What is a Pig?

“A low natured beast that has no regard for law, justice, or the rights of people; a creature that bites the hand that feeds it; a foul, depraved, traducer, usually found masquerading as the victim of an unprovoked attack”

So goes the copy to one of the many pieces reproduced in this impressive book. While those words may sound harsh, such were the times, and such was the attitude of the police as well. The casualties prove it. Black Panther, The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas is a must have publication for anyone interested Black artists and the intersection between black art and culture. It brings to light as well the ability of graphic design to serve a higher purpose than commerce, to actually affect people’s lives and move beyond the bounds of commercialism.

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This week marks the 44th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X who was gunned down on February 21, 1965. While I usually prefer to celebrate the lives of our heroes rather than their deaths, the opportunity to put a photo of Malcolm in this blog and remind folks of the greatness that resides in our community should not be passed by. Here, then, is a photo of that great man. His eulogy follows.
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On January 20, 2009 ago Barack H. Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. His part was well orchestrated and quite dramatically portrayed on an international stage. With the exception of John Roberts misstep during the swearing in ceremony it appeared to go off without a hitch.

When Obama’s in town it’s as if a hurricane just landed. Thousands of people rallied to his cause during his presidential campaign. Millions attended his inauguration and now the hopes of the nation rest at his doorstep. Will he be up to the challenge? Will the Congress back him to the hilt or will his flower wilt and die along with the hopes of the nation.

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Boy, I’m glad that’s over.

As amazing as it may have been to watch Barack Obama, his wife, and children become the first black president and first family of the United States; the level of self congratulatory conceit displayed by the media and politicians was enough to make you puke. The perfect juxtaposition of Martin Luther King Day and the coronation inauguration of America’s first black President was more than any PR flack could hope for. And the marketers were out in droves pimping brand Obama, a brand more potent than Air, iPod, or Google combined. Hats, coffee mugs, buttons and T-shirts were on display and on sale reinforcing Obama’s tagline of “hope” and “change”.

Implicit in that tagline is the “hope” that black folks will finally stop talking about racism, and that America has “changed” into the land of freedom and righteousness we’ve been pretending that it was all this time. In fact “hope” and “change” can be milked for another couple of decades. We can still run a woman, asian, homosexual, or jew just to confuse the public. Who cares about policy? POTUS 2.0, now available in multiple shades and lifestyles.

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So after a nice break over the holidays we’re back with our first post of the new year. Seeing as we’re only about a week away from the glorious dawning of Post Racial Americaâ„¢ I thought I’d present this material that reminds us how we’re all getting screwed here in this wilderness called North America and that many times the depth of penetration depends on class rather than race. Because black folk are so heavily represented among the working classes and underclasses, this “classism” effects us disproportionately.

Class War: The Attack on Working People is an audio book of a speech by Noam Chomsky. If you’re not familiar with Chomsky, he is an MIT professor of linguistics, a lecturer, and activist.

From Wikipedia:
His far-reaching criticisms of US foreign policy and the legitimacy of US power have made him a controversial figure: largely shunned by the mainstream media in the United States, he is frequently sought out for his views by publications and news outlets worldwide.

You can read more about him here

What I like about Chomsky is that he calmly and deliberately reveals the reality of the political/economic system we live in and what change really entails. He brings into focus the Matrix like facade that has been so cleverly crafted by the media, the school system and the politicians. Here is an excerpt from one of his speeches. The title says it all. This and other speeches by Chomsky can be found online at vendors like Audible and Amazon.

fyi: hit the little speaker icon next to the name to play the track without leaving the page.
Class War: The Attack on Working People

Here’s a site you don’t want to miss. I won’t go into too much detail. If you know who John Coltrane is you’ll want to hop right over to johncoltrane.com and check out his biography, pictures, and other information. If you don’t know Coltrane then you’re in for a treat as you’re introduced to one of the giants of modern jazz.

The site is Flash based and provides a seamless integration of audio, video, text, and motion graphics. Enjoy!

A colleague sent me the link to this video. I was immediately taken by the motion graphics created to open the film. I know how labor intensive it is to put those kind of things together and the way the designer works the text and graphics is tight. As I watched, however, the content started to get to me. It’s the usual story of America projecting power into the third world. I’m no expert on Africom but I’ve been around the block enough times to know how things work. A serious understanding of history reveals the fact that nations don’t spend time and money in other countries unless there is something to gain. America is no different. When we talk about “American interests” we are talking about America’s ability to create wealth for itself. Or it’s ability to project power in order to allow it’s multinational corporations the ability create wealth. America’s foreign policy is an outgrowth of European foreign policy which, for the past 500 years has meant slavery, colonialism and exploitation for non-white people the world over. This is also referred to as white world supremacy and it’s rarely given any attention in the western press. Read the rest of this entry »

With the election of Barack Obama to the presidency the question has come up, are we living in a post-racial society? In otherwords has the concept of race lost its cache, or meaning? Let’s examine this and see what we come up with, it may be that we’ve reached that land that Dr. King saw from the mountain top. Of course, it may be as illusory as a mirage in the Sahara on a hot day. Read the rest of this entry »

As graphic designers we are in the unique position to create, influence, interpret and preserve culture. The visual materials we produce, both printed and electronic are records of our times. The western-based cultural tradition of writing dates back thousands of years. This history, stored on paper, tablets or scrolls is, for the most part, safe and stored in museums and archives.

Before the written tradition, however, was the oral tradition — the practice of spreading a people’s history and ideals through the spoken word, many times in the form of fables. This project seeks to modernize and archive the African oral storytelling tradition using computer-based motion graphics and interactivity. Using MacroMedia Flash MX (an authoring and animation software) the project merges the spoken word with interactive and kinetic graphics, music and sound…
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Black United Students (BUS) was founded 40 years ago this year, on the campus of Kent State University. The organization has gone through many changes over time. But, much remains the same.

Dr. Larry Simpson, the first president of BUS, returned to the campus November 8, 2008 for a celebration of the past 40 years.  He’s now the Senior Vice President of Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, in charge of academic affairs. Over the years his experience with BUS has served him well. As he stated in his keynote address the other night. Being involved in BUS gave him a window into the adult world that he may not have experienced had it not been for BUS. Mostly, it was about learning how to work with other people and function as a member of society. Read the rest of this entry »