The Blog

Apparently, now even old people aren’t allowed their golden gaffe-pass.

Last week, social media and TV broadcasters weighed in after 89-year-old White House Press Room icon Helen Thomas’ admittedly insensitive and historically ignorant comments about Israeli-Palenstinian relations in the Middle East.

I get that voicing any unflattering opinions about Israel or the Jewish people invites a firestorm of criticism, calls for your firing or voluntary resignation from a job and, perhaps, obnoxious campaigns to tarnish any legacy you might have had prior to said gaffe. Fair or not, it’s always been like that. And the same can be said for comments made about Blacks, gays, Hispanics…must I list it all?

But come on! Helen Thomas? Eighty-nine-year-old Helen Thomas? The wrinkly old lady asking Press Secretary Robert Gibbs questions about troop withdrawal timelines in the middle of a briefing about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? You want to pick a fight with the woman who was caught speaking off the cuff by a RabbiLive.com videographer and only gave her opinion because she was asked? The same woman who was a reporter covering U.S. presidents when the parents of the inventors of YouTube were just kids?

Surely else someone has to see the irony in this. In your 80’s you are supposed to be able to say pretty much whatever you want. My late grandmother did. And we just laughed it off. Hell, recently I interviewed a woman in her 80’s who inferred that I was gay and not corporate material because I have a pierced ear — “hardware” as she put it. I shrugged it off.

Am I saying that Helen Thomas should be exempt from exhibiting a certain degree of professionalism because of her age? Absolutely not. As a (now former) member of the press, she should not have made those comments if she knew they were going to end up on the web. But she should not have to think that she isn’t entitled to an opinion because said opinion might be unpopular, unflattering or ignorant of history. What messages are the reactions to her comments really sending?

“No, Grandma Helen, Jewish people should not go back to Germany or Poland. When we get back to the retirement home I’ll read you a history book while you enjoy your apple sauce.”

Enjoy your retirement, Ms. Thomas.

I’m not going to pontificate on James Brown’s greatness. There’s not another performer like him on earth. Looking for a song to get you pumped up? Need a workout song? Need a jolt of “revolutionary” in your spirit? This ought to do the trick.

Here’s Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved Part 2 from his live recording “Revolution of the Mind.”

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I want to try this. I wonder how long you need to train for this…

If Marvin Gaye were alive today, I’m sure he’d be humming chords of Mercy Mercy Me:

Oh, mercy mercy me
Oh, things ain’t what they used to be
No, no
Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas
Fish full of mercury

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is arguably the most tragic thing that can happen to an ecosystem. I’ve posted this Gaye classic (pun not intended) in tribute to the people whose way of life has been altered by British Petroleum’s idiocy.

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November 6, 1923 – April 28, 2010

The Morrison family said goodbye to Mary Lee Morrison, less than a week before my 25th birthday. I have nothing but fond memories of her. Never a dull moment when you were hanging out with Grann (short from grandma). I’ll certainly miss her smile, laugh and tenacity.

Grann, after having ordered a glass of wine during lunch on a trip to Monterey, Calif., attempted to explain her beverage choice as if to maintain a matronly, Christian-like persona in front of her grandchildren:

“Jesus turned water into wine. If it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me,” she said, sending my sisters, my aunt Carol and I into a roaring round of laughter.

Aunt Carol replied: “The Bible says he turned it into wine. It didn’t say he drank it.”

Grann shrugged and took a sip of her wine.

That was a good day.

–

I have to be honest, though. I don’t know very much about the history of the Morrison family. And I’m in it. While reading Grann’s funeral program, I learned things I’d only heard briefly mentioned before or not at all. I tried years ago to engage my dad about where our family is from. I’ve asked about his dad, whom I never met. He died two years prior to my birth. I’ve never gotten more than a sentence or two out of my dad about his our family. I’m told we have relatives in Chicago, Illinois where Grann was raised before she moved to Oakland, California. I was supposed to meet them at the funeral, but they never made an appearance.

There has always been an eerie silence surrounding the family lineage which both puzzles and troubles me. And not to be melodramatic, at times I feel I don’t know an important part of me. If I’ll ever reconcile that, who knows. I’m a journalist, so I can definitely find out as much I’d want to know without the help of my dad or my aunt. But when will I take the time to do it?

–

You’ve got to admit the striking resemblances in my family. Can you guess which one is my dad in the picture below? If you’ve seen pictures of me in elementary school, you’d be able to point him out no problem.

From top left, clockwise: My dad, David J. Morrison, Aunt Carol, Uncle Malcolm (deceased), Mary Lee Morrison (deceased), David H. Morrison (deceased).

