Who the heck am I, you say?

Sorry. Your question will go unanswered.

Here I am! because people keep asking me what I'm up to and I figured if I made one of these things people would just read it and stop asking. . . thus eliminating from my life yet another mode of interpersonal communication. But I digress.

Since I spent my summer "studying" in California, I get to have this term off from Carleton College (yay!), and right now I'm spending time with my dad and brother in Kansas City. All is well, and as it turns out, I have an abundance of time to read watch television. Oh, how I have missed it so! Was kind of disturbed to realize though, that lately all I watch is reality tv. My dad got me hooked on 24, but besides that, yeah. Project Runway and ANTM are my favorite shows. And then there's American Idol, Road To Stardom, Made, Biggest Loser, etc. . . Sometimes, I gotta say it's very rare, but sometimes I even scrape the bottom of the barrel with the Surreal Life!

Anyway though, I said all that to say that I'm watching more tv than ever and thus seeing more commercials than ever. The other day I saw one that quite shocked me, for personal reasons as I will now detail. Now, the commercial wasn't racy or obscene, and it wasn't offensive either. It was, however, for mayonnaise.
That's not the shocking part. But see, it was about a new design for the mayo jar with a huge big square mouth, finally allowing people craving mayo to get more with every scoop. The shock? Wait for it. . . .
*
*
*
the people in the mayonnaise commercial are Black!!!

I am too, so I hope nobody's offended, but seeing a Black family in a mayo commercial completely surprised me. Black folks don't like mayo, says the common stereotype. Just watch Undercover Brother if you don't believe me. And then there's this commercial where not only does the Black family like mayonnaise, but they love it so much they have to get more of it out of the jar with every scoop of the spoon. I mean, that blew my mind. And what's more, and better, this commercial started me thinking. Yes. From the revelation of the mayonnaise commercial I have come to understand that a couple other stereotypes need to be cleared from my mind. So, on this my blog debut, I present the following:

Assumptions I Should Never Make Again In Life
(an annotated list)

-- Black people don't like to swim. Now, from my acquaintance this is true, and completely understandable. We haven't, on the whole, had good experiences with large bodies of water in the past. But, I'm sure there are millions of Black folks out there who love the water and love to swim. I don't know you, but you must exist. You must.

-- Black people don't like rock and roll. Well, for my part, this is largely true. Too many screeching guitars and wild screams and the party's over for me. Yet, Black taste in music is probably as eclectic as anyone else's. Living Colour, Bad Brains, Fishbone. Black rock bands.

-- Black people will not ever give up on Michael Jackson. Hmm. From the news reports these past couple of weeks, it seems that MJ's having trouble finding overwhelming support from anybody. Only die-hard fans lined up outside of his courthouse last week, and not many of those faces were Black. I'm still a fan, but I have to admit that the Moonwalker does seem crazy as a loon. . .

That's all I can think of. Divorce Court is on now I think, lol. So, gotta go. Can't miss Judge Mablean!

I think I'll come back tomorrow, but who's to say. You can see how busy I am.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Verse For You Today:

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. ~ Proverbs 12:18