complexion

From a certain point of view, it really doesn't matter. And there are actually other texts which give alternative descriptions. But it is still interesting that this sort of description exists in the hadith.

Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 55, Number 650:
Narrated Salim from his father:

No, By Allah, the Prophet did not tell that Jesus was of red complexion but said, "While I was asleep circumambulating the Ka'ba (in my dream), suddenly I saw a man of brown complexion and lank hair walking between two men, and water was dropping from his head. I asked, 'Who is this?' The people said, 'He is the son of Mary.' Then I looked behind and I saw a red-complexioned, fat, curly-haired man, blind in the right eye which looked like a bulging out grape. I asked, 'Who is this?' They replied, 'He is Ad-Dajjal.' The one who resembled to him among the people, was Ibn Qatar." (Az-Zuhri said, "He (i.e. Ibn Qatan) was a man from the tribe Khuza'a who died in the pre-lslamic period.")

the adventures of black jesus

Son of Man is a new South African film, which premiered at the U.S. Sundance festival in Utah and transports the life and death of Christ from first century Palestine to a contemporary African state racked by war and poverty.

Jesus is born in a shanty-town shed, a far cry from a manger in a Bethlehem stable. His mother Mary is a virgin, though feisty enough to argue with the angels. Gun-wielding authorities fear his message of equality and he ends up hanging on a cross.

"We wanted to look at the gospels as if they were written by spindoctors and to strip that away and look at the truth," director Mark Dornford-May told Reuters in an interview.

"The truth is that Christ was born in an occupied state and preached equality at a time when that wasn't very acceptable."

Yet another retelling/revisioning of a familiar story is A Huey Freeman Christmas which gives more than a few nods to its Charlie Brown predecessor, both in terms of music and storyline. Huey's teacher wants him to direct the school Christmas play, but Huey insists on complete creative control ("I want it in writing"). And even after getting helped by Quincy Jones, Huey still has a few obstacles and hurdles to overcome before he will be able to realize his visionary play "The Adventures of Black Jesus".

p.s. The above link should display the actual episode but the quality may vary with the speed of your internet connection. There is also a searchable archive to several other Boondocks episodes including one called Don't drop the soap. (or "A Date with the Health Inspector") Don't miss the scene where two white gangstas, reminiscent of certain politicians (and voiced by Charlie Murphy and Samuel Jackson) hold-up a convenience store owner who looks surprisingly like a certain Iraqi dictator on the grounds that he has a gun.

complexion consciousness

Arafat, the Bangladeshi blogger behind Anthology gives the straight dope behind certain colorstruck attitudes on the Sub-Continent in his post: Complexion Consciousness

twins raised apart

It would be hard to convey how surprised I was when I found a blog called Planet Granada When I chose the name for my blog, one of the things which definitely attracted me was the ambiguity in the names. I was actually *this* close to picking Planet Granada instead of Grenada. Only I went one way, and he another. Small world.

the return of the king

Nubian at Blac(k)ademic recently posted the Boondocks episode where Martin Luther King comes out of a coma to bring his new dream to a more contemporary time. This is not your grandfather's MLK. He is more like Bill Cosby without the Jello pudding pops.

captain picard

A buddy of mine from school recently got a couple of seconds of national fame. I just heard him on NPR about an hour ago. So I can't help but leave a link. It was part of a story called: Haitian Expatriates Eager to Vote on Future and his name is Jean-Luc (Guess what my nickname for him was?)

black white supremacist

If you haven't seen the classic (or at least much talked-about Dave Chappelle sketch) about the blind Black white supremacist, here it is.

But if you want to see an example of how the truth can be as strange as fiction, here is the real life story of a Black Klansman. (Although I wonder if the story was written as it was because of the Chappelle sketch)

another first

Christian Science Monitor: Liberia's New Lease On Life is about how Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has recently been elected as the first female African president.

let's hope she has a kevlar dress

Miami Herald: Chileans elected Michelle Bachelet, a socialist, as their nation's first woman president, extending the leftists' hold on the presidency while signaling a cultural shift.

not really surprising

From Counterpunch: How the FBI Spied on Edward Said

oppressed and oppressor

Sahih Bukhari Volume 3, Book 43, Number 624:
Narrated Anas:

Allah's Apostle said, "Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one. People asked, "O Allah's Apostle! It is all right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?" The Prophet said, "By preventing him from oppressing others."

