recent readings

• Vibe interview with Obama by Jeff Chang. Part 1 and Part 2. I do not have any particularly coherent thoughts about the Democratic nominees right now (other than I wish they would quit trying to be Republicans).
• I've got two daughters and it's a challenge for me every day to make sure that they're getting a positive self-image and that they are not being swept up in some of the negative attitudes about girls generally and Black women in particular. Now the main responsibility is with the parents, and I've never supported censorship as a strategy to deal with this. But I think it's something that we can all talk about. And so I think that some in the hip-hop community immediately assumed, I guess based on press reports they heard, instead of reading my actual statements, that I had targeted them out by themselves, and others assumed that I was trying to score cheap political points. (re: don imus shit)
  
• Everything you wanted to know about street gangs.

• Q: How do you define a gang?

  A: Great question. There are a few important legal cases where prosecutors tried to prosecute college fraternities as “gangs.” They suggested that the fraternity was an organization that existed to promote criminal behavior, such as the abuse of women and underage drinking. Most judges threw these cases out because they thought that fraternities were not, by definition, “gangs.” But judges rarely gave a logical reason for excluding (typically white) fraternities from the “gang category.”

harold and kumar: the sequel!

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Yes!