JEWEL Magazine (copyright Star Media 2009)

Michelle Obama is a product of Black America. Unlike her biracial, multicultural husband, whose mother was White and whose father was from Kenya, she is, like many African-Americans, a descendant of slaves. Her father…

SMOOTH Magazine

By Justin Remus

On September11th, Kenneth Chenault, Chairman and CEO of American Express, was fortunate to be in Salt Lake City, over 2,000 miles away from New York City. But other AMEX personnel weren’t quite so lucky—11 employees were either killed or reported missing due to the tragedy. Hardly surprising when you consider that AMEX’s corporate offices are only 50 feet or so from the Twin Towers site.

But let’s give Chenault credit. He responded quickly and decisively—and not just as a businessman, but as a humanitarian. He personally ordered …

…the evacuation of the AMEX building minutes after the first plane struck, and by afternoon, he’d called a meeting of his top execs to assure employee safety and customer service—in that order.

And he did more. Under his direction, 560,000 stranded cardholders went home on chartered planes and buses courtesy of AMEX. In addition, millions of dollars in delinquent balances and late fees were waived. He even increased credit limits for cash-starved clients.

Nine days later, Chenault called a town hall meeting for grief-stricken employees. He announced that he’d donate $1 million to the families of AMEX’s 9/11 victims. In a moment of spontaneity, he remarked, “I represent the best company and the best people in the world. You are my strength, and I love you.”

AMEX board member Charlene Barshefsky says, “The manner in which he took command, the comfort and direction he gave to what was obviously an audience in shock, was of a caliber one rarely sees.”

He’s certainly proven that he has the right stuff. In Chenault’s short tenure as CEO, he’s had more than his share of problems, but he’s never complained about the pressures or the burden, saying, “It’s been challenging, but I don’t feel that I’ve been put upon. The role of a leader is to define reality and to give hope.”

Indeed, Kenneth Chenault is a leader, but who exactly is he? And how did he get to the top of one of the most prestigious corporations in America, an international conglomerate that employs over 84,000 people, and brought in more than $17 billion of revenue in the first nine months of 2002? How did this native Long Islander, husband, and father of two sons emerge as one of today’s most visible and respected corporate leaders?

Well, his ascension to power hasn’t been easy—it never is when you’re an ambitious man of color. Considering that there are only three black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (the other two being Richard Parsons of AOL/Time Warner and Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae), Mr. Chenault is a rare bird indeed.

In the past, he’s shown that he’s not comfortable with the media tying his accomplishments to his race, and he will subtly avoid the issue, saying, “When there’s an open playing field, people from different groups can succeed.”

He’s often stated that a CEO’s main function is to make sure shareholders prosper. Still, Chenault acknowledges that his appointment to CEO does come with high expectations—especially from other African-Americans, who project their hopes for social progress onto him.

Whether it’s politics, religion, or education, America is coming to terms with a new black elite. Many of these new black power players may have credentials that have nothing to do with their race, but in the case of Kenneth Chenault, one might ask: Is he a black CEO or a CEO who happens to be black?

The answer, obviously, is both, but Chenault has never been one to back down from confrontation, saying, “To me [differences of opinion] are not personal. I want you to argue with me.”

As a child, there were no early indicators that he was headed for greatness. Both his mother and father graduated near the top of their dentistry classes at Howard University, but young Chenault was a mediocre student, leaving his parents frustrated and disappointed.

By high school, however, he’d cleaned up his act and graduated with honors as class president. He went on to attend Bowdoin College (graduating magna cum laude with a degree in history), where he repeatedly debated fellow African-American students on the topic of whether or not blacks should work within the system to promote reform. During his graduate education at Harvard—where he earned an MBA and a law degree—Chenault continued to explore both sides of this contentious issue.

But there can be no mistaking what side he came down on. One only has to look at his meteoric rise to power at AMEX to realize that he firmly believes blacks should adapt—at least somewhat—to White America and its structural institutions.

To say his job is more than he bargained for is putting it mildly. However, many on Wall Street agree that he’s up to the challenge. His uncanny ability to assume an outsider’s view has proven to be crucial in the rebuilding of AMEX.

Over a decade ago, Chenault emerged as AMEX’s savior by helping to turn around a drifting company. During the 1991 recession, merchants complained about the 4% discount fee that they had to fork over with each purchase, which was more than twice the fee they had to pay for Visa and MasterCard. Chenault successfully reinvigorated the company by finessing AMEX’s relationship with merchants, cutting fees on many occasions.

Time and time again, he stuck by his guns, even when his ideas were strongly opposed by the old guard. During the 90s, AMEX continued to get pounded by Visa and MasterCard. Chenault fought for credit cards that targeted the general public. Many within the company feared that would tarnish AMEX’s upscale image, but Chenault prevailed.

He was on a roll. As president of the domestic consumer card division, he aggressively signed on retailers such as gas stations, supermarkets, and discounters, while simultaneously launching a frequent flyer program. His firm convictions won him not only great admiration, but also resulted in huge gains in terms of customer loyalty.

