We don't drink Abita in the hood

Dear NOLA Gentrifiers,

The reason you got such a great deal for your home is because, (drum roll)...IT'S...IN...THE...HOOD.

And guess what, people in the hood, do hood shit—like owning pit bulls (as opposed to chocolate labs and "snickerpoodles"), having loud gatherings, and walking everywhere.

Ironically, some of you moved to the hood with a "When in Rome..." attitude, and have actually embraced hood shit. (Don't think I didn't see you sitting on your porch the other night drinking Abita and eating Raisin' Cane's because you were too tired to cook.) And I'm cool with that, because I was a first-mover who paid less than half of what you paid for my house, and I've had more time to adjust to and get over the "newness" of hood shit.

The real problem is that you moved to the hood, thinking it would be cool to be able to do hood shit like drinking beer on your porch, but you hate seeing the people who held down the hood after your "momma nem" moved out to Metairie, doing the same hood shit.

To quote Tupac, "And you wonder why they call you bitch?"

The reason why our neighbors invite me to the barbeque and give you the side-eye, is because I haven't called NOPD (twice) to report seeing a "suspicious black guy" walking down the street, only to have him be  Miss So-and-So's son who's always walking because he does odd-jobs for people and can't afford car insurance.

So stop being petty and stop drinking Abita, because we don't drink Abita in the hood.

Survival over Secondlines

Yesterday I posted an article about people leaving New Orleans, but decided to refrain from sharing my thoughts. After seeing this story, I've changed my mind.

In addition to the poor economic prospects they face in New Orleans, relative to other cities (I've actually had a white college drop out who was making a six-figure salary tell me that $60K was "good money" for me despite my undergrad & grad degrees in engineering, art, business & urban redevelopment), professional & middle-class blacks are leaving New Orleans in droves because of their poor quality of life, exacerbated by second-class public services, in particular police protection.

While predominantly-black neighborhoods like New Orleans East, St Roch and the Seventh Ward deal with broken street lights, unaswered 911 calls and ambivalent police responses (ex. a crazy guy stood in the middle of busy street & threatened to 'blow my f'king head off,' and I had to call 911 twice, only for the dispatcher to ask me what I was wearing...but not the crazy guy), street lights are immediately fixed and cops immediately respond in predominantly-white areas like Tulane and Carrollton.

So while New Orleans has a nonstop supply of secondlines, festivals and other forms of cheap entertainment, being able to party all the time pales in comparison to being able to pay your bills every month and avoid getting killed.

Uber-predatorial

Based on what I've read, it appears that Uber books driver fees at a rate that would make the company profitable under its current pricing model. Knowing that the resulting fees would be unattractive to drivers, but needing to keep passenger prices low enough to beat out traditional taxis, Uber kicks back  a portion of its share of passenger fees back to drivers, resulting in an unprofitable fee split for the company.

By labeling something that looks like a driver kickback an incentive, Uber gets to book it as an M&S expense. Then Uber justifies the corporate losses resulting from the cummulative kickbacks/incentives/M&S expenses as the cost of growing their business, as opposed to what it really is, a predatory pricing model designed to drive their biggest competition—traditional taxi companies—out of business.

By reporting cummulative, pre-incentive fee splits as reported revenues, Uber creates the appearance of a realistic and sustainable (i.e., non-predatory) revenue, along with the potential for future profitability.

Thirty years ago, economists would have called Uber's revenue model and fee structure a form of predatory pricing, designed to gain market share and drive competitors out of business. Today, they just call it the "new economy".

The Right Pitch

Aside from the realizations that Senator Cory Booker is a rather unimpressive public speaker while Eva Longoria is a surprisingly good one, here are my main takeaways from the 2016 Democratic National Convention's opening night keynote speeches:

• Elizabeth Warren wants voters to believe Hillary Clinton is the right choice because she's the anti-Trump choice; however, many just believe that she's a different, but (almost) equally bad choice.
• Bernie Sanders wants his supporters to believe Hillary Clinton appreciates their shared values, while many just believe that the only thing she appreciates is an invaluable opportunity to assume a well-deserved spot at the top of the political food chain.
• Michelle Obama wants voters to see a softer, more humane side of Hillary Clinton, by casting her as a high-minded altruist with an unfaltering commitment to public service; in contrast, many just see her as an unapologetic elitist with an unwavering sense of entitlement.

