The Trump Effect and White America

Little did Hillary Clinton know that when she called some Trump supporters a "basket of deplorables" during the 2016 presidential campaign she would be opening up a Pandora's box that has now emboldened those people to embrace themselves as Trump's adorable deplorables. Now if you look up the word deplorable, it means:  shockingly bad in quality...along with disgraceful, shameful, wretched, atrocious.  I'm not sure why anyone in their right mind would want to think of themselves in that manner but perhaps it's because they don't really understand what the word means or they simply don't care because they see Donald Trump as their champion, their savior, so to speak.  These are the people who live in FEAR.

There's a new study out that says white people who fear democracy may benefit marginalized people (like Blacks, Hispanics and other immigrants) would rather give up democracy to keep their white privilege.  This study connects white American intolerance and support for authoritarianism.  Whites, according to the World Values Survey, say they would rather have a military style rule of government than to have people of color or immigrants living next to them or socializing with them in any way. 

The irony of this is the fact that the white population is continuing to decrease as more and more of the races continue to mix.  Meanwhile, the GOP has pigeon-holed itself into being the Party of the angry white male and his "submissive, I do as I'm told" wife.

 George Washington said in his farewell address in 1796 that political parties could allow cunning, ambitious, unprincipled men rise to power and subvert democracy.

Can you say DONALD TRUMP, STEVE BANNON, STEPHEN MILLER?

As Thomas Paine said it back in 1776, "These are the times that try men's souls'"

A New Survey Says Millennials Blame Baby Boomers for Their Troubles and They Should

OK--I've got a new survey to report to you---this one courtesy of Axios and Survey Monkey.

Millennials say baby boomers are to blame for ruining their lives and guess what?  I happen to agree with them despite the fact that I am a member of the baby boomer generation.  

Fifty-one percent of millennials say boomers have made things worst for their generation.  Not only are they in debt from student loans but they also inherited two wars and they face an uncertain job future with speculation that artificial intelligence may replace some jobs they would vie for in their future.  

Baby boomers, on the other hand, don't appear to be trying to leave the job market anytime soon unless they're FORCED out so with retirement age being as late as age 70, boomers can still be collecting a nice paycheck right up until the end.  

No doubt about it, the boomer generation has been a greedy generation.  They have controlled Congress and and been the CEO's of the major corporations in America.  According to Linette Lopez, a millennial, "The baby boomers who have controlled this country since the 1980's are selfish, entitled generation.  Instead of spending money on education our government has repeatedly chosen to cut taxes for the wealthy."  

And if that's not enough, a survey of millionaire baby boomers (of which I was NOT included), more than 50 percent said they had no plans to leave an inheritance to their children. One woman was quoted as saying she had made a lot of sacrifices for her children over the years, including paying her daughter's medical tuition.  According to this survey, conducted by U.S. Trust, some wealthy boomers worry that their kids will squander their inheritance money or develop a sense of entitlement.  

Ha! 

Millennials did offer some suggestions on how to improve things for their future.  One being to remove all old government officials and set term limits for the House and Senate representatives (I LOVE that idea!).  

A number of them said IMPEACH TRUMP and then make sure you get out and vote. 

To learn more about the Bay Boomer/Millennial Divide, you can get a copy of my book on Amazon.  I wrote this BEFORE this survey came out.

Axios/SurveyMonkey online poll was conducted April 9-13 among 4,638 adults in the United States. The modeled error estimate is 2 percentage points. Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States age 18 and over.



   

Survey Says More Black Men Favor Donald Trump

To be perfectly honest, I had to read this survey over a few times to make sure I was reading it correctly.  You see, I truly have a hard time believing any black man, other than Ben Carson and  Pastors Mark Burns and Darrell Scott, would come out and give a favorable reaction to Donald Trump's first year in the White House.

One simple question was asked in the survey conducted by SurveyMonkey:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as President?

• Strongly approve
• Somewhat approve
• Somewhat disapprove
• Strongly disapprove

Then you were asked to support your answer with a comment.

According to an article written in The Atlantic, the survey involved more than 600,000 people--although there is no actual breakdown of how many of those interviewed were black.  That is probably part of the problem.  Without knowing the number of black participants, there is no way to get accurate insight.  For example, if only 100 blacks participated and 20 of them said they somewhat approve, that can be interpreted as favorable.

