Kids tagging a newly cleaned bus

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Deconstructing... The Boondocks

"The Color Ruckus"

We always wondered why Uncle Ruckus hated black "or his own" people so much.  This episode before the season finale explains it all.

When Ruckus was a baby he was left on the steps of a black family's house because his original white family (racists) saw that he was beginning to form darker skin.  They showed a birthmark on baby Ruckus and it very well looked like he was turning black.  Ruckus' soon-to-be parents (a woman who wants to be 'white so bad that she made her hair blonde and eventually colored her eyes blue and a father who is happy that money was attached to the offer) decided to take him.

"This ain't no regular baby, this is a WHITE baby," said the adoptee's mother.  "It's the most beautiful thing in the whole wide world."

Ruckus' family saw him as a Godsend and a chance to get a piece of the "white man's glory."  When they were celebrating his arrival the confederate flag hung strong in the background.  The symbol of the Confederate flag is a piece of history that some Americans are tragically still proud of.  The confederate flag is a symbol still used by nazis and KKK members as a reminder that they slowed down the process of black folks right of freedom while the north moved ahead.

At a young age Ruckus began to turn black.  His mother called it a case of re-vitiligo (the reverse of what happened to Michael Jackson's skin post "We Are the World.")  Ruckus began to hate most black people and blamed all of his shortfalls on the color of his skin.

The story proceeds with the death of this grandmother and painful memories of his family's past.

Riley said that he was getting emotional from Uncle Ruckus' story but reiterated that he wasn't going to "cry because he wasn't gay."  He ended up crying in the end.  Riley is a hopeless mimic of black straight man media and culture and it plays out in his every move.  Its entertaining but on the same token he is blind to reality.  He needs to read some Frederick Douglass, Franz Fanon, Malcolm X.  

Ruckus closed the scene by stating even though him and his family made amends he still concluded by saying that black people are "hopelessly inferior to white folks."  Old habits are hard to kick.

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Hip-Hop is coming out!

On August 4, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker rules that Proposition 8, the California initiative passed in November 2008 that banned same sex marriage, was unconstitutional.  At around the same time, bloggers revealed that our beloved Queen Latifah was spotted off the coast of France and Italy getting lovey with her personal trainer.  Along with Latifah's outting, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed into the Supreme Court. 

Since the beginning of gay rights activism that started with Stonewall in New York and Harvey Milk in San Francisco I am happy to see that love  is slowly but surely becoming more normalized.

There are still 76 countries that criminally prosecute homosexual acts, according to a recent study; seven of the nations impose the death penalty.

The decision was a result of a lawsuit filed by two same-sex couples who claimed that Prop 8 infringed their constitutional rights.  Voters had originally approved the ban in response to a California Supreme Court ruling that temporarily legalized same-sex marriage in the state.  Walker's decision is expected to be appealed and to eventually make its way to Supreme Court.  Currently five states and the District of Columbia allow same sex marriage.

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Diversity and InterRacial Music Making Wave

If the universe were to take a snapshot of music right now the best photograph would be of a scene called hip pop.  It would be called hip hop if it weren't for the poppy rock collaborations and it would be pop if it wasn't for the lyricism and R&B rifts.  But either way you look at it its beautiful.  Black rappers expanding beyond the grimey explicit lyrics and embracing their ethnically different female counterparts.  I am sure they were more than happy to do it.  


 

Little bit - Drake & Lykke Li by usmanity




Airplanes by brunasa




Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say by Wizechter

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Oscar Grant Verdict Leaves Us Waiting

While former BART officer Mehserle has received a ruling of involuntary manslaughter for shooting Oscar Grant, we are still waiting for the official sentencing.

When I first heard the verdict on the news today I was happy.  The words that stood out were "GUILTY" and "INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER."  I immediately felt happy and relieved.  But that emotion lasted for about 5 seconds.  After those five seconds I asked myself, "How long is this man going to be sentenced?"  Involuntary Manslaughter carries a 2-4 year sentence.

