Hobbserving the "Hip-Hop" halftime and the looming war in Ukraine
The Monday Musings!
Hip-Hop Super Bowl Show
As a member of Generation X who occasionally wore, the "Raiders hat, t-shirt, and Khakis" in homage to Ice Cube and NWA in high school, I admit that I was pretty excited to see Dr. Dre, Snoop, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar featured in a Hip-Hop era halftime show at last night's Super Bowl in Los Angeles.
Nostalgia aside, I thought that the vast number of acts prevented an even better show in that the quick snippets of classic hits ran faster than an oldies but goodies infomercial. And while it was great seeing folks my age moving the crowd and “Crip-walking” on the set, I admit that I would have LOVED to have seen Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella Boy from NWA reunite and perform arguably the most enduring song of their Hall of Fame career, F*ck the Police, a timeless classic that profanely (and profoundly) captures the angst between Blacks and racist police practices that still are in effect across America to this very day, such as the recent “no-knock” police home invasion and slaying of Amir Locke, 22, in Minneapolis. But as several posters on my Facebook page opined, had NWA performed that song (while wearing Colin Kaepernick jerseys to boot), the FCC would have clutched pearls and shut the entire show down by fading to black.
Overall, I enjoyed the set and the trip down memory lane..
Remembering the MSD Massacre
Four years ago this morning, I had just completed a sentencing hearing in Orlando, Florida and was eating at an adjacent breakfast spot when breaking news flashed across the television screen that a shooter had opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida. I sat there watching news footage for hours and talking about the tragedy with complete strangers before making the trek back to Tallahassee, saddened, yet again, that some evil human being had decided to take innocent lives in a hail of gunfire.
May the victims rest in eternal peace...
This week, President Joe Biden plans to use the fourth anniversary of this tragedy to call upon Congress to enact new measures to reduce gun violence in America. In a statement demanding more background checks, limits on high capacity weapons, and removing immunity for gun manufacturers, the president said that our nation "must do much more” while adding that, "We can never bring back those we’ve lost. But we can come together to fulfill the first responsibility of our government and our democracy: to keep each other safe."
Well, Mr. President, not only can we not bring the victims back, but America has consistently shown a reticence to make real substantive changes to gun laws. While your advocacy is commendable, it is actually quite quixotic in that America was founded by gun lovers (slavery, stealing Native lands) and grew into a super power because of gun lovers (wars of conquest and Western civilization preservation), and the powers that be that love guns and fellow gun lovers will be hard pressed to offer anything but "thoughts and prayers" to those slain due to senseless gun violence.
Russia poised to invade Ukraine
Speaking of wars, the major news headlines are ripe with speculation that before this week is out, that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will invade Ukraine. While I have speculated for weeks that this is an attention seeking bluff by Putin, and that the Russians cannot afford a protracted war with its neighbor, particularly if European powers like France, Great Britain, or Germany rush to Ukraine's aid, the historian in me understands that leaders have thrown caution to the wind and launched wars before despite less than ideal factors.
To that end, the Hobbservation Point fully agrees with President Biden's call for all Americans to get out of Ukraine post-haste, because if hostilities do begin, the American military will not be able to extract American citizens in a war zone. A fact that reminds, once more, that while American forces stationed in Germany are always available for rapid deployment, that the signals from Washington suggest that should Putin foolishly launch a war, that America will respond with crippling economic sanctions—not boots on the ground.
Stay tuned...
Black History Hobbservation
Zora Neale Hurston was a prominent Black anthropologist, essayist, and novelist born in Natsaluga, Alabama in 1891. Hurston was raised in Eatonville, Florida, one of the first Black incorporated towns in America.
Hurston initially attended Howard University where she studied under Alain Locke, the first Black Rhodes Scholar, but later transferred to Barnard College, where she graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology in 1927.
Following graduation, Hurston moved to New York, where she joined Langston Hughes and others and became one of the leading writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston's anthropological background assisted her research and writings for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, where she helped catalog narratives from former slaves. Hurston later studied the African roots of several Central American cultures and used her experiences to pen numerous essays including her seminal work, Their Eyes Were Watching God, a lovers tale which provided a fictionalized account of the Great Hurricane of 1928 that wiped out many small black shanty towns near Lake Okeechobee, Florida. Hurston's dialect heavy work drew criticism from two notable writers of her era, Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright, the latter calling it a "minstrel-show turn that makes the white folks laugh."
