::God, Race, & Values...

Yesterday, Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans made a few very bold statements that kinda rubbed me the wrong way in his MLK, Jr. day speech. As an African-American and a Chrisitan, I took somewhat offense to his remarks:

"Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country... It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans _ the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," the mayor said. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans..."

I heard on Good Morning America this morning, that Nagin justified his remarks by saying "he was referring to creation of a racially diverse city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, insisting that his remarks were not divisive." (CNN)

"How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about," he said.

"New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It is going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive? It is white and black working together, coming together and making something special."

He is off the chain! -lol- Jeez... I have yet to hear or read the entire speech to fully judge, but I wasn't all "black power" about the parts that I did hear and read.

I'll leave my opinion on my comments page if/when I do read the speech fully, which I don't know if I really care to... but I will say this much: he should have rephrased his words and not been bold enough to state that God sent hurricane after hurricane, and as far as being in a "chocolate city" is concerned, I happen to favor diversity, and I have no desire to live in a place like that, unless the "chocolate" people are progressive, driven, focused, and perhaps...utopian. Are we DREAMING?

Then there's the ever-so-bold as always, gotta-love-the-attitude of Senator Hillary Clinton. I haven't really done a great analysis of her politics, work, or speeches in the past, so I can't really judge her, either... I know I haven't agreed with everything she's said and done, but this time, I think her opinions were a little cheap.

I was watching Good Morning America this morning and I kinda laughed. I was like "Wha?... Did she?... Ohh, uh-uh..." -lol-

As usual, Senator Clinton was bashing Bush's Administration, calling it "one of the worst" in U.S.history. LOL at that, because she's prolly right... Standing before a majority black audience at the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem, I'm sure she got mad props for what she did say.

The House “has been run like a plantation, and you know what I’m talking about...” They know just what to say to get people excited, don't they? The latter part of that quote is what tickled the hell outta me because of seeing her nod her head in confidence, it was too funny.

She then continued with, “It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard.”

“We have a culture of corruption, we have cronyism, we have incompetence,” she said. “I predict to you that this administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country.” (MSNBC)

She ain't lyin'... but it's funny to me because it also reminds me of this "new" Christianity that's become a major part of American culture, as well. I'm talking about the motivational, gimme money, bigger-better-more, name it & claim it, no-real-substance, you-can-do-it influence that millions of us are exposed to on a daily, mostly weekly basis. I'm not knocking, it completely (& I'm really not gonna go there today), but I'm just observing how easily people are influenced by someone that they view as an authority figure's words with something that they are passionate about, whether it be God, their own race, or their values...

Stephen Covey wrote in his The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, "We all think we see the world as it is, when in fact, we see the world as we are."

That quote has opened up my eyes in a lot of ways and has helped me gain some perspective.

I believe that the true value is within the human race, there's so much division between us because we believe we are all so different, yet we're all one-in-the same.

While on this subject, I'd like to recommend anyone that has not seen the movie Crash to check it out. It's an eye-opener, for sure! I'd never even heard of it until I saw the cast on Oprah a few months ago. The cast includes: Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, damn sexy Ryan Phillippe, gorgeous Thandie Newton, Terrence "I don't know what race I am" Howard, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Brendan Fraser and one of my favorite actresses Sandra Bullock. It is a very "in yo' face" eyeopener. I was kinda disappointed with some of it, but watching it a second and third time fixed that for me.
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Also, FX is debuting a new show this Spring called Black. White. which is produced by RJ Cutler and Ice Cube. It's a series where they take a black family and a white family and change them into the opposite race (using make-up, etc.) for them to interact with other people in the world, of that race.