The Great Blog of Kéto's Top 25 Posts of 2008!

For old times sake this blogger presents my Top 25 Favorite blog posts of 2008 from The Great Blog of Kéto. I have also included a preview of each article with the title. Enjoy yourselves!

• Black in America: CNN (Where Do We Go From Here?)

Soledad O'Brien contrasted the disparities as well as the striking similarities between the have's and have nots of Black America. As a bi-racial American, she was the perfect face & moderator for this expose, fitting though since CNN (which I've had the pleasure of touring) is based in one of America's most prosperous Black metropolitan areas, Atlanta.

• Are We Ready for a Black President (Or Just Another Rich White One?)

While it's true that maybe the color of the President should not matter, unfortunately it does due to to a variety of historic, social, economic and political factors. After all if it didn't matter then I'm sure we would have had a Black, Native American, Latino, or Asian President w/in the last 400 years, seeing as how those were the people that built the America we enjoy today.

• Abortion & The One-Issue Party

The Republican party keeps successfully using the abortion issue (as well as gay rights, guns, affirmative action aka "Stop those Blacks from taking our jobs.") election after election, and the American public is complicit in letting them get away with it.

• Are You Prepared for Hurricane Weather?

...this weekend marks the 3rd Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina of August 29, 2005 whose effects were exacerbated by an incompetent, do-nothing government which had billions of dollars in aid overseas the day after after the Indonesia tsunami of December 26, 2004, but took 3 days to even react to Hurricane Katrina just a few thousand miles away and after President Bush's August 28, 2005 Katrina briefing on the possibility of a category 3 hurricane breaching the levies in New Orleans.

• (Still) Crazy in Love! Shirre & Kéto Celebrate 1 Year!

One year ago today, I began officially dating Shirre A. (Miller) on Saturday, September 15, 2007. So today is another good day in a long sequence of good days.

• Tim Wise On White Privilege

Recently, Tim Wise, the author of "White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son" expounded on what it really means to have "white privilege" in the United States of America even in the 2000's, when many people would like to believe that we have transitioned from a racist (read racially conscious or race-charged) society of the 1960's and 1970's to a "post-racial" society which embraces all regardless of race, religion, or cultural background.

• Colin Powell Recounts Fallen Muslim Soldier

Gen. Colin Powell, during his televised endorsement of Barack Obama recounted a picture he saw of a mother kneeling at the U.S. military graveside of her son, a casualty of the war in Iraq. What Powell said about the picture speaks volumes about where we are as a nation when our prejudice allows us to generalize the "terrorist" label without batting an eye to people who may not deserve that label simply because they belong to a particular culture or religion outside that of mainstream America. In this light, Muslims have become the new Blacks--the "others" of the 21st century.

• What's Up in 2008

Its been eight long years since the boys said wassup to each other. Even with the effects of a down economy and imminent change in the White House, the boys are still able to come together and stay true to what really matters.

• Apologetics with No Apology from a Progressive, Part 1

This weekend I received an email from a close friend of the family whom I have known since age 5. As always I was glad to hear from him, and this time he sent a poem "T'was The Night Before Election" which rhymed that Obama was a socialist and McCain was the only reasonable choice. Naturally, my blogger sensibilities go the better of me, so I sent a quick note back to him and several folks that he had copied on the same email.

• Apologetics with No Apology from a Progressive, Part 2

It's nice that McCain was a POW and all, but I have news for you, being a POW is not a magic benchmark that somehow makes you more qualified for President. I know a number of other former WITH COMMAND EXPERIENCE such as General Wesley Clark, General Colin Powell, etc who actually have overseen thousands to hundreds of thousands of troops AND multi-million and multi-billion dollar defense budgets. Does that automatically qualify them for the Presidency too?

• Undecided Voters...the New Class Dunce of American Politics

For those of you who are actually undecided at this point... Do you mean to tell me that after nearly 2 years of non-stop political campaigning, over 20 Presidential Debates, and after each candidate has long ago put their major policy positions on their website AND distributed them through the various media, that you still can't make up your mind?

• The 2008 Election: Yes We Did! (By a Landslide)

Obama won majorities among African Americans (96%), Jews (77%), gays and lesbians (71%), first-time voters (68%), Latinos (67%), Asians (63%), voters under 30 (66%), union members (59%) and women (55%), along with independent voters, all numbers which are the largest since Lyndon Johnson, thus consolidating the various bases of the Democratic party into a potent electoral coalition. Further, Obama won key battleground states by taking 10% of Republicans, 20% of conservatives, and 33% of evangelical Christians.

• A Day in the Life of an Obama Campaign Volunteer, 11-4-08

Once I arrived at my destination courtesy of Google Maps directions, I was amazed to see how open voters were. I certainly expected to have a few doors closed in my face, but almost everyone who was at home, Black, White, or Latino acted like they were glad to see me, and let me know that they or their relatives had already voted for Obama earlier in the day or had early voted in the previous two weeks.

• The Longest Word in the English Language

The longest word in the English language is a word for the formula C₁₂₈₉H₂₀₅₁N₃₄₃O₃₇₅S₈ and has 1,913 letters.

• Iraq Dares to Build a Subway (Not the Sandwich)

The Iraqi's in a gesture of hope and "Hey we've got to spend some of that $70 billion budget surplus" have decided to defy death and good common sense by building a subway system in Baghdad. Well, I admire their capitalistic flair, but dang what could possibly go wrong with this picture?

