In Purple Rain with Ziggy Stardust

In the sexually liberated 1970s, trendsetter British rock legend David Bowie made gender bending chic with his glam alter ego Ziggy Stardust. That traditional of music—and androgyny—continued in the 1980s with Prince. (Both cultural icons are sadly deceased in 2016.) Like Bowie, Prince pushed the envelope for personal and creative expression. For a time, the Purple One was also known as The Artist. He of many monikers even went so far to adopt an unpronounceable love symbol (very much like a combination of the zodiac signs for male and female) in place of his birth name Prince Rogers Nelson. In this way, both entertainers were born to authentically stand out. And they did in talent, appearance—and everything else.

Still, what would any rock star be without a stunning supermodel at his side? For 26 years until his death, Bowie was married to such a woman, Iman. An interesting development despite a libertine's voracious appetite with a history of many lovers of both stripes. On the other hand, Prince was a conservative Christian (reportedly opposed to gay marriage). He was also meterosexual with an overly “pretty” and manicured gender-fluid persona. (Same as Bowie, being a defining sign of his time certainly escalated record sales.) Yet, in tight pants and silks what other straight guy could get away with wearing a feather boa—or frilly lace—and sweep any woman off her feet while in high heels? There's little doubt men held on tightly to their significant others when these musical geniuses were around.

Beyond the groundbreaking music, artistry and showmanship, both men inadvertently “fathered” a modern Western tolerance for gender and sexual diversity in all of its guises. Those brave and very public examples are remarkable cultural legacies in themselves. They've contributed to a domino effect that has positively influenced the views and social customs of today's youth. How else could a “non-binary” boy (neither identifying as male or female) be crowned prom queen at New York's Fiorello H. La Guardia High School?

Given the school's theatrical pedigree which inspired the 1980 movie and TV series “Fame,” might this be an attention-getting stunt? Something goofy teenagers (of any generation) are known for: a boy chosen for a role traditionally reserved for a girl? Surprisingly not for the individual in question, 18 year old Matthew Crisson. Interviewed by the local affiliate Fox 5, he said:

“I had always struggled with social anxiety and reaching for things I really want. Being prom queen was the first time I stepped out of my comfort zone and proved to myself that I have courage, and I have strength, and I have confidence.”

Beyond that, the even more amazing thing here is fellow student and prom king Kristion Matas's posted reaction to what some might view to be a rather dubious position:

“Its June of 2016 people are being terrorized for their gender, race and ethnicity. Trump is about to be our president! … But y'all arguing about prom king and queen. Y'all bullying people on social media acting like animals but its ok though. God don't like ugly. Congratulations to Matthew Crisson on winning prom queen! You deserve it. Sincerely the prom king of 2016.”

While the grammar is highly suspect, the poignant response of obvious acceptance is not. For further emphasis (and visual clarity), two emojis follow: a face with tears of joy and another blows a kiss.

After almost 8 years of polarizing, politically useful race-baiting how out of touch is “suave” Barack Obama now? How irrelevant is his intolerant creature Black Lives Matter?

The one mitigating factor in an otherwise happy story of tolerance and inclusion is several understandably upset young ladies left out of the loop. Among several gripes was this gem: “It just sucks that men win everything and we thought we at least deserve that.” Ah, the woe of an expectant lady denied what she feels is rightfully her due, a queenly prize.

Synchronistically, that's a fate corrupt Hillary Clinton will deservedly share this November. How does one know? Perhaps anyone in the habit of looking beyond surfaces—of a gender bending rock star or prom queen—can see into the heart of any matter including politics. If that holds true, the infinite wisdom of this 2016 prom king predicts another changing of the guard. Not at a school dance, but at the White House. ATrump presidency. That will preclude from high office another lady running solely on the empty selling point of her gender.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog
http://patriotpost.us/commentators/446
http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/
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Seeing black and white bookends 2015

At the end of any given year—or the beginning of the next—it is a common practice of many to soul-search and reflect on the past. In this preoccupation, Washington Post columnist Lonnae O'Neal is no exception. Her concession—obvious to anyone familiar with her relentless race-based scribbling—is still a real whopper. A person of rare moments of surprising clarity, Ms. O'Neal admits to seeing a world of gradation and layered human interactions in the unrealistic contours, literally and figuratively, of black and white. Therefore, as such, she is a self-confessed unreliable narrator with no business being employed as a de facto journalist in a major news-reporting organization.

As a typical, misguided liberal goody two-shoes, on the surface she seeks to “heal” the racial divide by constantly pointing it out. The disconnect is seen in how it is done: in the most divisive and polarizing manner possible. This creates a deep-seeded hypocrisy of philosophically claiming to “address” society's ills (a “good” deed) while simultaneously making her living sowing the seeds of racial discontent (seen like brush fires across the nation in places like Ferguson, MO, Chicago and Cleveland). Therefore, ironically she has a direct economic incentive not to solve anything, but to “keep the stirring the pot” with a steady stream of racially-charged propaganda.

