The annual West Indian American Day Parade is a huge event in Brooklyn, where I live, and, looking at the photos of all the colorful revelry, I’m sad I missed it. Instead I spent some time with my dear friend in Atlanta, where, at Opera on Sunday night, I had the distinctly interesting experience of standing in close proximity to the (not very tall) person I had written my weekly open letter to the day before. Had I been in a normal state of mind (i.e. had the Grey Goose not had your girl feeling a little too loose for a serious conversation about gender/racial politics), I might have introduced myself and sent Polow here. As it was, he was surrounded by a bevy of women, black ones, believe it or not, who had apparently been deemed submissive enough to share his company.

Also seen (by me) at Opera: A bunch of ATL regulars, Ludacris, and Ne-Yo, who developed an undeniably sour expression on his face when the DJ played a Bobby Valentino song right after his. Could he still be annoyed about this?

After the jump check out more pretty pictures from Labor Day in Brooklyn, since I didn’t have a camera to record my Labor Day in ATL. Hope you had a great three-day weekend, too!

CONTINUED »

It shouldn’t be, but I’m still sometimes shocked the extent to which public officials, at all levels of government, are so completely out of touch with young people.

A black city councilman in Atlanta is trying to amend the city’s indecency laws to make it illegal to have boxers, thongs, or even sports bras (sorry joggers) visible in public. Why not just pass an ordinance banning young black men from the streets? Ohhh. Too overt.

The amendment, sponsored by city councilman C.T. Martin, states that sagging pants are an “epidemic” that is becoming a “major concern” around the country.

“Little children see it and want to adopt it, thinking it’s the in thing,” Martin said Wednesday. “I don’t want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future.”

…”The purpose of the paper is to generate some conversation to see if we can find a solution,” Martin said. “It will be like all the discussions we’ve had around the value of the hip-hop culture. We know there are First Amendment issues … and some will say I’m just trying to put young black men in jail, but it’s going to be fines.”

Every few months you hear stories about laws like these getting passed in small towns in the South, but not in places like Atlanta. If public officials want to improve the way young people conduct themselves, if they want to decrease crime, if they want kids to act more respectable, policing their wardrobes is not the necessary first step. Let’s figure out the difference between having bad taste and being a criminal.

• Congratulations interracial couples! Eighty-three percent of Americans think that your love is “all right” with them, which, not to be a downer, means that a whopping 17 percent don’t. In the year 2007. What progress! []
• When we talk about blacks who are sell-outs, are we pointing fingers at the wrong people? [CST]
• In a statement that will delight Latino baseball players, Gary Sheffield explained that blacks were phased out of America’s favorite pastime in favor of Latinos because the latter group is easier to control. [ESPN]
• Officials in major cities with traditionally strong black populations — Atlanta, DC and NYC — worry that they will lose their diversity to the suburbs because of high cost of living. [AJC]
• Famed San Francisco jazz club decides to pull it’s anniversary CD after it was discovered there were no black artists on it. More than half of the club’s acts are black. Happy Black Music Month! []