• Why This Blogger Will Not Be Shopping on Black Friday

I do not plan on shopping this Friday after Thanksgiving. I feel that the holidays have become so over-commercialized that the joy has been taken out of the true meaning of America's religious and traditional holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc even though according to almanacs and historical records Jesus was not born on December 25.

• Florida Teen Commits Suicide Live on Internet

Just when you thought you'd heard and seen everything, a Florida teen committed suicide via live streaming video via Justin TV , a forum where users can broadcast live video of their activities and interests.

• The Great Blog of Kéto Celebrates & Thanks 1,000+ Readers!

This week, The Great Blog of Kéto (TGBoK) celebrated a pretty cool milestone! On Wednesday, we reached and then passed 1,000 readers from around the globe.

• Obama Fundraising Totals $745 Million

Final tallies to Federal Election Commision show that Obama raised a record $745 million during the 2008 electoral cycle including over $104 million in the four-week period from October 16-November 24.

• My Homeowners' Association Sucks

he honeymoon officially is over! The grand high potentates of my Homeowners' Association (HOA) known as the Board of Directors have taken it upon themselves to chastise me for having Obama-Biden yard signs in the area next to my porch.

• How to Do Business in Haiti by Kéto Nord Hodges

[During my MBA studies] I had the good fortune to lead a team of fellow MBA's and I've presented a summary of our research in the presentation "How to Do Businesss in Haïti" below.

• O.J. Simpson Is Guilty, But Is He THAT Guilty?

Is O.J. Simpson 9-33 years worth of guilty? I don't think so. Frankly, the story of OJ's trial is more indicative of race relations in this country than it is of OJ's boneheaded, bad decision making.

• Picture of the Day, 12/14/08

Though some pictures are worth a thousand words, the one of an Iraqi journalist throwing a shoe at George W. Bush below is worth about a million.

• If You Don't Know Me By Now...

...life is too short to walk around being hurt all the time. Life is also to short to walk on pins and needles wondering if the next thing you say is going to offend someone.

• My Homeowner's Association Sucks, Part 2

I am writing because I feel the Notice of Violation is in error as it pertains to certain facts of the supposed violation. I am also under the impression that my townhome has been singled out possibly due to my political affiliation which would indeed be an unfortunate fact were that the case.

Black in America: CNN (Where Do We Go From Here?)

I must say, I was glad to see a major
national news network, CNN run a series, CNN Presents Black in America about the modern lives & struggles of Black families in America. Soledad O'Brien contrasted the disparities as well as the striking similarities between the have's and have nots of Black America. As a bi-racial American, she was the perfect face & moderator for this expose, fitting though since CNN (which I've had the pleasure of touring) is based in one of America's most prosperous Black metropolitan areas, Atlanta.

Let's be real about it though, this series did not teach Black people anything that we didn't know already. Re: Black women--we already know that single mothers and the economic & social struggles they and their families face are one of the most storied representations of the Black experience, HIV/AIDS is prevalent among our women b/c they are faced with lack of preventive care, stigma in the community & lack of support from the church, plus many don't know that they are carriers of the disease. Hypertension, diabetes & heart disease run rampant due to a health care system which is inadequate to meet the needs of poor non-payers, most of whom must go to the emergency room as their only (reactive) health care option. Yes, we already know that Black women are starting to date outside their race to compensate for the lack of educated brothers due to disproportionate incarceration rates among Black men (both byproducts of the Willie Lynch Theory).

Re: Black men, we already know that corporations are more likely to punish Black men coming out of the prison system, hampering their rehabilitation in society, demeaning their self respect & forcing them to resort to undesirable means to support their family. We already know that an educated Black man starts off on a un-even playing field in which a Black man in his job search is likely to be told he is underqualified b/c he is not privileged to be part of many of the social, business or economic networks that his White male counterparts belong to in order to get "the hookup". Oh & we already know that an "over-educated" Black male is going to be branded as "overqualified," meaning, "We dont' want to pay you what you're worth & we don't want you to think you can come in an take our jobs that we own (e.g. reverse discrimination)". (Trust me I had that experience coming out of b-school, MBA). Yes, we already know that society treats light skinned & darker skinned folks differently, no where more apparent that with the touching story of Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, a foremost author & academic & his brother, serving a life sentence for an alleged drug killing. We already struggle daily with the dueling realities of hip hop culture. And the list could go on and on and on and on, but I digress lest I wear myself out with words.

So who was this series addressed to? It was addressed to the White Americans and others who still mistakenly believe that stereotypes, prejudice & racism no longer exist in our "open" & tolerant society. These are the folks who will tell you that 40 years of affirmative action (which has primarily benefitted White women--look up your statistics) is adequate to make up for 400 years of slavery and its resultant economic, social, religious & political oppression. These are the folks that will always champion "personal responsibility" as if our society bears no fault or accountability for the way things are. These are folks that believe that b/c one hard working Black man who went from food stamps to Harvard to closing in on the Presidency, must indicate that we're not as bad as we thought, that now the playing field is officially level for everyone.

Really the only thing to take from the series as a whole was that regardless of how far we have come, we still have a long way to go. Despite folks like D.L. Hughley making it from the Bloods gang as a teen to enviable position of influence in international entertainment (comedy, movie acting, sitcoms, etc) there is still another group that has been forgotten--"the rest of us".