“Pastor Rick Warren to Speak at the King Memorial
The service is scheduled for Jan. 19 at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and is included in the official program of the 10-day King Center’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, which begins on Jan. 10.
The Reverend Mark Whitlock, senior pastor at Christ Our Redeemer AME Church in Irvine, said Obama’s invitation opened the door for positive communication between the conservative movement and the civil rights movement.†By ERIKA I. RITCHIE
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
From Keith Knight's K Chronicles
I always get knowledge reading the Field Negro. Rick Warren  is speaking at Ebenezer Baptist Church!! This truly floored me. How did this happen. Well I know how this happened. Years of backdoor dealing by the UnGodly megachurches have finally come to this. This is what the Civil Right’s Movement has been working for? Acceptance by a bunch of racist, homophobic, closed minded jerks? Continue reading →
So sad!!! The lack of diversity is killing them inside.
Newport coast, it turns out, has become even less black and brown. Newport Coast was so undiverse that in 2001 it attached itself to Newport Beach as to not look so oddly white in a quickly changing multicultural world.
You can’t even find out how white it is, because it’s not only white, but rich and rich people don’t want you in their business.
A lot of us Angelenos take Orange County for granted. Continue reading →
Though many people are calling it an African-American show (oddly I never really got that) I called it the people of color, multiculty orgy show. It was awesome she regular had people on from the African-American, Latino-American and Asian-American blogosphere (and not just during our appropriate month you didn’t even have to be married to a white person to get on her show) pretty much the only person in the established media who viewed non-white people in the blogosphere as relevant to the editorial conversations of the day.
In these hard economic times we all need ways to make money, though I read in Editor and Publisher that newspapers that were neighborhood or ethnic based were doing surprisingly well. I hope both of you are in the doing well group. As you know the LA Times got lots of mileage out of the deaths of readers who looked pretty similar to your readership though their Homicide Report Blog.
I personally didn’t care for it that much owing to their lacking of coverage areas of Latino and African-American life. I felt that it was a sort of one sided type coverage that just perpetrated stereotypes. Many people of color did not agree with me. They feel that living on your knees is better than being dead. Even though we all agreed that the coverage was going to do absolutely nothing in regards to stopping crime. Continue reading →
Don Tosti on “Latin Eyes” a San Francisco news show, 2002.
Video courtesy of the excellent Proyecto Pachuco collecting oral histories of Pachuco culture for a future book and documentary.
Even before Julio’s excellent post on the value of urban language, I’d been thinking about the ephemeral variations of Los Angeles accents. When I was growing up, the typical (or stereotypical) Eastside Chicano accent was similar to the dialog you’d find in a Cheech and Chong movie. The words themselves are a mixture of Caló (derived from Gitano Caló and indigenous words), English, archaic Spanish and dashes of African-American vernacular. The accenting comes from Northern Mexico and their version of Spanish with it’s high and low, somewhat sing song tonal variations – regularly sounding as if a question is always being asked.
Don Tosti is a good example of this early way of speaking Chicano Caló. Born In El Paso, Texas and then moving to the Eastside when he was fifteen, he brought this unique argot with him. At Roosevelt High School I’m sure he found numerous others from El Paso who were also conversing in this cool, “Pachuco” slang. This patois has lived on in the Eastside until now, although the accents and the vernacular are quickly changing. Maybe it’s due to increased immigration from the central and southern parts of Mexico and from Central America. Or it could be the ever present influence of the global media and their official representations of urban lifestyles. It’s important though to capture this language before it’s gone, a project I’m currently working on.
I’m grateful to Don Tosti for recording his delightful dialect in-between the verses of his songs. It’s obvious that his Pachuco culture was integral to his music. The excellent documentary above explains more.
Many members of my family and many of my neighbors still speak a version of Chicano Caló. Even many of the college educated folks will slip back into it after awhile. One of my favorite speakers is Shorty, a 94 year old Chicano who is now living in South San Gabriel. You can listen to him speak in this clip.
Unemployment is at 8.3 % in California. That’s pretty insane. And that doesn’t include people who have stopped looking for work or are underemployed (working parttime for peanuts) or business owners who are going under.
Can you hear the screams.
I can.
Now the counties that are especially hurting: 24% unemployment in Imperial County. In Yuba County it is at 12% and there are lots of places already at 10% and/or creeping towards 10%.
California isn’t the only place hurting. Michigan (Detroit auto industry) 9.3% and Rhode Island is also at 9.3%. Continue reading →
Many blogs disappearances or locking are met with sadness, but sometimes certain blogs have lived through their usefulness. Unlike TV shows though, some blogs keep going long after their usefulness has ended. The LA Times Homicide Report blog a vehicle that I have always hated has finally been put in a home.
Reasons this blog annoyed me.
1. Wasn’t going to solve crime. You would think the LAPD would be embarrassed about all of those dead people, but dead poor people don’t make the real newspaper, so they weren’t that concerned. The Homicide Report blog was just a blog. Being in the Homicide blog meant that you didn’t matter. I always joked when I died I was going to be in the Homicide Report blog, maybe it wasn’t so much a joke, but you know an acknowledgement of my non anything status.
I always said if America got to the point where we had a president of other than white descendent that I would never do that thing where I refuse to even entertain the idea that people who look like me could be jerks, well that day happened last Tuesday and I also think I can probably ice skate in hell.
Black people we need to talk. I am not excusing the total racist, vile crap that has come out since Prop 8. That’s not right.
BUT…70% of black people voting yes on a prejudice law. Now I understand that we are not magical or special or fantastical, but god damn are we stupid?
I’m upset that it did pass. Gay rights is a civil rights issue. I am not surprised that it passed, but that doesn’t stop me from being pissed about it.
I’m also angry about how the LA Times focus in regards to this seems to be just on black people. Just in this wide swath. Why aren’t we divided into different demographics like educated or Christian or blue collar? Why are we not individuals like how white people are viewed as individuals in the LA Times?
Kevin Roderick LA Observed (a long time comrade of people at the LA Times) makes a point to say 70% of the black population voted for Yes on 8 (over and over and over again), but fails to point out that we are six percent of California.
But on the other hand he doesn’t link one blog by an African-American writer (I’m pretty sure that was on purpose), though he does link blogs that talk about African-Americans celebrating, in African-American sections of LA after the Obama win.
If the black issue was such a concern to him then why not at least do that.
Regular commenter Urbanista submits the following pics and text about another DDLM event that took place tonight, enjoy! (Oh yeah, if you ever want to send in your own pics and text, get in touch with us via the contact us page.)
Good Evening LA Eastside,
I wanted to forward some pictures (cell phone pictures) from the event that took place over at El Gallo Cafe. There was artwork displayed as well as altars. There were some vendors selling some of their crafts with the theme of dia de los muertos. They also had a live band – Upground which got a mini mosh pit going and revived the crowd (no pun intended lol). (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvy3FBHBhWc) <=== (Dia de los muertos song). I also got a signed “Viva Obama” print from Lalo Alcaraz.
I suppose it shouldn’t be unexpected that there might be a traffic jam at an LA cemetery, but it was still kinda surprising to run into this long line of cars trying to make their way to some loved ones grave. Crazy.
Click ahead for some more pics of Resurrection and a human traffic jam at SHG.
