama (or whoever handles your mail),

Like you, I’m just one man
A writer with a vision, a community organizer with dreams
Of an America where my President and Governer are Black in skin
Wise in their decisions
Vigilant in his ways
Persistent in his pursuit of justice
To do right by the American people
But sometimes I wonder if I’m asking too much from a man
Who preached change and hope to this author
When the sun rose over the White House,
It dawned over America the constant shadow
The last incumbent left upon the land
We live in a state where his ashes from the leaves in his stems
Float from sea to war-torn sea,
We see no refuge, but plenty of refugees
Your former opponent had enough houses to provide them shelter
And your future crib has enough rooms to put over a roof over these babies,
While water washes over former Cajun homes
Earthquakes crack brick
Brisk match-quick winds conflagrate rooftops of the rich and poor
Mayors and governors ignore the people’s will
Turn local governments into fiefdoms with a little money and a lot of PR
JESUS!
I’m not expecting you to work Messianic miracles
Walk across the Mediterranean,
Bring peace to Gaza and the holy lands,
Rub bandages to the Chinese protester prisoners
On their knees hoping for some restitution from this dictator authoritarianism
Sweep poverty from Russia and the Phillipines
Hold hands with the victims and survivors of diseases, infections, and afflictions in Darfur,
Zimbabwe, South Africa, and all points in between
Though I might ask you to pass around a basket with 1 loaf of bread and 1 fish,
And in the time it takes you to get a million or so fans on Facebook,
Have it FedExed to Oakland, CA,
with enough produce to feed the mourners
Of Oscar Grant and every dead civilian killed on account of their skin
Or their will,
Or their economic status,
Or who they choose to love,
Or whether they look like they belong in the land that postpones equal opportunity at will
So before you get cozy in the Oval Office,
Where many men have either uplifted or destroyed the lives of millions in one fell swoop
I want you to know that I’m proud of your successes
I want you to know that the shades that the White House now produce
I want you to know that this country, more than ever, needs your calm demeanor
Your spirit
Your willingness to listen
Your ability to champion the people as much as you champion yourself
As the sun sets, the shades on the other side of 1600 Pennsylvania now dance in your honor
Those shadows really the souls of MLK, Rosa Parks, Robert F. Kennedy, Madelyn Dunham
And the thousands of people who were laid to rest just for the one moment
And I want you to know that the Bible you’re asked to put your hand on,
You can hold
Wrap your fingers around it
Seize it for yourself first
But seize it for the rest of us who never could
Seize it for the rest of us who can’t
Seize it for the little boys and girls who haven’t yet …

Jose, who doesn’t want to wait …

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Where Are They Now? (The NYCTF Edition)

by Jose on January 13, 2009 · 4 comments

in life

NYCTF

NYCTF

Sometimes, on days like this, I think about my NYCTF training, and wonder, “Where are they now?”

I’m especially thinking about my pre-service training, where the most capricious and snobby kids weren’t in the classroom, but training to be teachers along with those of us who were more in it for the students themselves. I think back to what a horrible mess some of the classes were and wonder how I still stayed in the teaching profession.

I remember for one class, we started out auspiciously enough, working on projects and having friendly and contentious debate about pedagogy. Then, somewhere along the line, the students (who coincidentally came from the top schools like Harvard, et. al.) fancied themselves too good for their professor and began to deride his methods and become overtly condescending to a man who’s been in the system for almost 2 decades. While I understand that there’s always a need for a little change, you have to earn your wings to get to that man’s level, no matter how intelligent you think you are. Other students in the class took courage in disparaging this professor that he changed the format from one that was fun and real to one that was mundane and unchallenging.

With incidents like that, and a few more that I’ll have to get to next week, were sitting there, contemplating out loud who we thought would actually make it through their first year of teaching. While the prospects statistically didn’t look good for them, I’m still highly intrigued as to who made it and who didn’t.

Maybe here’s an essential question to think about, folks:

If you’re a snob, can you make it in inner-city teaching? And isn’t humility intrinsic in teachers? (Confidence is fine, but isn’t humility necessary or am I mistaken?)

Jose, who really is wondering what all those people are doing with themselves, and wonder if the kids tore them a new one when they got a new classroom …

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