McCain Calls Obama "That One"

For those who watched the second Presidential Debate, did you catch the part where McCain referred to Obama not as the senator but as “that one”?

The reason I ask is that there has been a lot of talk lately on blogs, news, talk radio about McCain not showing respect to Obama in the debates and in a sense using some racial undertones in his actions towards Obama. If you don’t know, in early 2000 McCain referred to Vietnamese as gooks, a racial term when he was referring to his prison guards (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/news_cut/archive/difficult_issues_to_talk_about/)

Even though he eventually apologized for it, (it still doesn’t make it ok!) it lead to many responses from the Vietnamese and the APA (Asian Pacific-Americans) communities in the United States (read a great reaction piece by Michelle Myers feat. poetry by Bao Phi http://www.yellowrage.com/blog/2008/09/revisiting-dear-senator-mccain.html)

But yesterday, the republican presidential nominee stated ‘Discussing a 2005 Senate vote, McCain said, "There was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney. You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one," he said, motioning toward Obama. "You know who voted against it? Me."’ (http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20081008/cm_thenation/45369738)

That one? Are you for real? THAT ONE? There wasn’t any other term you could have used? At least I can say that was a poor choice of words, because in my social life and cultural experience the phrase “that one” has never been used in a friendly context or environment. In fact, it has mostly leaded to heated arguments and in some cases fights. Because its history is filled with discrimination and racial connotations, because the person who’s always said that phrase has been in power or trying to exert power over someone and when I heard that coming out of McCain’s mouth a “ that motherf***er!” came out of mine, now am I over reacting or am I on to something?

Con Safos Radio- Interview with Melisa from Emetrece Productions

you know for brown people in MN, its a small world, and this interview was no exception, i had taken a class by melisa riviere at the u of m and i was fascinated by her knowledge of the culture of hip hop but most importantly about her focus on cuba and puerto rican hip hop.Melisa is one of the few individuals who have turned her love for hip hop to a phd degree (please no reference to the puff daddy song!!)

if you don't know by now how influential Melissa is , well lets put it this way she is one of the organizer of the successful b-girl be festival as well as the first one to bring tego calderon (to my knowledge!) to MN. She also happens to be the manager of Maria Isa, but her mom and my madre, well they know each other. Regardless..this interview was one of the highlights of the con safos era, we dig deep into meanings, as well as many other topics and we also played some music you all have never heard. enjoy!



www.emetreceproductions.com

Con Safos Radio- Purest Form performance 2004

Back in 2004, in the basement of a hamline university building. the birth of Con Safos Radio formed. A radio show that touched on many different styles of music, from local rap music, hip-hop to marvin gaye to herp albert to bocafloja. with the belief that local music needed to heard. we set on a mission to get this accomplished. volunteering time, effort and pizza $$ we delivered a 2 hour show every week. It was hard, it was stressful, it was art and it was us. but most of all it was fun. the shows were never scripted, everything was live like the dj's.

Here is a show we did in the middle of 04 winter. Purest Form (www.purestform.com)a st. Paul based rap group who revolve themselves around the belief that hip hop is a tool of liberation melted the snow as dj suede an activist and fellow vynil junkie spun lp's that led to a cypher. the mics were never the same. enjoy.