Jackie Robinson 60th Anniversary

April 15 is not just the day you pay Uncle Sam any taxes you owe. (by the way, you have until midnight Tuesday to do that)

Today also happens to be the 60th anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond at Ebbets Field and broke major league baseball's color line. He went hitless that day, but did score the winning run in his debut game with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In that first season he endured racial epithets, flying cleats, pitchers throwing at his head and legs, catchers spitting on his shoes, hate mail and death threats but let his on the field play speak for him. He won over his teammates and his opponents with his unselfish team play and was named Rookie of the Year. Two years later he was the National League MVP. He compiled a lifetime batting average of .311 and was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.


It's a bittersweet moment as well. Since 1975 the percentage of African-American ballplayers has gone from 28% to 8%, the lowest figure since Major League Baseball was fully integrated in 1959. I started noticing the trend courtesy of Ebony Magazine. Every April they would do a baseball feature story that would list every team by league and division, have photos of all the African-American members of those teams including coaches and predict how the teams would finish. They stopped doing it in the late 80's. Major League Baseball is also alarmed at the declining numbers of African-American fans attending games.

I think part of the problem is that baseball has spent so much time investing in overseas development complexes in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Asia that they've forgotten to show some love in this country as well.

When I played Little League ball, in my neighborhood alone we had two organized leagues to play in, Southeast and Freeway National. Their ballfield complexes were right across the street from each other. The last year I played in 1977 they added two teams in the minor division because they had an explosion of kids in that age bracket wanting to play.

In 1999 I drove by those complexes and was saddened to discover that Freeway National Little League no longer was in existence. Freeway's old complex was also in a state of disrepair. Southeast was considering taking it over but they don't get the amount of kids they used to. Most of the kids are either playing football or at Crestmont Park trying to be like Mike. (or in the case of my old neighborhood like Clyde Drexler.) Yes, TransGriot readers, THAT Clyde Drexler.

African-American major league ballplayers are alarmed about that downward trend. That concern is shared by Jackie's widow Rachel Robinson and the commissioner's office. Minnesota Twins outfielder Torii Hunter has started a program with the goal of increasing the number of African-American kids playing baseball. Another program with the same objective called RBI (Reviving Baseball In Inner Cities) is the most widespread with over 200 affiliates in various cities around the country.

I hope these programs are successful in reversing that negative trend. It would be a travesty for the suffering that Jackie Robinson heroically endured so future generations of African-Americans could play major league baseball to be wasted.

Washington Has Three African-American Head Coaches-What's Wrong With The Rest Of The NCAA?

When 34 year old Salisbury, MD native Tia Jackson was hired by the University of Washington on April 7 it reunited her with an old friend from her Stanford University days in Ty Willingham. In addition to making the former Duke assistant coach just the third head coach in the 22 year history of the program it marked another historic milestone.

The University of Washington became the first NCAA institution to have three African-American coaches at the helm of the major sports of football and basketball at the same time. Willingham runs the football program and UW alum Lorenzo Romar is the men's head basketball coach.

"No question, it's unprecedented," Willingham said. "But in Tia, the number one thing is we have an outstanding person with an unbelievable passion.

He's not biased. Jackson has been well groomed for her first head coaching job. In addition to being what some people in the women's game consider a top notch recruiter Tia played five years for her mentor C. Vivian Stringer at Iowa and was on her 1993 Final Four squad.

"It warms my heart to know she has been given this opportunity, and I am extremely proud of her," Stringer said.

After her graduation from Iowa in 1995 she was drafted by the Phoenix Mercury during the WNBA's inaugural season in 1997 and played on Cheryl Miller's team that reached the WNBA championship in 1998. As a Stanford assistant Jackson learned strategies and how to meticulously break down film from 1996 Olympic team coach Tara VanDerveer.

She's also been an assistant coach at Virginia Commonwealth, UCLA and under Gail Goestenkors, who just left Duke to take the University of Texas job in the wake of Jody Conradt's retirement.

"Tia is destined to be a superstar," Goestenkors said. "She has it all. She's outgoing, she's an incredible recruiter and she's great with people. ... She's an impact coach. And Washington is one fortunate university."

Jackson inherits a Huskies team that went 18-12 last season, finished fourth in the Pac-10 and was routed by Iowa State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Washington's incoming class is considered among the nation's best and Husky fans can't wait for next season to tip off.

