Shinola Is Not Saving Detroit

Despite what you may have heard during last night's Oscars, Shinola is not saving Detroit. I happened to be watching the Academy Awards last night when one of the Green Book writers made that declaration and I thought, WTF is he talking about??? I'm tired of people who aren't from Detroit and/or don't understand Detroit coming in and trying to dissect Detroit's problems. Detroit certainly needs help in getting back on its feet and Shinola is helping, but it isn't saving the city. The city does need companies like Shinola and Quicken to come in and provide jobs for people who live in the city, but no one company can or should take credit for turning things around in the city.

Nothing against Shinola. I have a Shinola watch myself that I love and I was glad to support a company that puts Detroit forward, but to think that one watchmaker is "saving" the city is ridiculous. I shouldn't have been surprised by the Green Book writer making such a statement last night. He helped write a script that pushed the narrative of a white savior to a black man, so it's fully understandable that he'd push the theory of a white company saving a black city also.

Overkill

Here in the Chicago area, the news has been focused for weeks on the Jussie Smollett case. When I first heard about this, I figured it was a hookup gone wrong. Smollett had a guy over and the dude beat him up and robbed him. The whole story about being attacked at 2:30 in the morning on a Streeterville street in the dead of winter sounded ridiculous to me. Not that people aren't beaten and robbed on the streets of Chicago every day, but the time, place, and location just didn't ring true to me. Plus you throw in the homophobic and racial slurs, the bleach, and the rope, and the story became even more ridiculous. I would have had to believe someone from Donny T.'s crowd stalked this guy from a black show that Donny's followers probably don't watch let alone have heard of and just went crazy on this dude at 2:30 in the morning in the dead of a Chicago winter. Yeah, okay. Hookup gone wrong it is. But it looks like I was wrong along. It appears it wasn't a hookup gone wrong at all, but a hoax from the jump. Sad. What a waste of police manpower and time. While other cases involving black folks in Chicago go unsolved, how much time has been spent chasing Smollett's fake attackers? I'm tired of the news media going into overdrive with stories like this also. This should have been a one-day story on the news, yet it's dragged on for weeks. If Smollett wanted publicity, he's got it now!

Finished (Almost)

I'm putting the final touches on a new longer work that should be published in April called Lyin' Ryan. It's been a long haul with this one and it's gone through many, many changes, but the end is finally here. I'll share more about it later once it's completely done and I have a cover, etc. I'm glad to have Presidents' Day off from my day job so I can work on my stuff. It would be nice to say I can always make the time to write, but that's not true. I can't always make the time, but I really need to do a better job of forcing myself to make the time. Easier said than done, folks.

Just Say No

The sudden hysteria over Virginia Governor Northam's blackface/Klan medical school yearbook photo (as well as his admission that he'd darkened his skin to do a Michael Jackson routine in the 1980's) has made me think more about blackface than I ever wanted to. But let's go back to the yearbook photo for a moment. At first Northam apologized for the picture appearing on his page and acknowledged (I thought) being one of the two people shown in the photo although he didn't identify which one he was (the dude in blackface or the dude in the Klan outfit). Then, a day later, he denied he was either of the men in the photo which led me to wonder, what's worse? Appearing in blackface or appearing in a Klan getup? Also, what I think has been lost in this conversation is the responsibility of the medical school. Who puts out a medical school yearbook with pictures of students in Klan robes and hoods and blackface? What the hell kind of school is this??? And this wasn't in the 1950's or 60's. This was freaking 1984! Come on! No one looked at this tomfoolery and thought that maybe these photos were inappropriate? Ridiculous.

As for blackface in general, just say no. Don't do it. I don't care if you want to look like Shaq or Diana Ross for Halloween or whatever, go with the clothing, but skip the makeup.

Back From the D

I'm back after a trip to Detroit for a family funeral. As tired as I am of going to Detroit for funerals, I do enjoy seeing family members I don't normally have a chance to see when we have these sad gatherings. My extended family is quite large and many of them live far away from where I live so, unless there's a family reunion, a wedding, or a funeral, we can go years without seeing each other. During the funeral service, one of my uncles read a poem that touched on this issue. The poem was about a man who put off seeing his friend and then when he finally got around to seeing him, the guy was dead. The moral of the poem was that we shouldn't keep putting off getting together with friends or (in our case) family members because none of us know how much time we have left on this earth.

During my weekend visit to Michigan, I was happy to stop at the Detroit Shoppe and pick up a plush version of Clownie from the Detroit Parade Company. If I ever win the lottery, I'm donating money to the Detroit Parade Company to get Clownie a much-needed new getup.