In an effort to attract a younger clientele, he also oversaw the issuance of the Optima card, which no longer required full payment each month. This, too, did not come without a struggle. Many company execs feared that this would erode AMEX’s standing with high rollers.

They needn’t have worried: Chenault’s plan worked. As the economy soared, so did AMEX’s charge-card volume, which jumped from $111 billion in 1991 to $297 billion in 2000. Chenault was consequently tapped as vice chairman in 1995. In 1997, he was promoted to president and Chief Operating Officer, and then to CEO in January 2001.

“He was the only senior executive who had the courage to express issues we faced in the credit card business and had ideas to help solve them,” says Harvey Golub, the former AMEX CEO who handpicked Chenault as his successor.

Despite his rapid climb to power, Chenault’s career as CEO hasn’t been one success after another. His first stumble was opting to cut the company’s losses by writing off only $182 million worth of risky high-yield junk bonds that had plummeted in value. When AMEX’s bond portfolio continued to hemorrhage money, shareholders wanted to know why he hadn’t cut more of them.

He tried to reassure them that the worst was over, but it wasn’t. The bond-portfolio problems continued to plague the company. After the $182 million write-off, Chenault cut the junk-bond portfolio fro 12% to 8% to decrease risk, but then he announced there would be even bigger losses—a whopping $826 million.

Investors were furious. They wanted to know why these high-yield junk bonds (which are so risky that they are often referred to as “toxic waste”) were even included in the company’s portfolio, but Chenault was surprisingly vague.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “This strategy was embarked upon seven or eight years ago. I don’t know all the rationale or philosophy.” That gave the impression that he wasn’t on top of the problem, and the business community started to believe that he didn’t thoroughly understand the risks involved.

Compounding matters were the events of September 11^th—a disaster for many businesses, but especially for AMEX. Its stock fell almost 27% the first week after the attacks, resulting in a $12 billion hit for the company.

At that time, money generated by travel and card businesses accounted for three out of every four dollars of AMEX’s total revenue. Therefore, the decrease in airline travel and corporate entertainment inflicted severe damage on the company, which is still struggling with today’s economy, not to mention the enormous losses from the junk bond write-offs.

But Chenault does have a strategy. By maintaining a high level of service, aggressively building AMEX’s business with major and mid-size corporate clients, and running the travel and entertainment departments on an outsource basis, he believes AMEX is gaining market shares by doing what they’ve always done: selling “value and service” rather than just “price.”

He’s probably right. AMEX’s fortunes now look brighter, but Chenault is a realist, admitting that the company’s success is partly linked to the ups and downs of the economy. He doesn’t foresee a solid recovery coming until the second half of 2003.

Chenault’s not panicking, though. Of AMEX’s future, he says, “[We’ve] been around for 151 years. We’ve dealt with a wide range of crises and, at the end of the day, I think I’m up to the challenge.” Investors are keeping their fingers crossed.

No matter what happens in the immediate future, Chenault probably has another decade to guide American Express’s recovery and position it for even greater growth.

But his most enduring achievement goes far beyond the increased revenue, the methodology, and the vision that has marked his tenure. He has become an exemplary role model for all Americans, and is in inspiration to black youth in particular.

The way he reacted on September 11^th is just one small indication of his character. His compassion for others, his integrity, and his willingness to take risks have made him a remarkable leader who cracked not only the glass ceiling, but the class ceiling, opening doors for minorities in the exclusive world of high finance. Kenneth Chenault’s phenomenal success is further proof of how the concept of black power has been redefined for the 21^st century.

Copyright Star Media Spring 2003

JEWEL Magazine (copyright Star Media 2008)

Barack Obama is now the most powerful man in the world. But as the saying goes, “Behind every successful man, there’s a strong woman.” However, in Mr. Obama’s case, it would be women: Stanley Ann, his mother; Madelyn Dunham, his grandmother; and Michelle, his wife. All have been instrumental in molding his character and shaping his intrinsic beliefs. These three women not only inspired him, they also comforted him and sometimes even scolded him. They helped make him into who he is today: educator, author, activist, and politician. They’re the foundation of our first African-American president.

View the rest of the article (PDF).

Last November, Barack Obama garnered the highest share of the popular vote of any Democrat since LBJ in 1964. If ever there was an opportunity for him to unify the nation, this is it. But what can we realistically expect from him over the next four years?

Smooth Magazine

By Justin Remus

A Black family now lives in the White House, an iconic structure that just happens to have been built by Black slaves. The metaphorical implications are unmistakable. To many, Barack Obama’s defeat of John McCain represents the beginning of the end of the United States’ long history of racism and the beginning of a shining new day in American politics.

This symbolic victory aside, however, some might wonder why Mr. Obama would even want to be president at this point in time. On several fronts, the country is teetering …

…on the brink of disaster. He inherits the worst economy since the Great Depression, not to mention the Iraq War, which has taken over 4,000 American lives and has no definitive end in sight.