we are, therefore i am

In “We are; therefore I am” South African Muslim theologian Farid Esack writes a self-critical piece calling for greater moral consistency among Muslims and all humanity. In an excerpt he writes:

To recognize evil in its own time and to act upon it when it is unsafe to do so is an enormous privilege. Such recognition and action is really for one’s higher self. Thus when I lodged a complaint with the South African Independent Broadcasting Authority against a local Muslim radio station for promoting hate speech against Jews, or when I regularly denounced Muslim anti–Semitism in my writings I did not do Jews any favours. I do not recall ever looking back to see how my interventions were being received by them – or even if they were aware of them. I acted thus so that my own humanity not be diminished by my silence when some part of the human family was being demeaned. This is the African notion of ubunthu – ‘I am a person because of my connected to other persons; I am because you are’. If something lessens your worth as a human being then it lessens mine as well. To act in your defense is really to act in defense of my ‘self’ – my higher present self or my vulnerable future self.

chavez and anti-semitism

Forward published a piece Venezuela's Jews Defend Hugo Chavez which reveals an interesting dynamic. In a recent speech, Chavez apparently made a reference to "Christ-killers" but in a Latin American context, Liberation Theology has long depicted Jesus as a socialist and consequently speaks of gentile business elites as "Christ-killers."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center took the comment as anti-semitic and are asking Chavez to apologize. But local Latin American Jewish organizations, as well as other American Jewish organizations are defending Chavez and are accusing the Simon Wiesenthal Center of rushing to judgment by charging Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, with making antisemitic remarks.

So then that raises the question of whether the Simon Wiesenthal center is speaking in the interests Venezuelan Jews or speaking as an American organization which disagrees with Chavez's political stances?

the magical negro

This past summer, a poet buddy of mine introduced me to the concept or stereotype of The Magical Negro (surprisingly enough, Wikipedia has a link). Then over at the Women of Color blog, brownfemipower was talking about the same thing under the title black folks and the supernatural. And finally, just today I was reading about hollywood and the magical negro over at rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace (Actually, he kind of WANTS to be a magical negro. In fact, that was mainly the reason why I added him to my blogroll... i.e. he's a blogger of color who was concerned about politics and people but is coming from a non-mainstream spiritual perspective).

At this point, I don't think I would say that the Magical Negro stereotype is a bad thing. In fact, it seems kind of benign. (Is the public image of Martin Luther King an example of the Magical Negro who ended racism by singing a few songs?) There are certainly worse stereotypes out there. I'm just saying I'm starting to notice it as a recurring figure. Let me get back to you on it.

to be continued ...

the klan's favorite network

The Klan's favorite Network is BET? Or as Aaron McGruder of the Boondock's would put it, Butts Every Time.

beyond a dream

From Common Dreams: Beyond 'I Have a Dream': Remembering Dr. King by Robert R. Goldberg and Lisa Kapp does a lot to name some of those names which made King possible.

nice mlk references

Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cointelpro and Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute
Wikipedia: Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wikiquote: Martin Luther King, Jr.

martin luther king, right?

I am conviced that capitalism has seen its best days in America, and not only in America, but in the entire world. It is a well known fact that no social institution can survive when it has outlived its usefullness. This, capitalism has done. It has failed to meet the needs of the masses.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

no seriously, he said what?

As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked -- and rightly so -what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

From Beyond Vietnam: a Time to Break Silence, a speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. He would be assassinated a year later to the day.

¿qué color?

by the Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén on Martin Luther King Jr.

Su piel era negra, pero con el alma purísima como la nieve blanca...
-Evtuchenko (según el cable), ante el asesinato de Lutero King.


Qué alma tan blanca, dicen,
la de aquel noble pastor.
Su piel tan negra, dicen,
su piel tan negra de color,
era por dentro nieve,
azucena,
leche fresca,
algodón.
Qué candor.
No había ni una mancha
en su blanquísimo interior.

(En fin, valiente hallazgo:
El negro que tenía el alma blanca,
aquel novelón.)

Pero podría decirse de otro modo:
Qué alma tan poderosa negra
la del dulcísimo pastor.

Qué alta pasión negra
ardía en su ancho corazón.
Qué pensamientos puros negros
su grávido cerebro alimentó.
Qué negro amor,
tan repartido
sin color.

¿Por qué, no
por qué no iba a tener el alma negra
aquel heroico pastor?

Negra como el carbón.