While I doubt the senators and first lady genuinely expected everyone in the audience to buy their Clinton-infused snake oil, they—like their GOP counterparts—were probably reassured by the knowledge that most people will buy anything after hearing the right pitch.

We can't fighting moderm terrorists, while we celebrate historical ones.

I must confess that I am somewhat ambivalent regarding whether statues of various Confederate political and military leaders should be removed from public places; however, I am absolute in my belief that the monument celebrating the supposed "Battle of Liberty Place" should not only be removed, it should be destroyed.

It is generally accepted fact that this impetus for erecting this monument was to honor of the Crescent City White League, the New Orleans "chapter" of a domestic terrorist organization that was founded with the intention of using violence to intimidate and disenfranchise US citizens who happened to be black. To add insult to injury, the actual "battle" it celebrates was a paramilitary assault on and temporary takeover of a number of government buildings, during which over a hundred people were murdered, including 11 police officers.

Although the battle occurred in 1874, the monument was erected in 1891, as an indelible symbol of white supremacy's foothold in the state. Soon after it was erected at the foot of the Canal Street, the monument's role as a symbol of hatred and bigotry was solidified when it became the gathering spot for another Crescent City White League-sponsored terrorism event—the lynchings and murders of over a dozen men of Italian descent who had been accused (and acquitted) of the murder of the city's police chief.

No amount of revisionist whitewashing can change the fact that the Liberty place cop-killings and the 1891 mass-murders supposedly committed to avenge a cop-killing, were the actions of thugs and terrorists—not heroes. As the global community unites in eradicating the hate-driven terrorism of ISIS, we are cannot afford to allow such an overt symbol of and monument to bigotry and hatred continue to occupy a place in our local community.

Just as we have demanded that our national leaders decisively act to prevent future terrorism events, we must demand that our local leaders decisively act to eliminate monuments that celebrate past events.

Lincoln, Jim Crow and the Southern Strategy

The advent of upcoming major elections always revives two race-based conversations:

So the debate alway goes like this:

Conservative: Blacks vote for Democrats because they are the party of handouts.

GOP Party Leaders: Blacks are stupid for supporting Democrats, because they are the "party of Jim Crow" while we are the "party of Lincoln"

Both of these theories about why blacks shouldn't support the Democratic Party, rely ignore two basics facts:

After the Civil War and Secession, the main reason white Southern voters were overwhelming initially attracted to the Democratic Party, for the same reason because it had the "Party of Jim Crow" 

Secession and allowed the proliferation of Jim Crow laws. Conversely, the GOP's status as the "Party of Lincoln," the man who ended slavery, made it attractive to the majority of  new black voters. 

Democratic blacks  GOP wa "Party of Lincoln" The people who made the Democratic the "Party of Jim Crow" When the Democrats effectively ended Jim Crows laws, the Southern Democrats felt bereft Dixiecrats left the "Party southerners who embraced The GOP Don't they know 

1) Conservatives justifying their disdain for blacks for being blindly loyal to the Democratic Party

1) Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, racist Southerners were aligned with that Democratic Party (mostly because it was/is the party most aligned with working class values). When Northern Democrats realized that protecting EVERYBODY's civil rights was compatible with the rest of there working class platform, racist white Southern Democrats did a Tea Party move and form the Southern couldn't  racism couldn't see beyond During the 1950s an

The Source of Self

While watching this video about a father's struggle to love and accept a son who's never going to be the son he imagined he would, I thought about the role parents play in arming us to weather assaults from a world that may not value us or cetains aspects of who we are.

http://www.upworthy.com/this-kids-dad-is-just-as-bad-as-the-bullies-at-school-until-he-makes-me-smile-at-the-end?c=upw1

More than being the source of the genetic coding that makes us individuals, parents help shape our overall sense of self, our confidence in and certainty about who we are.

As our first protectors and providers, they impart us with self-sufficiency. As our first mentors and benchmark setters, they instill us with self-motivation. And, as the first people to know our character, to acknowledge our importance and to accept and embrace our uniqueness, they are critical in shaping our self-awareness, self-esteem and self-worth.

By teaching us to love and accept ourselves, they also show us how to accept no less from everyone we let into our lives.