Our new president claims to have a clear mandate from the people, but that comes with enormous expectations that he may not have the resources to meet. There are already rumblings that President Obama will scale back his plans to reform health care, a critical issue that affects millions of lower- and middle-income families. There are also rumors that he will leave the Bush tax cuts in place, which are due to expire in 2011. The reasoning behind this is that nothing should be done that might imperil the economy’s recovery, although the benefits of maintaining those cuts is a matter of conjecture. What it surely will do is increase the deficit and likely delay social reforms. It appears, on the surface, that he may be extending an olive branch to the Republican Right.

Obama emphatically made the failed economic policies of the Bush administration the focal point of the election. Voters took him up on that, choosing change over the status quo. They’re now hoping that he doesn’t go back on his word in the face of significant pressure from Wall Street, which is accustomed to operating with little or no constraints. Will he buckle under the pressure and embrace continuity of the current financial system, with all its flaws intact?

He might already have unknowingly done so, if details emerging about the massive U.S. Treasury bailout (which Obama vigorously supported during the election) are to be believed. Award-winning investigative journalist Naomi Klein has found numerous instances of chicanery and misuse of the bailout funds, all of which are disturbing, to say the least. Several of her findings are confirmed by last December’s GAO report to Congress.

The money lent by the U.S. Treasury to banks in exchange for equity was supposed to alleviate the credit crunch. Instead, according to Klein, the banks themselves have explicitly revealed that the bailout money is being used for bonuses, salaries, dividends, and mergers. They were allowed to get away with this because the Federal Reserve didn’t impose the proper oversight restrictions. It effectively allowed Wall Street to regulate these enormous disbursements by itself. The concessions that the Federal Reserve did receive were almost laughable at a time of such high leverage, in contrast with what British Prime Minister Gordon Brown secured from the banks in the U.K., for example. Sadly, the government has bailed out the rich on their bad investments, but there is no relief for debt-ridden wage-earners. The Democrats are aware of the bailout’s borderline illegalities and lack of accountability but were afraid to challenge the Bush administration because they feared a run on the banks. Obama pushed hard for the bailout during the campaign (as did John McCain), despite polls showing it to be wildly unpopular. Now he will have to live with its repercussions.

One of Obama’s major deviations from the norm is his plan for higher taxes on the wealthy, but that will produce smaller revenues if the well-off prefer to take their returns in the form of capital gains instead of income, which is commonplace. For now, the financial, insurance, and real estate sectors (FIRE), where wealth and power are concentrated the most, remain much the same as they were during the Bush era, despite the financial crisis. There will be some tax relief for most working Americans, although many will use it to pay off existing debts.

Obama would no doubt prefer more redistributive policies, but it’s really not in his nature to aggressively challenge the system. He may disappoint many of his supporters in this way. Given the overwhelming influence that Wall Street and U.S. corporations still have, some fear that Obama’s approach to U.S. monetary policy will be too timid. However, the severity of the situation may force him to act more boldly. A huge public works program is planned, as is stronger regulation of the financial system. What these measures will accomplish, nobody knows, but if Team Obama doesn’t come up with the goods, they’ll more than likely be out of a job in four years.

The stakes are exceedingly high for African-Americans, many of whom have fallen victim to the growing disparity between the rich and poor. African-Americans have suffered disproportionately compared to their counterparts in other ethnic groups, but it’s simplistic and unrealistic to expect President Obama to undo all of the racial injustices of the past. Still, he is—and will continue to be—an advocate for affirmative action, even though he has hinted that he might prefer it to include gender and class distinctions, as well as racial ones. He also has plans to create an Office of Urban Policy, a dramatic departure from previous administrations that have largely ignored urban centers since the late 60s. Obama was a community organizer, and he has spoken firsthand with the poor in these areas. He has listened to them and can relate to them, unlike former president George W. Bush, who demonstrated an almost pathological disconnect with the swelling underclass.

Of course, these are problems that any Democratic president would have to face following eight years of Republican rule. But what about the specific issues that are unique to America’s first Black president? There are some who think that Mr. Obama’s election should mean the end of African-Americans “complaining” about getting a raw deal. Others believe that he can stress the value of education and the importance of proper manners, as well as illuminate the dangers of rap music. As Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote in Time, this assumes that most Black people are a “bunch of hapless layabouts who spend their days ticking off reparations demands and shaking their fist at the White man.” It also begs the question of what people really expect of Obama. Is he a president or a messiah? He would be the first to say that he cannot do everything for everyone. He has always emphasized that government, although a powerful force for good, cannot do what a mother or father should do. The president can’t control what music kids listen to or make them do their homework. That’s the job of a parent. It’s not realistic for people to get their values from a politician, or any other public figure, for that matter. As Coates points out, there is a tendency among the media to articulate a single Black narrative and ignore all of the complexities of African-Americans and their individual belief systems.

Sometimes, it seems Obama is in a no-win situation. There’s been a fair amount of criticism of his cabinet appointments, that they are establishment figures or “retreads” from the Clinton administration. But as Josh Marshall pointed out on his website Talking Points Memo: “With a strong president, appointees, particularly cabinet appointees, execute policy. They execute [Obama’s] policies. I think we have a strong president. And unless I see policies that don’t square with the platform he ran on (which I don’t expect), I see no reason to revise that judgment.”

