Some of y’all visited this thread where I was first invited, then bumped from NPR’s “On Point” show.
Well, this morning I got e-mails and calls from the producers at “Talk of the Nation.” They wanted me to come on this afternoon to discuss Black Marriage Day (!!!). This time I didn’t get bumped and actually did a live call-in segment for about 15 minutes.
I thought it was pretty mellow and I stuck to the knitting, so to speak. I did get a couple of angry e-mails because I apparently didn’t rage against Black people not wanting to commit to marriage, nor did I advocate marriage well enough. Sheesh.
Fascinating - thank you for sharing. Seems like you handled a complex issue and presented it clearly, while retaining its complexity. Lots of temptation to reduce things to a soundbite/tagline “Black marriage is about X” and you didn’t do that. Interesting topic - sounds like an interesting field of study.
ETA: you might consider having the mods modify your title to include a reference to the topic - in and of itself, it would be of interest to a variety of Dopers…and more exposure to you!
Thanks Wordy. I think the host was trying to get me to say something provocative but I stuck to the data and fairly mundane hypothesizing. It didn’t, however, prevent one irate listener from putting me on blast via e-mail. Might share that later…
Cool! I had to record at a nearby radio station as our NPR affiliate on campus was booked. We don’t get NPR midday programming on FM here in Austin, so when a colleague said, “Hey Hippy, you’re an NPR star,” I was like what? Turns out her admin associate’s dad in PA was listening and asked if he knew me. News travels fast.
I got to do this show about six years ago, discussing the Supreme Court cases on affirmative action. I was hella nervous back then and happily, this time, way less nerves.
I can’t help but notice that you didn’t condemn 9-11 in that either.
Now that blacks can marry I guess next it’ll be Hawaiians and then slippery slope to the goats.
I listened to you yesterday while I was working, and I was thinking to myself, “This man is ON POINT. Wonder why I’ve never heard of him before?” Cuz I’m usually familiar with all the black commentators they have on NPR. All two of them.
Turns out that I had heard of you before. Isn’t that cool?
I cosigned everything you said, too. Especially your parting sentence, about how marriage isn’t for everyone.
Totally cool, monstro! I was posting this in the hope that you, you with the face, or brickbacon might have been listening. I am so glad you caught it!
I alluded to some craziness I received via e-mail, so I’ll post it as soon as I can get my e-mail program to stop crashing…
Dunno… It looked fine in the email, just came out wonky when I pasted.
Yeah… I relistened to see if I in fact made any of claims to the extent she said I did… Nope. I think she expected me to deliver a withering critique of non married Black folk. I wasn’t going to do that.
How dare you “deny a direct correlation between the decline of the traditional Black family and a departure of our community from traditional marriage.” Anybody can see that those two things are clearly related! :mad:
Is it just me, or aren’t those things the same thing?
Oh my god, you’re committing genocide with your lackluster support for black marriage. Shame on you! Down with genocide!
I didn’t hear you (I only listen to NPR first thing in the morning…not a junkie like monstro is) but it’s so awesome that you were interviewed. Kudos, seriously!
