Any list that includes Obama and Shaft, I can get with

[jlh]

I went to the market this morning, before it got too hot, and I shared the elevator to the Target with a "team member" who was bringing breakfast from McD's to her fellow "team members." When I was a teen, my ultimate McD's breakfast was a hash brown and a raspberry danish, and even though McD's no longer has the awesome danishes they did in the 80s (which they warmed for you by steaming them in their little plastic bag) the Enteman's danish tastes about the same. Sadly, you can't get it in a single serve and I really don't need an entire danish sitting in my fridge.

Anyway, while I was standing in the you-scan line at the Pathmark I saw the new August Ebony, the cover story of which is: "Black Cool: The 25 Coolest Brothers of All Time." They're doing eight different covers, but the one I saw was:



There's something about Obama as "black cool" that just makes me gleeful inside. The inside photo is more "I am an uplifting man" but that cover is very "I may be Tony Hawk." Anyway the list (thankfully not ranked) is:

Barack Obama	Don Cheadle	Billy Dee Williams	Sidney Poitier	Quincy Jones
Lenny Kravitz	Jimi Hendrix	Denzel Washington	Richard Roundtree	Sammy Davis Jr.
Bob Marley	Ed Bradley	Tupac Shakur	Adam Clayton Powell Jr.	Muhammad Ali
Gordon Parks	Miles Davis	Walt Frazier	Shawn (Jay-Z) Carter	Samuel L. Jackson
Malcolm X	Snoop Dogg	Prince	Michael Jordan	Marvin Gaye

And can I just say, Marvin is wearing totally bedazzled rolled-up jeans and work shirt, a spangly belt, a knit wool hat, and platform boots, and he still looks cool. I haven't bought Ebony in years (they pissed me off with a doctrinaire article on mixed race folks) but I had to grab this issue and, yeah. Anyone who's like, "oh I'm just not attracted to Black men" needs to flip through those 25 photos.

Comments

[evil-erato.livejournal.com]

That? Is a seriously awesome list. :D

[tartpants.livejournal.com]

Another mighty fine black man (Norwegian-Nigerian!) is in that icon 'o yours.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

♥ He's so adorable! I don't have many "this man is hot" icons but he's definitely one of them. (Though perhaps not actually cool in the strict sense, but I can live without that.)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

That is such an awesome photo of Obama. That is so what so many presidents wish they looked like getting out of a car. I'll bet Bush even imagines himself looking like that.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Bush TOTALLY thinks he's the mickady-mickady-mickady-mickady-macdaddy. I'll show you the issue when I see you—the accompanying article makes an interesting tie between the birth of cool among black men and their experience of racism.

[tartpants.livejournal.com]

I might have to pick that up - it would be an interesting addition to the African American lit class I'm teaching next semester.

[lessthangreat.livejournal.com]

That really is a fantastic list. I'm going to have to pick up this issue.

[misscake]

*fans self* There are some very hot men on that list, not to mention intelligent and influential (which is in itself very hot).

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Amazing list. I'm totally down with that group, really. Obama at the top, because.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

That cover rocks. I almost bought it, except I don't buy magazines in general.

May I ask what pissed you off about the mixed race article?

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was one of those usual "mixed race is really black and everyone who says it isn't is stupid" stuff about Tiger and Mariah and it's like, Tiger never says he's not black and fyi, he's more Thai than African American anyway. Some of the black establishment is really threatened by the idea of a mixed race identity, but I don't think it's an either-or, but more of a and-also. Besides, the more they make it a choice the more they make me feel like I'm not welcome.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Wow. I didn't see that one and I'm glad. I've been seeking out articles on the NYTs and around the internet about growing up mixed race. There was an interesting quote in the Times from a girl at Rutgers who was wearing a shirt that said "Proud Black Woman" and her black friends gave her flack because she is half white. So it seems like you are damned if you do and damned if you don't here?

I grew up with kids who were interesting combinations (Japanese/Italian, black/white European, Hispanic/Chinese) and although I never fit in it wasn't because of my skin color. One of my main characters in this series I'm writing is black/Russian Romani and I'm worried about writing anything offensive to mixed race people or POC. My agent has two sons who are East Indian/German/black though. She lives in Harlem and will set me straight if I did anything really stupid.

I was determined to have different socio-economic backgrounds, POC, and gay characters. But most of my characters are white and privileged. Of course if I really wanted to run the gammut I would have smushed some handicapped people in there too. *rolls eyes at self*

Sorry I think my brain just exploded at you.

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

it is an interesting question. the crazy racist online woman i told you about has an obsession with this, not from the pov that there should be more identities, but from the pov that mixed-race people should simply call themselves white, and not allow themselves to be called anything else. it's sort of breathtaking, but maybe you'd have to know her whole, like, thing to appreciate how. anyway, i always think of that when i think of the pov you're talking about. in that, you're right, and yet i can see how people see it as threatening, as in, eventually one identity will be eclipsed, and which one will that be? (she's also disgusted by jewish fear of intermarriage- she calls that bigotry- and really by ethnicity, period...)

[a-hollow-year.livejournal.com]

Seriously, Obama rocks those shades. Also Snoop Dogg is the embodiment of cool, I want to be just like him when I grow up, though perhaps not smoke as much weed. And Jimi too.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Would he be cool if he didn't smoke all that weed though? And I don't mean, I think he's cool because he smokes weed, but rather, he's that chill because he smokes that much weed, and I wonder if he'd still be chill if he didn't. Jimi is seriously just so far beyond awesome. And I don't even know what to do with Obama in those shades.

[a-hollow-year.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Snoop is so chill because he smokes all that weed, but he's also just cool in general. I mean, damn.

As for Obama, perhaps I am terribly shallow, but this (http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj298/ifiwereafield/mccainlol.jpg) vs. this (http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj298/ifiwereafield/obamafuckyeah.jpg)?

HOW IS THIS EVEN A CONTEST, THE CHOICE IS OBVIOUS AMERICA

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

this is a very cool list. somewhat apropos of this, erica kane on amc had her first interracial kiss last week. there is something artlessly moving about that somehow.