He may be right. While Obama could have appointed more progressives to cabinet positions, there is some logic behind his choices. He wants experienced people close to him who can handle themselves when they hit the ground running. The learning curve will be short, given the extreme financial mess we’re in. The records of some of these cabinet officials are spotty, but one would think that they have learned a few things in the intervening years and will make new policies instead of repeating former mistakes. Larry Summers is a good example. A neo-liberal economics guru during the previous decade, he has now written in the Financial Times that the “wealth and income gains from the easy availability of credit were highly concentrated in the hands of a fortunate few.” That’s as much of a mea culpa as you’ll hear from a former free-market champion. If things work out, Obama’s picks will look shrewd in retrospect. And let’s face it: Experience should count for something.

The harping on the Clinton connection is somewhat overblown. Obama’s promises to include Republicans in his cabinet notwithstanding, the previous Democratic administration before Clinton’s was Jimmy Carter’s, so it was inevitable that there would be some overlap with the Clinton regime, regardless of who was chosen.

And, as Marshall said, it all comes down to the man in charge. If one judges Obama by the way he ran his campaign, he won’t panic in the face of adversity and will adjust his strategy as needed. He understood that running for president and serving as president are interconnected, that in fact, his campaign was preparation for being commander-in-chief. If the way he ran for president is any indication of how he will govern, then he is one of the best prepared presidents to take office in the modern era.

During the election, Obama was already planning with his advisers on how he would put a transition team into place and how he would govern, which is very uncommon. Immediately following his win, he quickly and seamlessly assembled a staff and advisors, which put the word out to Washington that there was a new sheriff in town. Of those he picked, Obama showed that he was unafraid to surround himself with strong personalities who might disagree with him. He also skillfully co-opted Hillary Clinton by making her Secretary of State, and he wisely ingratiated himself with former nemesis McCain, promising him a substantial role during his presidency.

Obama is a quick study, a quality that will serve him well during his on-the-job training. Many of his advisers point out that he’s willing to listen to different solutions to a problem and will find a remedy without investing his ego into it or grandstanding. He’s also practically unflappable, which he demonstrated by ignoring the numerous smear campaigns that dogged him throughout his campaign. A cool head is a character trait that will serve him well in the pressure cooker he will inhabit daily.

The Republicans made fun of Obama for being a community organizer, but his experience pounding the pavement enabled him to understand that reform begins at a grassroots level. To that end, his campaign was brilliantly organized to generate mass support, attract volunteers, and set up field offices across the country. The Obama team also became legendary for their mastery of technology. They compiled a massive online interface of names from their voter registration drives, rallies, the Democratic Party’s integrated voter file, and lists of people bought from outside vendors. Elizabeth Drew, writing for the New York Review of Books, estimates that the Obama people have over 10,000,000 addresses in their database. Before the election, they were contacted through e-mails, phone calls, and text messages, sometimes several times. Even now, the Obama camp continues to keep its supporters informed. This personal connection to a significant chunk of voters will come in handy during Obama’s presidency, because these people can be used to put pressure on Congress to push through difficult legislation. More than any other president in recent memory, Obama has brought the general populace into the front lines of politics.

But this is an age of anxiety and discontent, and President Obama faces vast and complicated challenges. To his credit, he has reiterated that he will close Guantanamo and put an end to American torture practices. Environ-mental policy and race relations should improve under his watch, too. Beyond that, the future is more ambiguous, especially as to how he’ll intervene in the economic crisis and withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. He has vowed to create energy independence and “millions” of green jobs, reform health care and education, provide tax cuts for the middle class, improve the nation’s infrastructure, and so on. He made a lot of promises to get elected, and no one is quite sure how he’ll go about keeping them. An advisor of his told Elizabeth Drew that he will “govern from the center.” That won’t please traditional Democrats, which promises future conflicts in Congress.

After the breathless enthusiasm of Election Night, we will have to be patient and give President Obama time to make good on his campaign promises. He probably won’t always act as quickly as we would like. He’ll listen to his advisors, sift through the information, and make careful decisions. That’s why we elected him, for his level-headedness. Some will be frustrated by that approach, but in contrast to George W. Bush, who acted from the gut with disastrous results, thinking long-term may be exactly what America needs to turn itself around.

Copyright Star Media Spring 2009

The people have spoken: America loves Obama. But our obsession may have gone too far.

Smooth Magazine

By Justin Remus

Everyone wants a piece of Barack Obama—literally. How else do you explain the insane media feeding frenzy that surrounds the nation’s first Black president? But is the Obama phenomenon, in both its marketing and media aspects, merely harmless, or is it a reflection of America’s crazed celebrity lust, an insatiable longing to connect with public figures that can never be completely satisfied?