Hurston later worked as a correspondent for the Pittsburgh Courier, where in 1952 she covered the trial of Ruby McCollum, a Suwannee County Black woman accused of murdering Dr. C. Leroy Adams, a white state senator elect who McCollum suggested had raped her repeatedly. As an aside, during my legal career I defended several cases in the very Suwannee County Courthouse where McCollum's case was tried, and often found myself imagining what Hurston and other Blacks must have thought as they looked down from the segregated balcony to watch an all white male jury convict McCollum. (Nota Bene: McCollum was initially sentenced to death but, following an appeal, was later sentenced to the Florida State Mental Hospital).
Hurston died destitute in 1961 and was buried in an unmarked grave near Fort Pierce, Florida. In 1973, Alice Walker, a young writer who later would rise to her own prominence in 1982 upon the success of her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Color Purple, placed a marker near the area Hurston was believed to be buried.
Black College Feature
Each day during Black History Month, I will feature one of America's leading HBCUs.
Next up: North Carolina Central University
History: Originally founded by James E. Shepard as the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua for the Colored Race in Durham, the school was chartered in 1909 as a private institution and opened on July 5, 1910.
With an initial focus on training teachers, it became known as the National Training School in 1915. In 1923, the school became funded by the State of North Carolina and was renamed the Durham State Normal School.
In 1925, reflecting the expansion of its programs to a four-year curriculum with a variety of majors, it was renamed the North Carolina College for Negroes.
The college expanded its focus from strictly undergraduate education by adding graduate courses within its School of Arts and Sciences in 1939, and in 1940, the law school was formally chartered.
In 1947, the North Carolina General Assembly changed the name once again, this time to North Carolina College at Durham. Finally, in 1969, the General Assembly changed the school's name to North Carolina Central University.
Academics: NCCU is ranked #10 among HBCUs by US News & World Report. The University offers undergraduate and graduate degrees through its School of Business, School of Education, School of Law, School of Library & Information Sciences, School of Nursing, College of Behavioral & Social Sciences and College of Arts and Sciences.
NCCU, in conjunction with the African American Jazz Caucus, sponsors a Jazz Research Institute which conducts an annual Summer Jazz Festival.
Motto: "Truth and Service"
Colors: Maroon and Gray
Mascot: Eagles
Athletics: NCCU was a longtime member of the CIAA, a premier NCAA Division II conference of predominantly Black colleges and universities. In 1989, the men's basketball team won the Division II National Championship. In 2010, the University officially joined the MEAC, an NCAA Division 1 conference of sister HBCUs.
Famous Alumni/Figures: Trial lawyer/Philanthropist Willie Gary (Law School), Atlanta's first Black Mayor, Maynard Jackson (Law School), former North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, Civil Rights lawyer/Educator Julius Chambers, Jeanne Lucas, first black elected to the North Carolina Senate, U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright-Allen (struck down Virginia's ban on same-sex marriages); Grammy Award winning gospel artist Shirley Caesar, R&B singer Sunshine Anderson, actress/comedienne Kim Coles; Andre Talley, Editor-at-Large, Vogue Magazine, Atlanta Journal & Constitution journalist Ernie Suggs, Olympic Gold Medalist Julius Sang, legendary HBCU football Coach Bill Hayes, Herman Boone, former high school football coach featured in the film "Remember the Titans," former NFL star Robert Clark, Robert Massey, former NFL defensive back and current head football coach at Shaw University.
Ol’ Hobbs’s fave Super Bowl show
15 years later, my favorite Super Bowl halftime show remains the dazzling display exhibited by the late Prince Rogers Nelson featuring the Incomparable Florida A&M University Marching 100!
For those who have forgotten, enjoy:
I totally forgot that FAMU band performed with Prince at that Superbowl. 😳😊
I lost hope of any gun reform when nothing was done after Sandy Hook. 😞
Prince will always be #1. 💜