Friends of a friend of mine released their collaborative project last week. Soundmen and graphic designers Flwrpt and Algorythm pay hommage to Brooklyn’s BedStuy community with The Stuyvesants. It’s a collection of solid instrumentals fusing together hip hop, soul, funk and other genres seamlessly. Click on the album to visit their site and download the album.

Here’s a sample from the project, titled 20 Jefferson Ave Theme.

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Eddie Murphy has long been my favorite black comedic actor — but not my favorite of all American comedic actors. I’ve put together a list of my top five Eddie moments. Agree? Disagree? Suggest other moments in the comments section.

Warning: explicit language and content in some of the clips below. UPDATE: Some of the clips have been removed from YouTube. So that means you’ll have to rent them, now doesn’t it?

5. James “Thunder” Early in Dreamgirls (2006)

*Video removed from YouTube due to copyright claim.

4. Preacher Pauly in Vampire In Brooklyn (1995)

3. Ray Gibson in Life (1999)

2. Randy Watson in Coming to America (1988)

*Video removed from YouTube due to copyright claim.

1. The Klumps in The Nutty Professor (1996)

Seniors say the damnedest things. I was reminded that during an AARP event I covered today, at which New Jersey’s governor attempted to woo seniors citizens who are concerned over his proposed plan to cut their state benefits.

“Can I tell you something personal,” asked a modestly dressed 80-year-old black woman clutching a cup of coffee and croissant she generously buttered as I grilled her about the governor’s speech.

“Sure,” I said, expecting the woman to reveal heartbreaking details about senior life on a fixed income.

“You are dressed very well and you speak very intelligently,” she said, and then paused.

Oh Lord, I thought. Is she hitting on me? No, couldn’t be.

“You should lose the hardware,” she said after what seemed like several seconds of dead air.

Lose the hardware? I looked down at my hands. I was holding a yellow notepad, a pen, my job-issued Motorola Que and my iPhone. My press pass dangled from my neck. It has metal component. Hardware?

The octogenarian pointed to my left ear.

I don’t have a Bluetooth headset. Had one magically appeared on my head? Or worst, did I have wax in my ears?

“Your earring. You shouldn’t wear it. It’s inappropriate,” she said.

I tensed up. Although no one was standing within earshot of she or I, my first emotion was that of embarrassment.

“People like us,” she began, tapping her cheek to indicate she was talking about African Americans. I nodded to signal I knew what she meant. “We shouldn’t give the larger community ways to weed us out. You stand out with the earring. It’s a distraction. And people make assumptions about young men with earrings.”

She lifted her eyebrows to imply something she was trying not to say.

Wow, I thought. This is the first time in many years I’d heard someone bring up the issue of men piercing their ears and wearing studs.

I pierced my left ear in my junior year of high school, right after I’d returned home from my first ever trip to New York City. That year I’d made up my mind to move to the East Coast upon completing college. And move, I did. The earring, back then, represented a sense of independence and of ambition that I’d somehow discovered in the Big Apple. Cheesy? Maybe not. I made it to New York.

These days I barely remember that I have my ear pierced. I rarely take the stud out, except to clean it. I’ll admit I walked away from the awkward conversation feeling a bit insecure.

She told me she’d raised four boys of her own. Two of them were college professors. The other two were engineers. I assumed she was implying that they are “where they are” in part because they don’t wear earrings, a fashion long considered feminine (even homosexual) by black (religious?) women (and men) of her dying generation.

Do people of her generation really see me that way? And at first glance?

Before I walked away, I decided not to assume the woman was homophobic, or that she was assuming I’m signaling to others my true sexual identity by wearing a quarter karat diamond stud, or that my decision to wear it would place a glass ceiling over my career trajectory.

That would just be stupid. And she seemed like a reasonably intelligent, albeit old-fashioned, woman.

Her parting words: “It’s just something to think about. You don’t have to take my advice. As they say, do your own thing.” She winked.

I smiled generously, turned on my heels and headed for the sliding doors of the Marriot in downtown Trenton.

No moral to the story. Just thought I’d share the joys of being a journalist. Thanks for reading. Comments?

Badu.

Found this video from a producer who was on the online staff I led back in college. And it’s recorded in my hometown. And Dave Chapelle’s crazy behind introduced her. Nice job, Domingo.

…if you don’t have Erykah’s new album, grab that this weekend. It’ll help her with her bail money, she says. Ha!

See why, here.

Last weekend I was in D.C. visiting a college buddy. Turns out I showed up just in time for the Cherry Blossom Festival. We walked the tidal basin near the National Mall. Very nice, but very crowded that day.