Among African Americans and Hispanics, reactions to Trump depend more on gender than age or education. In every age group, and at every level of education, about twice as many African American men as women gave Trump positive marks. In all, 23 percent of black men approved of Trump’s performance versus 11 percent of black women....black men are one of the few groups for which Trump’s 2017 average approval rating significantly exceeds his 2016 vote share.  From The Atlantic article.

The point is 23 percent of black men who gave Trump a favorable rating for SurveyMonkey OUTNUMBERS the 8 percent support he received from ALL blacks during the November 2016 election.  But once again, it's 23 percent of what????????

Personally, I think this survey is misleading and serves no real purpose in determining how Black America feels about a man who has publicly humiliated them at every turn.  If there are black men out here  (other than the ones mentioned above) who really believe Trump has done a decent job in representing ALL Americans, I invite them to leave a comment on this blog post to state your case.  I always welcome different points of view because, after all, I am a journalist.

Here's another telling statistic from the survey:

In the 2016 election, exit polls indicated Trump's strongest base were non-college educated whites at 66 percent.  In 2017, their support, according to SurveyMonkey, has dropped to 56 percent. And among white Millennials, his disapproval rating is a whopping 76 percent!

Proud Mary is the Coffy and Foxy Brown for the Millennial Generation

As a young adult, I remember going to see a movie called Coffy staring Pam Grier.  Grier portrayed a nurse who was out for vigilante justice against inner city drug dealers after her sister became addicted.  At the time, Coffy was viewed as the female version of Shaft.  She was a bad mother ..SHUT YO MOUTH.

Then came Foxy Brown--another Pam Grier movie---where she played a crime fighter who used her sex appeal to battle the bad guys in and out of the bedroom.


Now more than 40 years later, we have another bad mama jama to hit the screen and we know her as Proud Mary.  Taraji P. Henson, best known for her role as Cookie on the highly rated Fox TV show Empire, portrays, what I will say, "a hit woman with a heart."  The movie opens up with Mary killing a bookie who was over $100K in debt to the mob boss she worked for.  (Mob boss played by Danny Glover).  After she executes him, she discovers a little boy in a back bedroom. She then grabs a photo of him off of a table and leaves the house.  Over the next several weeks (or months perhaps) she keeps tabs on the young man, probably out of guilt, until she finds him lying in an alley after having been beaten.  She then takes him in and begins to nurture him.  Once she discovers the torture he has been subjected to by a rival crime family, she takes matters into her own hands and the killing sprees begin.

Just in the past three years we have seen Taraji  demonstrate her range as an actress,  In 2014, she showed us the lengths any mother would go to to protect herself and her children in the suspense thriller No Good Deed.  She followed that up with  the critically acclaimed, blockbuster movie Hidden Figures, where she brilliantly played a black mathematician.  Now we see her as an assassin who, in spite of all the blood on her hands, spends the entire movie trying to right a wrong she believes she committed when she left the little boy to grow up as an orphan after murdering his father.

The fact that Sony put little or no effort into promoting this movie is disappointing but it also reflects the fact that Hollywood still doesn't believe Blacks, especially females, can carry a lead role with box office success. The other explanation might be that it had no sex scenes in it and I guess white producers think blacks won;t go see a movie if there is no sex in it.  But I will say this:  Taraji was one sexy hit woman!

I recall Atomic Blonde, featuring Charlize Theron, being HEAVILY promoted in 2017 and that movie, in my humble opinion, wasn't nearly as good as Proud Mary.  

Is this a must see movie? Absolutely!  For two reasons:  You will get to see how talented Taraji really is and you will be giving support to another black actress in a leading role.

One more thing....the last three minutes of the movie will make you laugh and cry

My husband and I give this 8 out of 10 stars.

Illiteracy in Trump's America

As we all know, the Third Monday of January is the day we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Over the past several years, the holiday is marked as a Day of Service when we, as Americans, go out and do our part to make a difference in the lives of others in some form or fashion.  This year I decided to start early by using my skills and expertise to give back to the Durham Literacy Center.  The DLC is a place where people go to study and prepare for their high school equivalency exam.  They are drop-outs for one reason or another.  Because of my journalism/communications background, the Program Director thought I would be a good tutor for someone studying to pass the Language Arts portion of the test.