This is the standard fare of the MSM: two-faced duplicity that parallels all Democrats' lies (à la Mr. Obama) and seeks not to cover them, but to minimize and/or change the subject entirely. It also mirrors both Hillary Clinton's style of falsehoods and her Sal Alinsky-inspired college thesis (“There is only the fight...”) in order to sell newspapers. Specifically, Ms. O'Neal's oversimplified “monotone” victim/victimizer formula usually fixates on some minor, unfortunate incident, for example, between the police and a black minority. Anytime the authority figure is white she promotes the racist “bogeyman:” a fantasy specter hiding around every corner that minorities should fear.

The fact that such an outrageous point of view is given credence in 21^st century America is completely out of touch with the good faith of a country that has elected a black man to the presidency twice. Worse, it completely ignores generations of substantive civil rights gains made since the 1960s and is antithetical to MLK's admonishment to focus on the content of character rather than the superficial difference of skin color; a hang-up more than fifty years later Ms. O'Neal cannot seem to grasp or move beyond in 2015.

As a minister, MLK's advice is grounded in Biblical scripture: “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:1-3). Once again, true to form in her latest article, Ms. O'Neal claims victimization (this time for herself) due to unfortunate and vulgar comments she received as negative reactions to her year's labors in the shallow end of race relations. In any case, as a self-proclaimed 'race woman,' it is equally wrong when she has judged others with the broad brush of ethnicity as when she, in turn, has also been pigeonholed by readers for her biology. That is the only issue here that is truly “black and white.”

Collective societal harmony has not been in evidence since Mr. Obama assumed office in 2008. My New Year's resolution for America: a more tolerant, forgiving and constructive 2016 reflecting mutual respect and Dr. King's non-violent code of conduct on all sides. May we see brotherhood through the colors of red, white and blue before any other consideration.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog
http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/
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Race: from the eye of the beholder

Stop The Washington Post presses! One of their race-obsessed scribblers—their intrepid columnist Lonnae O'Neal—has begrudgingly admitted in print that she was wrong! She who previously has seen absolutely every black-white human interaction through that divisive prism—might have had a moment of clarity. A real rarity in political terms: a "come to Jesus" epiphany. Don't expect it to last as habitual race-baiting pays the bills. After all, unlike 93 million able-bodied Americans who can't find a job, Ms. O'Neal doesn't want to inadvertently find herself the latest casualty of Mr. Obama's “5%” unemployment rate.

Her new column, 'Why can’t we agree on what we see when we see race?' addresses her previous one: 'Was classroom arrest a case of excessive force? Just imagine it was a white girl.' Regarding the latter, the reader has not even gotten to body of the article (or the objective details of the situation) and Ms. O'Neal's bias is already in full flower in the title.

Fast-forward two weeks. Suddenly, that which she was so adamant about—that race was the causal factor—perhaps, after all, was incidental to the greater issue of a bullying cop wrongly manhandling an intransigent student. Although Ms. O'Neal is very late to the party of evolved and generally tolerant 21st century race relations, it is a real pleasure to extend a welcoming hand. If she lounges, she will find the waters more than fine.

Today, she sensibly sees video cop incidents, such as the above, as “'racial Rorschach test[s,]' [d]ifferent people seeing the same thing but drawing different conclusions.” In other words, scientifically, one's internal belief system automatically filters physical stimuli into a unique point of view. Therefore, by definition, a “racist” has nothing to do with skin color, but with a mindset that sees every societal ill as framed by a racial cause or consequence.

Is it any wonder 7 years into the most polarizing president in U.S. history who subverts the social order (“The cops acted stupidly”) and engages in race (“If I had a son he'd look like Trayvon”) and class warfare (“You didn't build that”) at every opportunity that attitudes would not be hardened? Indeed, how could they not be? Obama and the abetting MSM (which, of late, Ms. O'Neal has been an active participant) have spawned the Black Lives Matter Frankenstein monster.

Ms. O'Neal has finally seen the enemy that she acknowledges threatens to tear our divided republic asunder from within. Yet, same as our chronically responsibility-phobic president, she has still not realized she was looking in the mirror at the time.

