Wading In

With a two year old and a ten year old often under my care, I'm concerned with what they see on the television. Hopefully growing older makes you more responsible. I'm afraid of what the FCC would do with new powers to regulate TV violence. Ever since the Janet Jackson titty fiasco, we've thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Some shows require a certain amount of violence as part of their storytelling. NBC's "The Black Donnellys" (now all but canceled) uses violence to tell it's gritty story of four Irish brothers in NYC. The violence is appropriate to the story. There are so many choices for kids today. So many channels for children and so many ways of controlling what they see. As Bill Maher says, everything isn't about "the children". Do I have to watch sanitized, Washington censored TV just because Cletus is a dumbass parent and won't control what his child watches? How much nanny government do we want?

Printed on: Thu, Apr 26, 2007 No need for Taliban of television By Kelvin Wade Oh no. It's been reported federal regulators will recommend to Congress within the next week that the FCC be given new powers to regulate violence in entertainment programming. On the surface, this could be a tool in helping parents parent, or if recent history is a guide, we could be set for a new round of witch hunts. Granted, I've never understood how a nation can go ballistic over a half second shot of Janet Jackson's sagging breast, yet can watch the grisliest stuff imaginable on CBS' CSI without a peep. Blood spurting and vomit spewing doesn't faze us on medical shows like "ER." On NBC's "Heroes" they've shown the tops of heads removed with the brains missing. Yet if a female character flashed a breast on that same show, television stations would be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars. But this doesn't mean I want those same d...

My brother Tony started a column this week. Well, he started it in this time slot. He's actually written it for some time now. So check it out....

Im like Mr. Mom except Im 6 feet 4 inches of Raider-loving menace By Tony Wade A recent report found that the number of men who are stay-at-home fathers is at an all-time high. It is estimated about 2 million men are their childrens primary caregivers. I have been a stay-at-home dad/homeschool teacher for seven years now and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I know many people who regret not spending time with their kids as they grow up. I may regret some things when Im older, but that wont be one of them. While I really like the 1983 Michael Keaton movie, I am not Mr. Mom. That reference generally implies a man is in a foreign environment and doesnt know what hes doing. That is not my experience. When Kaci was a baby I never fed her chili or was attacked by a vacuum cleaner. Ive never had anyone say I was effeminate for being a stay-at-home dad. I do wear an apron when I wash dishes (which reads 'Id rather be playing Scrabble') ...

You won't find pictures on this blog of the loser who murdered all of those students at Virginia Tech and wounded others. NBC did the families and society a disservice by releasing the photos and videos of this killer. They don't illuminate, they titillate. This guy was a meek, weak, paranoid loser. The videos show a fantasy image of him as avenger. The images will appeal to other disturbed individuals who have their own manifestoss they want publicized. The proof that these people who do this are insignifcant nobodies is that they crave publicity for their evil deeds. This guy sent him information to NBC, after all. On October 16, 1991, a disturbed individual crashed his pickup truck through the front window at Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas and shot and killed 23 people before killing himself. When police searched his home, they found newspaper clippings and a videotape of a news report of the July 18, 1984 San Ysidro, CA McDonald's shooting spree by another deran...

I decided to write my column on rap lyrics before my own newspaper editorialized on the subject. I was motivated to write the column after hearing so many right wing pundits and bloggers saying that Don Imus got canned while no one complains about rap lyrics. Utter bullshit. And I sought to show that the black community has been complaining about rap lyrics for long, long time. I wrote the column and then on Wednesday morning, found that my newspaper had editorialized on the same subject taking the "Don Imus got fired but what about rap?" line. So in essence, I disagree with my paper. It wasn't planned to be this way. It's just coincidence. But I stand by it. The paper also mentions "free speech." That's a ridiculous argument for them to propose. Don Imus has the absolute right to use the phrase "nappy headed hos." He could even go on a street corner, find some black girls walking by and call them that. He won't be arrested (assaulted, mayb...

Printed on: Thu, Apr 19, 2007 Many in black community oppose rap lyrics By Kelvin Wade Bloviaters like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly and those in the conservative blogosphere are all decrying some kind of double standard regarding rap music in the wake of the Imus firing. They say that rappers are allowed to say all kinds of vile things and no one complains. That's nonsense. The late C. Delores Tucker was a civil rights activist who attacked the rap industry with a vengeance for the violence and images it portrayed. She was supported in her efforts by the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus. She bought shares of Time-Warner and once, at a shareholders' meeting, asked the bigwigs to read the lyrics of the music they profited from and they refused. Time-Warner ended up selling Interscope, its big rap label. Chuck D of the trailblazing socially conscious rap group, Public Enemy, regularly blasts gangsta rap. Chuck rails against the co...

So, by now you have to be sick of this story. Talk about beating a dead horse. Cable news channels have been acting like there's nothing else going on. It's been nonstop coverage and has generated strong emotions on both sides. There's a lot to think about. First....the transcript.... DON IMUS: So, I watched the basketball game last night between — a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women’s final. SID ROSENBERG : Yeah, Tennessee won last night — seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points. IMUS: That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and – BERNARD McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos. IMUS : That’s some nappy-headed hos there. I’m gonna tell you that now, man, that’s some — woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like — kinda like — I don’t know. McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing. IMUS: Yeah. McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes — that movie that he had. IMUS: Yeah, it was ...

Originally published 4-12-07 How to pull your foot out of your mouth By Kelvin Wade Radio shock jock Don Imus' inflammatory description of the Rutgers women's basketball team has led civil rights groups like the NAACP and NOW to call for his firing. Imus has been suspended for two weeks from his radio program. Firing at this point would be overkill and pointless. Shock jocks are fired all the time. What happens to them? They're picked up by another station and pretty much do the same show they got fired for to begin with. Let listeners vote with their radio dials. Newsmakers, especially black ones, could boycott his show. What I'm shocked by is the fools caught in these PR disasters still don't know how to handle them. First, if you want to make sport of those outside your race, gender, class, sexual orientation, religion and so forth then just realize that you're walking through a minefield blindfolded. Sacha Baron Cohen got away with all those anti-Se...

I like my cell phone. I like sending text messages. I like the convenience of talking anywhere. I even like talking while driving. But I know I must seem as obnoxious as other cell phone users seem to me. That's why I can understand the FCC's ruling not to allow cell phones to be used on planes in flight. The results would be disastrous. Could you imagine sitting next to someone blathering away about nothing for three hours? You'd want to choke them to death. Good call.

Column originally published April 5, 2007 Cell-phone ban may save lives By Kelvin Wade Now, I'm not a frequent flyer but I can imagine how much of a hassle airline travel can be these days. A friend of mine, a white woman in her mid-fifties, is frequently picked out of line and treated like a teenaged black man driving an expensive car. Then there are the arbitrary rules of what you can and can't bring aboard a plane. There are delays and canceled flights. There are long slow-moving lines. There's that knot in the pit of your stomach when three young men of Arab extraction sit across the aisle from you on your cross-country flight. (Hey, you think it. I said it.) There are those airline seats that don't quite measure up to the average American's girth these days. There's the possibility someone with ample backside like me will occupy the seat next to you. Or there's the chance someone will have a noisy baby on the flight. Or the guy across the aisle...