Oscar Grant was shot and killed early in the morning on New Years Day in 2009 at Fruitvale BART Station in Oakland, California.  He had a daughter and a family and was shot cold-blooded in front of a group of his friends and other bystanders who were able to catch the whole atrocity on their mobile phones.  Johannes Mehserle, the man who shot Grant, said that he meant to use his taser, although Oscar Grant was unarmed.  This racially charged incident has gotten a lot of attention and rightfully so.

The trail was moved from the Bay Area to Los Angeles in order to ease tensions that were rising in Oakland especially since just a few months after an Oakland man shot and killed four Oakland cops in a matter of hours.

The verdict came today after a speedy three-week trial.  We still don't know what this means when it comes to Mehserle's time behind bars which leaves a lot of people confused and disappointed.  I have not lost hope and thus far, I think that justice has been served.  Until the sentencing, which are set to be announced on August 6, 2010 I have nothing to be mad about.  But if Mehserle is given a measly two years for taking a young man's life.  I, unlike Mayor Ronald Dellums who said was quite ok with the verdict and was not fully behind the Grant family's disappointment, will be in Oakland, in solidarity, rioting and initiating a call to justice.  Until then...I am at peace with the verdict.

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The Evolution of Telecommunications

ABSTRACT

Telecommunications and the Internet

Crystal N. Carter

This paper describes the competition between online corporations, Google and Apple, Inc.  It attempts to define the complicated matters of the Internet Age as well as their similarities and differences within each company’s monopolistic and intrusive characteristics.  In the online world strategy is a key element to success.  This paper will attempt to explore why online, our 1^st Amendment right may be obscured due to us trading in our information for a service.

Telecommunications and the Internet

Google vs. Apple

            Freedom of speech is a right that Americans think they have.  But as different conglomerates and dynamics influence the marketplace the volatile issue of media ownership will begin to be more of an issue and we will soon realize that some of the rights we thought were ours, aren’t actually ours at all.

            The US is a nation that prides itself on freedom of speech and being able to have free access to a broad range of information, but as we witness Internet technology companies compete for the top spot there is an underlying war going on with these software giants.

            “The internet is a connection of multiple networks.  The networks communicate with each other over a suite of standardized protocols, TCP/IP, which send data over the Internet broken up into “envelopes,” of date called packets.  Internet traffic is sent at gigabit speed over lines connected by routers and switches.  The high-speed lines are the backbone of the Internet.  They carry the highest amount of Internet traffic.  The Internet backbone transmits requests for information, entertainment, audio and video broadcasts, e-mail and business-to-business transactions.”

Who owns the Internet?

            No one organization owns the Internet.  Rather the Internet is a worldwide arrangement of interconnected networks.  Network service providers, including AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Sprint and Netcom.  They transfer data between each other at locations called “peering” sites.  At the peering sites, network devices called routers transfer messages between the backbone, high-capacity telephone lines owned by dozens of network service providers.

            The federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government, created, directed and empowered by Congressional statute, and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the president.  The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the media, public safety and homeland security, and modernizing the FCC.

            After the Telecommunications Act of 1996 the concentration of media ownership was spread between a small amount of corporations.

            There was a conflict of interest here because the Internet and the news decide how people’s beliefs are formed and how people’s actions are then based on those beliefs.  If people are getting their news from one source and that one source is bias then there can begin to be a lot of problems.  We are beginning to see that with Google’s competition with Apple, Inc.

            There have been studies that have identified media consolidation to be sociologically detrimental, dangerous and problematic and it is to be avoidable wherever possible.

            According to Dan Withers of the FCC, determinants of media pluralism are: size and wealth of the market, diversity of suppliers, consolidation of resources and diversity of output. 