Twitter: @DavidHunterblog
http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/
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Conjuring Civil War’s ghost in post-racial America

Why is The Washington Post’s resident Don Quixote tilting at the windmills of history in Obama’s post-racial America?   While the adage that “those that don’t know history are bound to repeat it,” the opposite extreme is Courtland Milloy whose myopic focus on Civil War struggles—fortunately and mercifully exactly 150 years now long over—ignore the passage of time and the clear evolution of America into a more accepting society.  Indeed, what greater proof of this new reality (inconceivable to people in Lincoln’s time) could there be: a black man is currently cooling his heels in the White House for a second term.  Mr. Milloy’s two beefs are a waste of valuable newspaper column space: he laments the supposed ignorance of the millennial generation claiming they don’t even realize that the Civil War was fought over the forced enslavement of black people; and he sees subtle racism in the fact that the general public sees more value in monuments depicting “battles and generals” rather than “freedom and slavery” at a military park in Fredericksburg, VA.  Undoubtedly, for many, slavery was a bummer pre-1865 and it sure is an irrelevant downer to Jane Q. Public and her brood now. 

Further, does the insipidly scribbling columnist Milloy really subscribe to the idea that the millennial generation—hooked into technological everything—does not know, for example, of the Oscar winning Steven Spielberg film “Lincoln” (2012)?  The truth is the racist culture embodied by the Old South is literally “Gone with the Wind” in America of 2015.  The “point” Mr. Milloy wishes to peddle in his ‘slavery’ column is White Guilt for things that happened to people no longer alive by people no longer living: six generations ago. 

Somehow this august generation should feel guilty for not erecting enough monuments to the vaguely eluded to “contributions of slaves” although Mr. Milloy—in his righteous fervor—never bothers to specifically articulate what those contributions were.  That is likely because he does not know—because the rest of the world has already moved on from this unfortunate chapter of American history—a point he clearly “misses” as he berates his readership for missing “his point.”

The greater “point” that Mr. Milloy doesn’t deal with in his column are the massive present-day problems that affect the black community happening in this time: 50 percent of Afro-American children aborted in the womb; out-of-wedlock births for blacks are over 72 percent; 90 percent of blacks in America are killed by members of their own race per 2012 crime statistics—to name just a few.  No doubt there is still work to be done.  However, the present is called the “present” for good reason: the “now” is the only place constructive societal change can be undertaken.

However, today is not as bleak as Mr. Milloy’s ‘slavery’ column would have the uninformed reader incorrectly infer about America of 2015.  To a great extent, we are actually living in a post-racial and inclusive society. There are Afro-Americans at every level of government, the private sector, the arts and sports.  Interracial marriages are commonplace and their children are vibrant, fully embraced members of our society.  Moreover, Eminem notwithstanding, rap music—a principally black form of artistic expression—is mainstream American music.  Likewise, black athletes and entertainers (recent Oscar winners include: Denzel Washington, Halle Barry, Morgan Freeman, Whoopie Goldberg and Jennifer Hudson) are lionized with an almost God-like status universally by white and black young people.  Indeed, blacks have taken over popular culture: movies "Be like Mike" (2002) and its sequel "Be Like Mike 2" (2006) are flattering references to NBA superstar Michael Jordan (whose $200.00 Air Jordan sneakers are highly sought after).  In this same vein, the white youth of today have eagerly integrated the rather questionable language and fashion sense of their black idols from Mr. T-style necklaces and jewelry to baggy jeans that hang down exposing the backside of the wearer. 

In every way possible, the dominant white culture has repeatedly extended the hand of friendship (through equal employment statutes, civil rights and social welfare programs) to our black American brothers.  It is their persistent resistance to accept our integrative overtures due to 150 year old historical grievances—never-ending and reiterated by Mr. Obama last week and echoed in Mr. Milloy’s July 1^st salt-in-the-wound “historical” column—that have nothing whatsoever to do with the current generation that populates America. 

To demonstrate how far we have come, there used to be a "one-drop rule" for a person of mixed race to determine that individual's non-white identity.  Being white, as close to white as possible—or even better "passing for white"—was a necessary mechanism of economic survival when racism ran rampant in America of the past.  Today, we have Rachel Dolezal, disgraced former president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington: a white woman who lied about her racial identity and passed herself off as black (a position that definitely would have landed her in the mad house in Lincoln’s time).

Since Mr. Milloy likes to wade in the annals of history he should follow the sage advice of the Ancient Greeks who said: “Only speak well of the dead” (related to both sides of the Civil War).  I would therefore encourage Mr. Milloy (and Mr. Obama) to join the rest of us in the 21^st century.  Their enslaved ancestors, if they had any, would have found the waters better than fine—a comparable paradise of tolerance—more than worthy of commemoration at that military park in Fredericksburg, VA that the public of today would flock to, with pride.

http://www.americanthinker.com/author/david_l_hunter/

re. Courtland Milloy's 'Is America ready to deal with slavery, or just continue to miss the point?' (Washington Post, June 30, 2015)