The word most commentators used to describe Obama’s election was…

…“historic,” and that is certainly true. Moreover, some pundits have made a convincing case that Obama’s election was really the first real election of the 21st Century. In many ways, George W. Bush was an anachronism, a product of a dying era. Although it’s easy to forget, Bush was fairly popular for much of his first term, mainly because of September 11th. But although there are many fervent supporters of the 43rd president, there is little or no corollary in terms of the merchandising that has occurred in conjunction with Obama. There is an endless fascination with him that has taken on a fetishistic quality, and it has manifested itself in some bizarre ways. The mass merchandising of President Obama and his family is the most obvious.

Anything and everything that features the new president and his likeness is being manufactured and sold worldwide. The products include: sneakers, T-shirts, action figures, wine, lipstick, earrings, soft drinks, dog-tags, wristbands, glow-in-the dark refrigerator magnets, solar-powered key chains that flash “Barack” every two minutes, lighters, tote bags, paperweights, hot sauce, coffee (a half-Hawaiian, half-Kenyan blend, naturally), mouse pads, and the list goes on. eBay has over 35,000 Obama items on sale, including copies of the sold-out first printing of The Amazing Spider-Man in which he makes a guest appearance. Amazon has several thousand bobblehead dolls and action figures for purchase. There is even a dildo called “Head of State” that resembles a miniature Obama. While this schlocky commercialization doesn’t diminish his presidency, it certainly doesn’t elevate it.

Obama’s family is not immune, either. Toy company Ty now sells Beanie Baby dolls of two young Black girls that were originally intended to be marketed as “Sasha” and “Malia.” The company denies that they are replications of the Obama daughters, but pressure from Michelle Obama forced them to rename the dolls. Mrs. Obama took offense at what she saw as an invasion of her family’s privacy. Despite Ty’s caving, however, there wasn’t much she could do, legally speaking. Any image of President Obama and his family may be used without permission because they’re in the public domain. Last November, The New York Times estimated that profits have exceeded $200,000,000 for Obama merchandise, and that figure will likely increase considerably over time.

Even the Obama inauguration went far beyond the scope of previous ones. More than 900 vendors were licensed to sell their goods on the D.C. streets up to and during the ceremony. Political Americana, a store located one block from the White House, makes a killing selling Obama-related products and plans to stay open indefinitely. The store is packed daily, and visitors have the option of having their photo taken with a life-size cardboard cutout of the president. The official inauguration committee, which has ties to the president himself, has also capitalized on the merchandizing boom. The difference, though, is in the prices. An official Obama bronze inaugural medallion costs $60, not exactly chump change. To no one’s surprise, the seal of “official” Obama merchandise has been co-opted by other vendors who are desperate to make a buck.

“Whole companies have opened just because of Obama,” says Mort Berkowitz, a Manhattan-based manufacturer and collector of political memorabilia. Mr. Berkowitz told The New York Times how he used to produce fewer than 10 commemorative buttons for an inauguration. For the Obama inauguration, he made 30 different types of buttons, plus 25 styles of watches, which showed Obama posing with his wife and children or Martin Luther King, Jr.

A one-man stimulus package, President Obama provided a boost for the economy just by being elected. He and his family have graced countless magazine covers, including People, Time, The New Yorker, and many others. During the week of November 17, 2008, People sold 2,000,000 copies of their election issue on newsstands, an approximate $8,000,000 windfall. (It usually sells about 1,500,000 copies.) After Obama’s victory, Time (under the same media conglomerate as People) published a book, President Obama: The Path to the White House, with more than 550,000 copies printed. Betsy Burton, a spokeswoman for Time, bragged, “It could go higher.”

America’s fascination with this man and his family seemingly has no limits. A survey by the Pew Research Council for the People and the Press discovered that 55% of African-Americans were saving a newspaper documenting last November’s election results. This is a perfectly reasonable souvenir to hang onto, especially for a minority group that has been disenfranchised for so long. But the Obama merchandising juggernaut goes far beyond this. Perhaps with the hopes and expectations for the new administration so high, somebody was going to figure out a way to cash in on Obama’s star power. Americans are showing their support for the new president in the same way they show their support for a favorite recording artist: by buying stuff with his name on it.

When people buy Obama memorabilia, it is euphemistically referred to as “embracing their brand,” just as they would with Nike or Apple. It’s been suggested that, by purchasing this merchandise, consumers are “supporting” the Obama Administration. But this is just a rationalization. Al-though he has genuinely inspired the country to take more of an interest in government and politics, to the companies who use his image to hawk their wares, the president is merely an easy marketing tool. For evidence, one needs only look at the ubiquitous Pepsi ad campaign, which cynically exploits Obama’s buzzwords of “hope” and “optimism” to sell cola.

Obama is not the first president to excite the public consciousness. During the 1960 presidential election, John F. Kennedy was marketed with similar sophistication, and his portrait can still be found in many homes across the country. But no one ever attempted to put JFK’s face on a sex toy (or if they did, we haven’t heard about it). Certainly, our culture has become much more commercialized in the last half-century, but even that can’t account for Obamamania. What is it about this particular president that makes him such a cash cow?