On January 11, 2018, I became an "official" volunteer with my first student.  Initially, I was supposed to be paired up with a young woman--but she didn't show up on time and this young man was already there so he and I were assigned to each other.  To be honest, when I first saw him I immediately thought of the notion that he was probably a supporter of Donald Trump.  He just looked the part. I thought I would be uncomfortable at first but, as I've said many times, I never meet a stranger so I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  I was also thinking he needed MY help so whatever thoughts he might have had about working with an African-American he needed to put them aside in order to accomplish his goal for the two and a half hour session.

I started out by correcting him when I asked him a question and he said "It don't matter."  I responded, "The correct sentence is "It doesn't matter."  Not sure how well that went over but he didn't challenge me on it.  Then he broke the ice by commenting on the LeBron James jersey I was wearing.  My husband knows full well that a way to my heart is talking about sports so I was more than willing to engage in a lively discussion about whether or not LeBron would be leaving Cleveland after the season and why the Cavs have so much talent but they still "suck." (His words not mine).  During the conversation I learned he was a big Carolina Panthers fan and he predicted it would be the Patriots vs. the Eagles in this year's Super Bowl.

Once we got down to business, I discovered this young white male who, on the surface, has more "privilege" than I ever will, is truly illiterate.  He couldn't pronounce some words that are a normal part of my vocabulary---like diligent, avid, pacify, consensus, mediate.  And if you can't pronounce the word, you certainly aren't going to know the meaning of it.  So we spent the time matching vocabulary words to their meanings and including them in sentences.

The sad thing is this student is among approximately 32 million Americans who can't read, according to the U.S. Dept. of Education and National Institute of Literacy.

Here are some other statistics:  

1 in 4 children in America grow up without learning how to read.

Students who don't read proficiently by the 3rd grade are 4 times more likely to drop out of school.

Just over 59 percent of voters who supported Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suffer from moderate to severe illiteracy.  (Source:  Real News Now)

I don't know what this young man's personal story is, nor do I know if he did, indeed, vote for Trump.  But I do know he is illiterate and fits the profile of a Trumpster.

How ironic that the fate of his language arts success would lie in the hands of this well-educated black woman.  God is working through both of us for His greater good.

Survey says Christmas is about the Experience not the Gifts

If there's a survey out somewhere, you can believe I'll find it and share it----like this one on what Americans say they want for Christmas.

E-X-P-E-R-I-E-N-C-E!  Yes, according to a report released by IfOnly, an overwhelming 81 percent of respondents said they preferred an "experience" over any other type of gift.  

Okay, so the next question is, what kind of experience?  

39 percent said go on a helicopter tour
32 percent said go on a private tour of a museum
27 percent said pet a panda at the zoo

But get this:  36 percent of those who took the survey said they would rather spend the holiday with a wild animal than with their in-laws.  

75 percent of Millennials said they would do anything in exchange for an incredible experience while nearly half of those surveyed said they would give up an hour of sleep for the entire holiday season to have an incredible experience instead of receiving a gift certificate.

And for those of you who have been complaining about lack of intimacy in the bedroom with your significant other......47 percent said they would be more likely to have sex if they received an experience instead of a material gift.  So I guess my question here is:  "Would that experience include whips, chains and handcuffs?"  LOL!


This survey was conducted by Kelton Global on behalf of IfOnly, which refers to itself as the "marketplace for unique experiences...aims to deepen human connection by creating life-changing memories."

There's a Survey for Thanksgiving

Another survey has come out and this one is just in time for Thanksgiving.  Delta Dental has come out with its Third Annual Thanksgiving pie survey.

The number one pie enjoyed by families across America is pumpkin once again.  Thirty-six percent of those surveyed favored it over pecan pie, which came in a distant second at 17 percent. 

In other survey results,pumpkin pie is enjoyed most in the West and least in the South.  That's not a surprising statistic because Southerners love their sweet potato pies loaded with lots and lots of sugar.  A dentist's dream.

Apple pie came in third with 14 percent, followed by sweet potato at 10 percent, chocolate 9 percent, lemon meringue 4 percent, blueberry and cherry tied at 3 percent and strawberry at 2 percent.

Of course, while this survey may or may not be relevant, Delta Dental's message is that whatever pie you eat this holiday season that you "remember to take the time to brush and floss away the sugary remnants."

Good advice.