POLITOPICS

by Angela Winters

Yes I am mailing it in today. Too many deadlines to meet before the Holiday break, during which I will be completly ignoring you. Despite my indifference to you, these are some interesting articles, so enjoy.

An article in Mediaweek discusses the mystery of black television viewership and focuses on black women, wondering what is wrong with us. We don't watch what we're supposed to. We seem to be kicking All of Us, Eve and Steve Harvey (I don't watch any of these) to the curb in favor of Enterprise (I've never even heard of this). We're also watching less BET and I don't think we need any survey to figure out what that's about. Do the words, soft porn, ring a bell?

Pretty harsh letter from Cedric Muhammad, Publisher of The Black Electorate, a great news source for issues affecting African Americans. Cedric writes an open letter to Joe Watkins as a follow up to their conversation during Watkins' show. I guess the nicest way to phrase is that Muhammad felt the need to further clarify his point. It's titled: The cultural challenge of the black conservative.

I go back and forth on Watkins who is a conservative strategist and talk show host getting a lot of play recently. He seems smart, but also seems like a Republican party-liner and I can't abide that on either side. As I always say, "Your side can't ALWAYS be right and the other side can't ALWAYS be wrong." It's just NOT POSSIBLE. The freedom of not belonging to either the Democrats or Republicans is so refreshing I can't explain it.

Another, let's call it...commentary, at BlackNews.com is by Earl Ofari Hutchinson who criticizes the daughter of Martin Luther King, the Reverend Bernice King for standing at the gravesite of her father with thousands of demonstrators to denounce gay marriage. He was clearly insulted and I have to say the sight would have made me cringe. She is his daughter, so I guess if anyone has a right to take advantage, then it's family. It's fair to say she might know how he would have felt about this issue. Personally, I've known my parents for 33 years and I don't know what's going on in their minds.

I'm really hesitant to comment on this issue because it's so personal and I have to honest; I don't know what I think. I've been going back and forth on this for a long time and my heart is conflicted. I see the points of each side and they are both reasonable and at the same time a bit much to ask. However, Hutchinson's opinion is pretty clear.