The obvious answer is his race, but it’s not as simple as that. As impressive as Obama is as a man, his power as a symbol is even greater. The American public has embraced him as a talisman connected to a turning point in the nation’s history. To his followers, he represents an end to the racism and inequality of times past, as well as a rebirth from the dire economic and political climate of the past eight years. With the economy in freefall and the war in Iraq still raging on despite popular sentiment, his reassuringly take-charge (yet non-threatening) personality and his feel-good promises of “hope” and “change” have made him a messianic figure to people who are desperate for both. Some have said that his followers are like a cult, because they are incapable of taking control of their lives and need a larger-than-life prophet to do it for them. At campaign rallies prior to the election, some onlookers actually fainted. Even for those not in the grip of ecclesiastical bliss, the president is a living blank slate on which people can project not only their hopes, but also their fears. Gun sales went up astronomically in Red States after the election because many felt that firearms would be banned by the new administration.

Obama’s power as an icon is formidible, but there are still those for whom the man himself is the ultimate piece of Obama merchandise. Bill Clinton certainly had his female admirers, but sex appeal has not been such a factor in an American president’s popularity since JFK. During last year’s primaries, an anonymous fan dubbed “Obama Girl” assembled a video in which she pranced around scantily dressed and intimated that she wanted nothing more than to get it on—as soon as possible, preferably—with then-candidate Obama. The video was highly popular on YouTube and illustrated how the longing for some tangible connection to Obama and all he represented had gone from the sublime to the absurd. And Obama Girl isn’t the only American with a crush on the president, judging by all the hoopla that arose when a shirtless Obama was photographed bodysurfing in Hawaii after the election.

Public figures have to accept intense scrutiny—that goes with the territory. But perhaps there should at least be a modicum of privacy that everyone deserves, no matter who they are. In the age of reality TV, the mundane is glorified and the most trivial details of almost anyone can be known by everybody, though it’s not clear what purpose this serves. Obama’s election neatly dovetails with America’s fixation on celebrities, and the marketing blitz of Obama goodies will only end once the people get tired of him and move on to their next fetish. Given the American public’s short attention span and overall impatience, there may be a backlash if they feel he’s not living up to his campaign promises fast enough.

Copyright Star Media Summer 2009

Basquiat, Edited by Mark Mayer (Merrell)

For those who don’t know, Jean-Michel Basquiat was one of the superstars of the intensely vibrant New York City art scene of the 1980’s. Drawing his inspiration from graffiti, cartoons, street imagery, mythology, and religious symbolism, Basquiat was also influenced by sources as divergent as Pablo Picasso and the emerging hip-hop culture. His work seemed chaotic yet was actually tightly controlled, often exploring issues of race and identity. A teenage runaway and high school dropout, he died at the age of 27, his fantastic but all-too-brief career regretfully lasting only eight years. If you dig contemporary art, Basquiat is well worth the hefty price tag. It includes an abundance …

…of first-rate reproductions of his most famous work, as well as some highly obscure pieces from private collections. Four superb essays illuminate several important topics, including Basquiat’s meteoric rise to fame, his lasting relevance, and his relationship to contemporary music, especially hip-hop.—Justin Remus

Copyright Star Media Spring 2006

Nasty: A Confession, by Cameron White (Greystone Books)

Cameron White—a.k.a. Mr Nasty—is the author and star of this cautionary tale about the metamorphosis of a small-time London drug dealer into an internationally successful, “Armani-clad narco-deity” who eventually becomes a full-blown smack addict. Fortunately, Mr Nasty was able to clean up his act and give us this fascinating confessional of his rise and fall, complete with a logical and impassioned plea to legalize the production, distribution, and sale of all narcotics. We’ve heard this yarn before, but rarely has it been so skillfully woven and so eloquently conveyed. Mr. White is hyper-articulate, lucid, analytical, and he peppers his harrowing tale with tons of slang, a la A Clockwork Orange. There’s no sentimentality here. It’s brutal, it’s raw, it’s authentic, and it’s relevant to our time. It’s also impossible to put down once you’ve taken a hit. “Grade A kit,” as Mr Nasty would say. It’s time to chase the dragon.—Justin Remus

Copyright Star Media Winter 2004

Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith

Tommie Smith with David Steele (Temple University Press)

When gold medalist Tommie Smith raised his black-gloved fist at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics (the “silent gesture” of the title), it required more courage than we can imagine in our more “enlightened” age. Now, almost 40 years later, Smith reveals why he did what he did and dispels the myths that he was affiliated with the Black Panthers and that his medal was confiscated. With his entire future at stake, Smith’s protest gesture—an iconic image that continues to resonate today—was done in solidarity with all disenfranchised Americans, not just Blacks. After the awards ceremony he paid a terrible price for his defiance:  hate mail, ostracization, and unemployment. Still, he has no regrets about doing what had to be done. Smith’s account is told in simple but eloquent fashion, tempered by a healthy dose of irony and humor. He never romanticizes his actions, but rightfully acknowledges their powerful social impact.—Justin Remus

Copyright Star Media Spring 2007

Have You Met Miss Jones?

