The Atlantic - Latest Comments in The Brown Bag Unbound

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Tafari — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:55:42 -0000

This is good news. Now all I need is bow legs.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

shani — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:23:36 -0000

Sorry, Shani-0. YOu have seniority up in here so maybe I'll help distinguish me with Shanilink. And yes, I said it. Barack is also funny looking. Nonetheless any black man who makes it to POTUS is gonna be considered fine.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Barbara — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:08:43 -0000

TNC: awesome post. I started gigging (note: not a typo) on my couch and I fired up the itunes! I am now listening to "Just Got Paid."

It is all.your.fault.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Astroninja — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:07:56 -0000

Laments of the light skin-did

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0vjR6E8IEY

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

ExpatJane — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:00:00 -0000

At least I didn't start my comment off by describing my skin color, come on y'all. ;)

This is so many levels of non-PC wrong Ta-Nehisi, but it's funny. I was thinking about how some might seriously be thinking along those lines but you had to go and write it.

I guess my black American community isn't quite post-color ;)

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Fred — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:49:32 -0000

Why all this focus on skin color?

BTW, Steve Sailer just published a book on Obama. This is from a recent blog post by Sailer, speculating on Obama's test scores:

Now, here's my guess about how Obama did on the verbal half of the SAT and on the LSAT:

He aced them.

I bet that's Obama's SAT score secret: standardized testing, that politically incorrect bogeyman, worked perfectly for him.

Some kind of entrance exam got him into Punahou prep school from Nowheresville in Indonesia, then a high verbal SAT score propelled this dope-smoking Hawaiian slacker with mediocre grades first to Occidental, then to Columbia. The LSAT took him to Harvard Law, where he finally buckled down and earned grades in line with his scores. (I have no guess as to how he did on the SAT Math test -- members of his family were good at math, so he might be too. He just seldom talks numbers. As one commenters say, Perhaps he is good with numbers and he knows his budget numbers don't add up.)

Sure, affirmative action helped make up for his nothing-special grades in high school and undergrad college, but test scores are what showed the world his potential. That's what got him in to the cool schools' affirmative action slots ahead of the hardworking true African-American kids with 1050 SAT scores who were valedictorians of their all-black high schools.

Of course, he can't come out and say that, in own his experience, standardized testing is reasonably accurate and that all this Bell Curve stuff makes sense. Think of what poor Michelle, who is still publicly tormented by her mediocre test scores, would do to him!

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

John Henry — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:25:22 -0000

Big Brother Almigh T!

From Spike Lee's School Daze:

Wanna Be's (mulattos): You're just a jig-a-boo, tryin' to find somethin' to do!

Jig-A-Boo's (dark skinned): Well, you're a wanna-be, wanna be better than me!

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

shani-o — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:58:56 -0000

BlackInk- that wasn't me, babe. There are two Shani's (both of whom went to HU, apparently) who read and comment here. I always end with an 'O,' tho.

And I think Barack is totally dreamy, in a Nonthreatening Boys Magazine kinda way.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Paula — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:28:55 -0000

In the interests of journalistic integrity, I believe that his name is spelled "Al B. Sure!"

Ummm, I think I love you, whoever you are ...

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Evan Narcisse — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:40:01 -0000

Man, I really need to update my personal blog, huh?

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Clotilde — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:31:49 -0000

Leon Rogers FTW.

As for the rest of this, the White Women Born During the Eisenhower Administration Community says: huh?

... just like we were s'posed ta.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

IrishPirate — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:16:46 -0000

TNC,

can you stop with this "sheeeeeeeeeeeeet".

I just spent ten minutes googling various names you used and I still feel more lost than Barry O'Bama at an Alaskan moose hunt.

Please, remember white folks read this blog. Have pity on us. Include a dictionary with citations. A "blictionary" so to speak.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

blackink — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:12:38 -0000

Lol. I never knew the light-skinned brotha ever went out of style. Those were the only dudes getting some play when I was in college a decade ago. Pretty Ricky is what we called them.

And even now you can't go anywhere without ladies screaming about Boris, John Legend, Common, etc etc. Barack is just going to tilt the scales even more in their favor.

But for the intramural hip-hop battle referenced above, the line that ended the cipher - for me - came from Play: "Kid spelled backward, descibes ya best." He was the better dancer, too.

Btw, Shani-O: you might be the first black woman I've heard say Barack ain't cute.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Vanilla Ice — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:08:16 -0000

Love it or leave it, you better gain way

You better hit bulls eye, the kid don't play

If there was a problem, yo, I,ll solve it

Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

lisa — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:01:04 -0000

This must truly be a generational thing.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

mestizo — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:59:14 -0000

ROTFLMMFAO!!!!

Reminiscing on that song about good and bad hair from School Daze....

As for me, don't need no Sportin' Waves. I just hit my hair with some Fructis shine and I'm good to go. C'mon, check out your sweet daddy's konk, that aint no konk.... LOL!

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Zak — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:49:47 -0000

Play wins for the Eraserhead reference.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

DocDre — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:43:14 -0000

As an executive member of the Light-Skinded Council for Equality in Dating, i long ago figured out how to counter the color bias against brothas of café au lait complexion.

long dreadlocs get em every time.

see: lenny kravitz..gary dourdan...and ignore the faux locs on vin diesel in "chronicles of riddick". that was just wrong.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Nancy — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:17:14 -0000

I drive a Volvo and read the NY Times, but I also used to have a flip and use DAX hair gel. "The halcyon days of Al B. Sure" is what got me. Thanks for something to make us laugh in these last tense days before the election.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

shani — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:15:55 -0000

Damn, I never even thought of that! The problem is, Barack is not cute. If my honey/yellow counterparts want a come back, they better present a much more masculine equivalent to El DeBarge, Shabba du (breakin), most of the members of Switch, Christopher Williams, or Prince. I think the only reason light-skin is out of style is because the market was saturated with the androgynous type, including eyeliner.

As a light-skinned woman, I suffered a similar fate in college because I went to Howard where brothas took embracing their blackness literally. But Hollywood on the otherhand, rarely shows dark women that kinda love.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

kiki — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:14:31 -0000

To set the record straight....

Idriss Elba is like fine wine, a true classic, never grows old and doesn't need a comeback cuz he never goes out of style. Brotha is FINE!

I am always partial to a yummy dark chocolate bar. Yes Lawd :-)

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Jen — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:14:06 -0000

Personally, I'm all for the mid-brown bros. Classic, like a pearl necklace, they never go out of style.

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

sv — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:12:02 -0000

And riding on those coat-tails will be similarly-toned Indian dudes like myself. Oh, the whims of the Americans...

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

dray — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:57:35 -0000

Dayum. How can I contract vitiligo?

Re: The Brown Bag Unbound

Chi — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:56:33 -0000

Christopher Williams back in the building?! Whaaaat!!

Let me go put on my door-knocker earrings, shine up my high-top Reeboks. Gotta look good for my man...