Google: “Don’t be Evil”

            In the early 2000s an emphasis was put on operating systems.  Google specialized in a core user interface.  Google began to create services that sale services for free.  The services and the applications that used to cost something started to be offered for free by Google.  This caused a lot of service companies to merge, be sold and wiped out of the market all together.  These services were core revenue streams of other smaller revenues companies.  This created cloud computing.  The Google browser then replaces the Microsoft Window’s operating system by creating Chrome.  Some products and actions by Google have been accused of contradicting the company’s “Don’t be evil” ethic; Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch strongly condemned Google’s compliance with China’s Golden Shield Project, calling it a form of self-censorship.  According to Amnesty,

“These forms of censorships seem to contradict the very principles that Google – whose unofficial motto is “don’t be evil – was founded upon.  Until January 2006, Google’s Support Center claimed that it “does not censor results for any search term,” but removed its claim after reaching its deal with China.”

“Don’t be evil” is the informal corporate motto (or slogan) of Google, originally suggested by Google employees Paul Buchheit and Amit Patel at a meeting.  The statement that can be considered nearest to the supposedly “Don’t be evil” motto (so widely circulated by the media) is the 6^th point of the 1 point corporate philosophy of Google which says, “You can make money without doing evil.”  Google’s revenue is based on the journalistic articles that are written.

This graphic displays that at one time Google and Apple, Inc. got along well together.  They shared their services respectfully.  But then their services started to overlap because of their main revenue streams.  Conflicts of interests arose and they came into steep competition with each other.  Judging from this chart, eventually one of these companies will come out on top while the other will be left in the dust. 

Apple, Inc: Violating Freedom of Speech

Apple, Inc made them known with Mac OSX, Macbooks, iPhone, iPod and the iPad.  They were at the top of the world.  They were showing signs of a monopoly when Apple decided to make Google its de facto search engine.  When a company is making as much money as Apple you have to realize that you are starting to show signs of a monopolistic company.  They believed that if you built you own hardware then you should own your own software and vice versa.  The iTunes store, for example, is very enclosed.  There is a lot of restriction and in that a lot of freedom of the press is taken away.  At this point Apple, one of the highest visibility companies out there, a company that is some people’s preferred source of news are hiding certain forms of news from people. 

            When you buy a product you are bound by the license agreements of the product.  You can’t own much of anything anymore.  It used to be with products once you bought them you owned it and could share it with anyone.  It’s almost as is they are becoming the “Big Brother” of media conglomerates. 

            A great example is porn.  Even thought porn is the highest selling video over the Internet it is not sold over iTunes because they are afraid of what porn will tarnish its brand.  It is almost as if Apple is anti-porn.  They refused to allow any applications.  But isn’t a store supply what the customer wants?  It’s almost the equivalent of a little China.  Where media is censored.

Analysis: Virtual Reality vs. Reality

            I am worried about the way the Internet is going because I am constantly grappling with the changing regulations and corporate laws that are starting to blend with our basic speech rights.  I am beginning to realize that money is the main focus and rights come second.

            The free market process is being fast-forwarded through constant competition in a closed environment.  Apple and Google have found a loophole in this competition game.  When a smaller company is showing signs of growth and popularity Google will buy the company and shut it down.  The law of the land in the online world is quite cut throatish.

            The future of the online world offers a more simplistic user experience and telecommunications along with online computing services are probably all going to be one and the same.  I see less competition and more monopoly.  How is anyone going to build a search engine if Apple and Google own the patent? 
            Privacy is going to be a thing of the past.  Our ideas are not just going to be ours.  We are basically saying that it’s okay to profit off of ideas because we are willing to trade that for the service.  They are going to know our location, taste in music and basically they are going to be able to peak into our brain because they are tracking all of the websites that we visit and the products that we buy.

Bibliography

Cole, Barry.  Reluctant Regulators: The FCC and the Broadcast Audience.  Reading: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.1978.

Dodd, Annabel Z. The Essential Guide to Telecommunications, Second                 Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall PTR, 2000.

Epps, Sarah.  “Curated Computing.” Web.

Kline, Eric.  Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media.  New York: Metropolitan Books.  2007.

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