Follow me on Twitter.com. I’m IssacJBailey. A very clever name, if I don’t say so myself.

A few years ago during its annual meeting in Detroit, the NAACP had a symbolic burial of the word “nigger,” which prompted some black entertainers to stop using the word. (But not comedic Chris Rock, who, thank God, still knows how to use the word in effective satirical skits.) I didn’t believe the funeral was necessary but was an attempt to deal with a seeming contradiction, namely the use of the word by blacks who condemn whites for using it in the same wayt. It didn’t move me one way or another.

What the NAACP is doing today at its annual conference is moving me. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it worse to be a racist or rapist?

An independent commission has found that the Harvard professor and Cambridge police officer who got embroiled in what became a national discussion about racial profiling were equally at fault for the escalation of the incident. That’s not surprising. I wrote the same thing at the time. Why? Because in tense moments like those, each person involved has the right to choose — the responsibility, even — how he responds. There maybe larger issues. No. There are larger issues, given our history of race in this country and suspicions galore on both sides of the black man/white cop aisle. Read the rest of this entry »

There are problems with a public school system, particularly in my native state of South Carolina, which barely graduates half of the students it is charged with educating. And there are problems caused by “broken homes,” which makes educating those students that much more difficult. Both of those issues need to be dealt with more effectively. But there is another problem that persists and doesn’t get enough attention: The number of talented young black students who fear seeming “white” for studying hard or “not keeping it real.” That, too, translates into less-than-ideal educational performances and can stymie any type of educational reform. We know that the message from the larger society — whether intentional or not — is that “smart” fits more snugly with “white” than “black.” That has to change. And even if it doesn’t, those of us who claim to want to lift up those students being left behind better not ignore or deny that reality.

Another white actress – this time Angelina Jolie — will play the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. What does it mean? Anything? I’m not sure. I imagine that Jolie’s acceptance of the role means it was only available to a handful of the top actresses, black, white or otherwise. Maybe Halle Berry, if the role must be played by a black woman, would also fit that bill, but there aren’t many actresses — black, white or otherwise — who are on Jolie’s level. It could be that she got the role primarily for that reason. Beyond that …  Read the rest of this entry »

Is it possible to be a “Little Bit Married?” like this author implies? My short answer: Heck no! Living together as boyfriend and girlfriend is not the same as living together as man and wife. You’d have to get married to understand how different those two things are. It’s not even close. Not even a little bit.

A white teacher claimed to have a “black hair product allergy” and asked a young black girl to leave the classroom because of it. I hope this doesn’t turn into another ”fire her immediately” incident, but rather one that is used to educate people on how best to deal with cross-racial misunderstandings and why such incidents are potentially — but not necessarily — damaging to young black kids. 

I’ll be selling and signing copies of my book — “Proud. Black. Southern. (But I Still Don’t Eat Watermelon In Front Of White People)” — at Noon Saturday at Barnes & Noble at The Market Common in Myrtle Beach, on the old air base. I’ll also be discussing why racial contradictions make sense, given this country’s history and the two foundational beliefs upon which it was created. One of those beliefs is “All men are created equal.” I’ll reveal what I think the other equally important but less-discussed belief is. Other local authors will also be at the store at various times, including Batt Humphreys with “Dead Weight,” T. Lynn Ocean with “Southern Peril” and Jack Riggs with “The Fireman’s Wife.” If we have time, I will touch on why I believe private businesses should have the right to discriminate even while knowing that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was absolutely necessary to bring about a measure of equality in this country. Sounds like a racial contradiction, doesn’t it? If I see you Saturday, we can talk it through.

It took awhile for the Obama administration to receive tough, across-the-board criticism for the oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. Some of that criticism is warranted. Though it’s obvious that the previous administration was more about deregulation than regulation — and is in large part the reason the Minerals and Management Service is so inept — Obama has been in office for more than a year and a half and that should have been enough time to better plug up one of our country’s most important regulatory holes. That’s where I believe his primary blame lies. And there is even reason to want him to better use this crisis to guarantee that we will finally get a sensible, comprehensive energy policy — which is more than three decades over due, meaning multiple Democratic and Republican administrations have failed us since the Carter era.

That said, some of the blame is becoming irrational, such as this screaming and shouting for President Obama to feel our pain, like he was really our daddy and not the president of the United States. Are these complaints really coming from adults? Or whining 8-year-olds in disguise? We are all frustrated because that gaping hole at the bottom of the ocean is still gushing gas and oil. And I get why folks in Louisiana and elsewhere along the Gulf coast — and why even we are concerned about the possibilities here along the Grand Strand — are frustrated and saddened and feel devastated. Their livelihoods and way of life is under attack and there isn’t much they can do about it. BP and other major oil companies are the only ones with the underwater technology to stop this mess from growing, but so far they have not been able to do it.

What I don’t get is this notion that the president must emote that frustration as well. I want him to have every available and reasonable resource used to deal with this crisis, which seems to be happening, even if it isn’t as effective or as quick as we’d like. I want him to explain, as clearly, openly and honestly as possible what’s going on out there. But I don’t need him to be my daddy, neither will I want him to play that role if that oil slick happens to make its way to our beaches here in Horry County. We didn’t elect him father of the U.S., but rather president.

We said we wanted change, a change from opportunistic play-acting by those we elected to represent us, the kind President Bill Clinton made famous with his “I feel your pain” lines and President George W. Bush’s donning of a flight suit in a helicopter to an aircraft carrier that carried a banner declaring “Mission Accomplished” long before we got a handle on the horribleness of the Iraq war. The same kind of “I feel your pain” mantra turned Rudy Giuliani into “America’s Mayor” and a supposed expert on terrorism — even though he didn’t stop the worst terrorist attack on American soil, had an extremely poor initial response and made a few critical mistakes, including basing his crisis command center in the Twin Towers even though it had been targeted by terrorists eight years earlier. And he did not equip his firemen and police officers with the kind of equipment that wouldn’t fail during a catastrophe. Those attacks were not his fault — just as this BP spill is not Obama’s — but Giuliani was provided rock star status and was able to garner six-figure speaking gigs because he attended the funerals of many of those killed, because he “felt our pain.” And Obama supposedly doesn’t, because he doesn’t rush in, because he actually takes him time to assess a situation then acts, because he didn’t, as a political analyst recently said Clinton would have done, “donned a wet suit” moments after oil started making its way to the top of the ocean. We elected Obama in large part because he did not do those things, because he was cool and calculating, because he was well-reasoned when his opponent seemingly went off the rails during the height of the 2008 financial meltdown to prove his leadership abilities.

This is what I want President Obama — not Daddy Obama — to do: Be straight with us, tell us he should have moved even more swiftly to fix our regulatory system (he’s done that); that responding to crisis of this magnitude is ultimately his responsibility (he’s done that); that he won’t rest until the hole is plugged and the mess is cleaned (he’s done that); and detail for us the concrete steps the federal government will be taking to lessen the chances that an accident of this magnitude will happen again (that’s what he still has to do).

I rather he get the job done than feel our pain.