NAACP loses Mfume

NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Mfume plans to step down as the head of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group today. Thus, I will step down from my soapbox in silent protest after I share a few thoughts on the matter...

Mfume planned to serve in this position for five years, but stayed on for an extra four. So what did he do during his tenure? He put the NAACP back in the black(no pun intended. The organization was 3.2 mil in debt before he took over), saved it from becoming a dinosaur, increased young membership and made the organisation timely and relevant again instead of the classicist, obstracised instititution that it was prior to 1996. (Oh wait...is Cosby still a member? Maybe I spoke to soon. Anyway) The NAACP is made such a stronger stance for black issues in the past nine years that the IRS is breathing down its back for making comments about the Bush Administration, thereby threatening its tax-exempt status. See in America. You don't have to pay taxes, if you keep your thoughts to yourself. Or as the Oct. 8th letter that the Louisville, Ky IRS office sent to the NAACP: "leaders cannot make partisan comments in official organization publications or at official organizational functions." So how do Right Wing Christian organization's get around this loophole? Hmmm... As a conservative Christian I would like to know that answer myself. And Bush refused to meet with the NAACP before the election, proving that he never needed their vote in the first place or ensuring that Right White America wouldn't back out of supporting him if he did.

What has our America come to when we continue to stay segregated if itsn't church, politics, race or class? What has our America come to without a strong black civil rights leader barking down its back? Where is the America I love, and Mfume , could you please reconsider?

I guess a better print out this downloaded pdf NAACP membership form and strap up my boots. The next decade is sure to be a hard road to climb. Might as well take a nine year stint, then see what the ends gon' be.




Where authors and readers come together!

Counting Down the Worst Black Books of the Year

Before I started this log I used to post my top book reviews of the year, but this year...Sad to report I have had a change of heart. This year I will post the worst books reviewed this year in this blog.

Why?

Last year a book that I gave the lowest reviews for. Check my writing.com site[http://www.writing.com/authors/vidae] to see that one. (I won't name the book for now, but I will have at least ten people ask me.) And to my surprise this book makes the Essence Magazine Best Sellar List for weeks.

I review mostly books written by black authors. I am African American. Because if no other black reviewer will address this issue, I will.

When did we[African American authors] start accepting such shoddy work just because the book sales? There are millions of black market car trunk sellars of music, tv, and books out there that will never grace a store shelf. Yet, we take anything for the sake of popularity and call it great literature. You're jerking my granddaddy's chains, if that's true.

Don't get me wrong. I love hood fiction/baby mama drama fiction/downlow fiction/ whateveryouwanttocalllit fiction, but I want to be able to read it, find a real plot, get to know the characters, and be touched--not pissed off by poor writing skills.

But the thing that burns my hide more than the books making Essence Mag is that some of these authors have the gaul to think that what constitutes a good book is subjunctive as if having a full grasp of the English language doesn't count for anything, as if using an editor, a dictionary, a writing class or two isn't necessary. Maybe that's why the country is spending more money to accomodate those that don't speak English. Because English isn't imperative in America. And according to these horrible books--in Black America--it never has.

So if I want to sit down and enjoy a good read, I better find out if it is written in English or in English as a Second, yet Unknown Language.

And that's a flat out lie.

Too many people have died so that we can learn to read and write, to go to school, and I be dog gone(a little country slang for you) if I let some one dollar word writing hook debase all that our foreparents have fought for.

And as for all the Soldiers keeping it Hood in the books. I feel ya, but a little more English wouldn't hurt.

Check back to my log every day and see what my picks are and if by chance your book makes the list, please contact me I would love to talk to you about your book. Maybe you can explain its merit to me and my audience so that I can reconsider.

If you have some favorite hates, then please email me and I will take a look at it and love to post why you hate a particular book. And if there is a book that I haven't reviewed that you think is fantabulous pass it on.

Running on to see what the end gon' be...

Dee Stewart
AKA
The Reaper

Black Friday and Glenville

Love and Death in Brooklyn

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, my daughter and I put on our shoppers best and headed to Discover Mills Books-A-Million to meet my newest writing cronie, Glenville Lovell. Glenville was in town promoting his second novel in his Detective Blade's Overstreet series, LOVE and DEATH in BROOKLYN. I am awaiting some picks to include in the event. Needless to say my daughter, Selah, got to choose the winner of Glenville's Holiday Basket. She was thrilled. I had a great time and learned a lot about Glenville and a lot about book signings. Check in tomorrow and I will tell you a little bit of both.

Kissmas Time

I have published my first article for a national woman's magazine. Yeah!! You can check out my article- "Kissmas Time" in Precious Times Magazine.

Snippet of the article:

Kissmas Time

By Davidae "Dee" Stewart

About five years ago my boyfriend, let’s call him Trucker Troy, stood me up on New Year’s Eve for the second time in the row. Actually-he didn’t stand me up. Apparently all the other truckers at his company took the night off, because his boss needed him more than anyone else. He called me a few minutes before the stroke of midnight, to tell me that he had just completed an emergency stop in Jacksonville, Florida six hours south of my home, and, thus, he would give me my New Year’s kiss via telephone. Minor technicality, but either way his inability to attend Watch Night Service at church with me again rubbed me every shade of wrong. And the fact that I had to settle for a fake kiss on one of the most romantic nights of the year Again distorted any future plans I had for us. Needless to say, Trucker Troy and I hit Splitsville on New Year’s Day, and he married a woman he met three months after the breakup. Go figure.
So why do we gorgeous God fearing women do this to ourselves? Why do we put so much pressure on the holidays than on our spiritual lives?

From the day after Valentine's Day until the day after Labor Day life is grand for my single Christian girlfriend divas and me. We go to the movies, to the beach, on cruises, and church events: Women thou Art Loosed, Women of Faith, and more by our big, bold and brash single selves. We preach, teach, organize fundraisers, and entertain family and friends without a care in the world. We are on a mission for Christ, the Lord over our hearts and souls. And then we get amnesia...

Go to your newstands and pick up the 2004 Holiday Issue with Victoria Rowell on the cover.