By Tarsha Jones (One World/Ballantine)

It’s unlikely that the autobiography of controversial New York radio host Miss Jones will win its author any new friends, but it does make for provocative reading. If nothing else, Jones is a survivor, and you can’t help but admire her resiliency. She’s brutally honest and clearly relishes dishing the dirt on celebrities, friends, rivals, and lovers, some of whom cruelly betrayed her. But Jonesy can also be quite complimentary when necessary, and the book provides a nice overview of the 90s hip-hop scene, during which she was a successful singer before transitioning into radio. Her writing style is blunt, but with a special flair for the dramatic, much like her on-air personality. At times, one gets the feeling that Miss Jones biggest fan is, well… Miss Jones. But that’s OK. You’ve got to be tough to make it in the ultra-competitive, sexist world of hip-hop, not to mention the White-male dominated environment of corporate radio.—Justin Remus

Copyright Star Media Summer 2007

If your copy of New Jack City is starting to fall apart from being watched so many times, it might be time to expand your horizons. Check out these classic flicks that Hollywood forgot.

Smooth Magazine

By Justin Remus

Coffy

(1973)

“The baddest one-chick hit squad that ever hit town!” was the tagline, and they weren’t kidding. In the flick that made her a star, Pam Grier goes on the hunt for the scum who turned her sister into a junkie, systematically gunning down each and every one of them. But it’s not your typical blaxploitation flick. Coffy makes a moral statement …

…by depicting a world where everyone is on the take and corruption is the norm. On a lighter note, funky 70’s fashions abound and the Roy Ayers soundtrack is classic. Plus, you get to see Pam’s big ones not once, but several times. That alone makes it worth seeing.

Across 110^th Street

(1972)

Extremely violent yarn of three Harlem locals (including Antonia Fargas, a.k.a. Huggy Bear) who dress up as cops and rob a Mafia numbers house, pocketing 300 Gs and killing virtually everyone in sight (including two real policemen). Two mismatched cops, one black (Yaphet Kotto), one white (Anthony Quinn), are assigned to track down the amateur crooks before a sadistic mob enforcer gets them first. Highly suspenseful with a graphic edge to it, the flick is elevated by its use of actual Harlem locations. Bobby Womack did the theme song, which was reused in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown.

The Harder They Come

(1972)

The first reggae musical (with an amazing soundtrack), it’s also the first English-language film with English subtitles because of its nearly impenetrable Jamaican patois. The story is nothing new: country boy Ivan (Jimmy Cliff) moves to the city and has a song he thinks will be a hit. But first he has to deal with a crooked record producer, a shady pre–Suge Knight impresario. Ivan resorts to selling ganja, becoming a folk hero when he a kills a crooked cop and goes on the run. Richly-textured, with terrific insight into Jamaican shanty life, it’s the prototype for today’s Black gangster genre.

Nothing But A Man

(1963)

Almost a semi-documentary, this is a quietly powerful look at what it was like to be Black in the segregated South. Needless to say, it was no picnic, which Ivan Dixon (Sgt. Kinchloe of Hogan’s Heroes fame), a railroad worker, quickly finds out when he tries to settle down and marry a schoolteacher. He just tries to be himself, but encounters a type of prejudice that he’s never faced before. The movie is subtle and lacking in melodrama, which makes it even more honest and perceptive. This one is too far off the beaten path for Blockbuster, although it’s still easily available via the Internet.

Lumumba

(2000)

If you think politics is boring, think again. Lumumba is a biopic of the first post-colonial prime minister of the Congo. It’s an also excellent thriller, superbly enhanced by Eric Ebouaney’s dignified performance as the charismatic beer salesman-turned-political leader. Overcoming incredible obstacles, he ascends to power but is betrayed by both his closest confidents and the CIA, who promptly dispose of him in violent fashion. Not exactly a date movie, but the story of Lumumba’s courageous sacrifice makes for enthralling cinema.

Copyright Star Media Spring 2005

Rita Moreno: The Latin Sensation Has Been a Triple Threat for More than 60 Years and She’s Still Going Strong.

Jewel Magazine

By Justin Remus

The movie: West Side Story. The scene: a tenement rooftop on the west side of Manhattan. Five Puerto Rican girls, including Rita Moreno, who plays the strong-willed and independent Anita, line up and belt out the opening bars of “America”: I like to be in America / OK by me in America / Everything free in America…

Moreno separates from the crowd and lights up the screen: kicking, twirling, hiking up her skirt and strutting, almost performing a mock-tango at times. Despite the flurry of color and movement, your eyes are continually drawn to her, and with good reason—she’s a bundle of energy with attitude to spare. It’s this effervescent charisma and boundless talent …

…that have propelled a career that now spans seven decades.

But everything wasn’t always free in America for Rita Moreno. Although the native Puerto Rican won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in West Side Story—a first for a Latina actress—it didn’t liberate her from the stereotypical ethnic roles that continued to be the only ones offered to her, which she found to be both unfulfilling and insulting. Having moved to New York at the age of five and appeared on Broadway at the age of 13 (Skydrift), Moreno had been typecast for most of her career. Prior to West Side Story, she appeared in a slew of B-movies and musicals, either as a “Latin spitfire” or an “Indian maiden.”

