NewsFlash: Get it while it's hot -- Oct.5

O.J. convicted on 13th anniversary of murder acquittal
With football hall-of-famer O.J. Simpson’s recent conviction on the tip of just about everyone’s tongue, some critics are claiming that Simpson’s right to a fair trial was nearly in light of his murder trial 13 years ago. With an all-White mostly female jury—the virtual opposite of his nearly all-African American jury 13 years ago—Simpson’s trial may have been a bit skewed, according to his attorneys. Simpson and co-defendant, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, were found guilty of all 13 charges brought against them, including armed robbery and kidnapping. He now faces life in prison.

James Earl Jones to receive SAG Lifetime Achievement Award
After a lifetime of astounding success 77-year-old actor, James Earl Jones has been selected the recipient of the Screen Actor’s Guild Lifetime Achievement Award. Jones is noted is well known for his big screen credits including the voice of Darth Vadar in “Star Wars” in Mufassa in Disney’s “The Lion King”. He will receive the award at the fourteenth annual SAG Awards in Los Angeles on January 25.

NewsFlash: Get it while it's hot

Fatman Scoop and Wife on New Reality TV Show
Need something to take your mind off the plummeting economy? MTV’s new ‘Man and Wife show may be exactly what you’re looking for, or not. The new show features hip-hop personality Fatman Scoop and his wife Shanda Freeman as they discuss issues of sex, marriage, politics relationships and money. After becoming an internet sensation, MTV execs figured this show was ripe to join the plethora of cash-cow reality shows currently filling their airwaves. You can catch the show weeknights at 11p.m. and visit mtv.com for more details.

Find Your History…at Ellis Island
Is the U.S.A. finally recognizing blacks as true Americans? News of the revamping of the Ellis Island Museum indicate that Blacks, Native Americans and Eastern Europeans will be included in the new $20 million Peopling of America Center being added to the museum. Ellis Island officials say the new edition will feature those who made the trek to the “New World” before and after the immigration peak of 1892 – 1954. After the completion of the new center in 2011, the museum will be renamed Ellis Island: The National Museum of Immigration. Visit ellisisland.com for more information.

The Doctor Is In: An exclusive interview with Dr. Cornel West

There are few men who can make an album with the likes of Talib Kweli and Prince, chill with the Clintons at the Democratic National Convention, and hold down an entire department at Princeton University, but then again, there are few men with the charisma, no non-sense intellect, and fierce determination of Dr. Cornell West. The Black Voice got the chance to sit down with the author and professor before his lecture at the Student African American Society’s Fall Convocation. In this conversation on Barack Obama’s tightrope predicament, Condoleezza Rice, and dealing with player-haters, Dr. West proved that his fro is no front. His knowledge and devotion to the legacy of black people in America is all real.

BV: At a recent SAS general body meeting many students expressed that religion is not a factor in what makes an ideal presidential candidate. As a scholar of religion, can you tell our readers to what extent religion matters in our day to day lives in 2008 and in the election?

CW: It depends on what they mean by religion. If you associate religion with compassion, love, justice, fairness, and equality, then certainly a candidate ought to have a relation to those virtues. Now, you don’t have to be religious to have those, but usually, in American society, people who talk about love and justice connect it in some way to some religious tradition.

BV: Well, many of the students expressed that they did not one a president who would be “too religious,” who might spew his beliefs onto the entire country.

CW: Oh, I agree with that. I agree with not having someone who would impose their religious dogma on those who would disagree with him. But that for me is not a question of being religious, it would be intolerant. Many people are intensely religious, but precisely because they’re intensely religious, they are sensitive to other people’s beliefs.

BV: At the State of the Black Union in February you suggested that Barack Obama was walking a tight rope between expressing his love for the black community and appeasing his white supporters, how has that view changed or not changed with the progression of the campaign?

CW: I have a book coming out next month called Hope on a Tightrope, which proceeds exactly from that formulation. I think from the very beginning I was right though actually; Barack’s been on that tightrope for a long time. I came out and supported him in March, after meeting him for four hours and having a long talk with that brother. I had one question for Barack, mainly, what is your relation to the rich legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and Fannie Lou Hammer; because I’m a Martin Luther King Jr. kind of brother. I keep the world safe for his legacy. Those persons who do not understand the degree to which that black freedom movement creates the conditions for what Barack is doing now have a lack of history, a lack of memory. That’s dangerous.

You can still see Barack on the tightrope. That’s why he didn’t mention Martin’s name in the speech. He couldn’t even say black preacher, he said a young preacher. He said the word ‘America’ 26 times, he couldn’t say ‘black’ once, in the whole speech. Why? He’s walking on a tightrope. The speech is geared to the people he wants to convince, the white moderate.

BV: If Obama becomes our president, do you think he’ll still be on that tightrope?

CW: He’ll be on that tightrope until the day he dies.

BV: Speaking of black men in leadership, one of the complaints I hear often on this campus from black women leaders is that there are not enough black men in leadership roles. Where do you think this problem arises from and how can we solve it?

CW: Part of it is that we have such a crisis among young black brothers in terms of going to college. You have a limited number of brothers who are here, especially ones that don’t play football, ones that don’t play sports. In addition to that it’s hard – and this is what is wonderful about Brother Obama, he provides a grand example to inspire young black brothers to be something other than an athlete or an entertainer – because even the young black men who go to college, they’re influenced by a lot of the dominate black male stereotypes which are tied to entertainment and athletics.

On the other hand I think that we have such a rich tradition of black woman leadership in the black community and in black history. Even Condoleezza Rice, who I disagree with politically, is a good example because she’s a brilliant sister and she’s a competent leader in the powerful office of secretary of state that can inspire sisters. I’m not so big on inspiring folks to join the Bush administration, but she’s a very powerful example.

BV: So what would you say to those young black women leaders?

I would say to sisters, go on and take those leadership roles. Be exemplary in terms of your excellence, in terms of your integrity, in terms of your vision, and then try to also help inspire some of the brothers to be like you. It’s a beautiful thing. It also means that the next wave of great leadership – not just in black America, in the nation – will come more and more from black women.

BV: You and Tavis Smiley are both in the video for Jill Scott’s “Hate on Me” single. Over the years a man as dedicated to greatness as yourself has surely encountered many haters, how do you deal with them? How would you suggest that students deal with them?

CW: You saw that, at the very end? Tavis didn’t want to do it; I dragged that brother in there. [At this point it seems the question has made the esteemed intellectual blush. He pushes away from the table and smiles, as if his 7-second spotlight on the soul diva’s video set was a silly juvenile dream he’d always had.]

First you want to separate the criticizing from the trashing, because sometimes your haters can have a critique of you that you can learn from. Your critics point out your weaknesses, you attend to your weaknesses, and you become stronger than you were before.

Now the trashing is different because trashing is trying to rob you of your joy and to really crush your spirit. And that’s the kind of player-hating that [Jill’s] talking about. You have to hold your player-haters at arm’s length.

Any time you stand for something bigger than you – truth, justice, freedom – you will have player-haters, and if you don’t, you’re not taking a strong enough stance.