Of course, some of these parts were better than others—she played a Burmese slave girl in The King and I (1956), her first big break—but the dancer/singer/actress yearned to showcase her numerous talents in roles that transcended her ethnicity, a struggle that endured for much of her life.

“I decided once I won the Oscar that I was not going to do those kinds of movies again. At one point, I didn’t do a movie for seven years,” she said in an interview with NPR. Determined to be accepted on her own terms, Moreno compensated for her hiatus from film by working in television and theater, the latter of which she professes to be her greatest love.

Eventually, more diverse film offers came her way, such as when she played the prostitute whom Jack Nicholson “visits” in director Mike Nichols’ 1971 film Carnal Knowledge. Glamorous, no, but it was a superb (albeit brief) performance that once again demonstrated her versatile talent. Over time, Moreno was finally able to buck the Latin stereotype, playing everything from Shakespearean characters to the straight-talking nun in the HBO prison drama OZ.

In the 90s, Moreno had a successful one-woman show in which she sang, danced, and told stories. “That’s the good thing about being a performer who does many different things,” she told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. “I always have a venue. Always.”

But perhaps Rita Moreno’s greatest accomplishment is her awards quintuple play. She has the distinction of being one of only three performers who have won all five of the entertainment industry’s major awards: an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy (two, actually), a Grammy, and a Golden Globe. (The others are Whoopi Goldberg and Audrey Hepburn.) An inspiration for Latina actresses everywhere, it’s hard to imagine a Jennifer Lopez, a Salma Hayek, or an Eva Longoria without Moreno having first paved the way.

“The first time I met Rosie Perez, she started to cry,” Moreno told the Times Union Albany. “I can’t tell you how astonished I was that I meant that much to my colleagues of Hispanic descent.”

On top of her acting work, Moreno has long been an advocate for osteoporosis awareness and has lectured on numerous subjects in various venues over the years. She has also been on the board of directors of the Third World Cinema and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. Still going strong well into the 21^st Century, she has appeared onstage in many regional theaters with her daughter, Fernanda Luisa (who’s also an actress). Her most recent film, Play It By Ear, a romantic comedy directed by Lauren Flick, is soon to hit theaters.

Despite a journey fraught with seemingly insurmountable obstacles, singer, dancer, actress, storyteller, lecturer, advocate, trailblazer, wife and mother Rita Moreno has led—and continues to lead—a life that many would envy.

Copyright Star Media Spring 2006

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Pam Grier: Fierce, feminine, and, above all, foxy, Pam Grier is still the baddest.

Jewel Magazine

By Justin Remus

Ever since she electrified movie screens during the blaxploitation craze of the 70s, Pamela Suzette Grier has been part of the public consciousness. Years before mainstream action heroines were kicking butt alongside their male counterparts, Grier embodied strength, resilience, and beauty without compromising her femininity.

The offspring of an Air Force mechanic dad and nurse mom, Grier learned to be tough while growing up in countries such as England and Germany before settling in Denver, Col. After she relocated to Los Angeles to attend UCLA…

…she took a gig as a backup singer/composer for soul singer Bobby Womack. That didn’t pay the bills, though, so she took a job as a receptionist at the B-movie studio, American International Pictures. It was there that she was noticed by low-budget filmmaker Roger Corman, whose eye for talent had launched the careers of Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese, and many others.

Corman cast her in a series of microbudgeted women-in-prison films, a particularly exploitative genre that relied on scantily clad, cat-fighting women for its entertainment value. In roles that were designed to be nothing more than eye candy for late-night audiences, Grier delivered powerful, dignified performances. Overnight, a star was born.

Grier’s popularity led to a contract with her former employer, American International. She became one of cinema’s biggest box-office draws with blaxploitation classics such as Coffy and Foxy Brown, playing no-nonsense women who exact violent revenge on the men who wronged them. With her voluptuous figure, unflappable confidence, and natural screen she quickly became an icon of the B-movie scene.

Although Grier’s career cooled after the blaxploitation craze died out, she was far from forgotten. After years of supporting roles, she was brought back to the public eye when director Quentin Tarantino, a lifelong fan, cast her in the title role of Jackie Brown. Her career-best performance drew rave reviews and relaunched her career. She now plays Kit Porter on the popular Showtime drama, The L Word.

If Pam Grier hadn’t paved the way for sexy, independent women in cinema, there would be no Charlie’s Angels, no Lara Croft, and certainly no Beatrix Kiddo (the heroine of Tarantino’s Kill Bill series). Even today, her formidable legacy continues to inspire. When raptress Foxy Brown asked the actress’ permission to use the name of her most famous character as her hip-hop moniker, the characteristically modest Ms. Grier replied, “You don’t need to ask. If you’re an independent woman, every woman is Foxy Brown.

Copyright Star Media Spring 2007