In an NCAA that has a sorry history of hiring African-American coaches in any sport or abandoning them at the first sign of trouble as Notre Dame did to Willingham, the University of Washington is to be commended for having one of the six African-American football coaches in Division I patrolling the sidelines, one of the thirteen African-American head basketball coaches and hiring a talented African-American female assistant coach to lead their women's basketball program. The rest of the NCAA has some explaining to do in the women's basketball coaching ranks.

*There are no Black women head coaches in most of the nation’s premier conferences, such as the Big Ten Conference and the Big 12 Conference.

"The Atlantic Coast Conference has more Black head coaches than White ones but there are no women among them.

*The Pacific 10 Conference (Jackson) and the Big East Conference (Stringer) each have only one Black head coach.

*With the recent departures of Pokey Chapman at Louisiana State University and Carolyn Peck at the University of Florida, the Southeastern Conference has no Black women head coaches.

The rub is that 40% of the players at NCAA Division I institutions are African-American. The numbers have to get better and it may take something similar to the NFL's Rooney Rule to accomplish that.

Monica’s Statement For the KY Coming Together Conference

Transgriot Note: My friend Joshua asked me to compose a statement for a workshop he's presenting on African-American transpeople at a local conference tomorrow. Here's what I wrote.

I’m Monica Roberts, and I am a forty-something African-American transwoman.

It took me a while to get to the point that I’m comfortable in saying that. I didn’t transition until my early thirties in 1993 and did so in the middle of an international airline terminal in which 30,000 passengers a day passed through it.

So what can I say about being a woman who had to work much harder than her genetic sisters to get there and what does it mean to be an African-American transwoman?

I’m deliriously happy to finally be on the correct side of the gender fence. While I consider it a gift from God to be able to experience life from both sides of the gender continuum, I love looking in the mirror and seeing a woman’s face and a woman’s body staring back at me in the mirror. I like having the peace of mind of knowing that my mind and body are in harmony with one another. If I have any regrets about transition they continue to be that I didn’t do this sooner.

It’s still a challenge sometimes interacting with biowomen who don’t get it, don’t want to get it or don’t realize that I am their most powerful ally in helping them decipher the male ego. They also don’t realize how deeply I wish to bond with them, but I’m prayerfully trying to be patient with my sisters.

As far as my friendships go, the people I have in my life are either folks I’ve known before transition or have become part of it since then. I don’t have any doubts about their loyalty or love for me. It's a comforting feeling to know that.

So what does it mean to be an African-American transwoman? It’s not about finding a ‘husband’, looking or ‘trade’ or carrying yourself in less than anything but a ladylike manner but about growing spiritually and emotionally. It’s about being the best that I can be. It’s constant self-examination to ensure that I am living up to the charge that all African-American women have to keep in terms of uplifting our race. It’s about carrying yourself with class and dignity because I represent not only myself but also the entire African-American community.

CBS to Don Imus: You're Fired!

The hammer came down on Don Imus today as CBS cancelled his radio show.

"There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society," CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said in announcing the decision. "That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision."

The things that weigh most heavily on my mind about this situation is that Bernard McGuirk, the sidekick that started the whole mess is still there while Imus is gone. McGuirk should've been the first one collecting unemployment.

I was pissed the conservatives tried to shift the discussion from racist and sexist behavior and the hurt and pain the comments caused these women to attacking Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and rappers.

Maybe they didn't want peeps to make the connection to their homeboys Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and crew who instigated, nurtured, get paid and perpetuate this coarse culture of racist shock jock talk. I was also bothered as I watched the coverage unfold on the various networks over the last few days that White callers and people e-mailing various outlets started complaining that Black folks were making 'too much' of this issue.

Excuse me?

I guarantee if a nationally syndicated African-American jock like Tom Joyner or a Latino DJ disrespected your daughters or nieces we'd still be hearing about it for months ad nauseum in the media.

I'm not popping champagne corks over this. Yeah, Don Imus was a serial offender in terms of disrespecting African-Americans but he wasn't alone. I believe Imus wasn't aware of the seething anger building over the last few months in the African-American community. We saw repeated incidents continuing to pile up of Whites disrespecting African-Americans followed up by weak half-hearted apologies, disengenuous denials or attempted blame shifting to the African-American community instead of taking responsibility for their actions.

Those incidents range from the ongoing Shirley Q. Liquor controversy in the GLBT community, college students in various locales having racist parties on Martin Luther King Day, right-wing talk radio hosts using racist rhetoric to GOP legislators using racist terms or telling us to 'get over slavery'. Imus' April 4 comment about college-educated sistahs was the spark that lit the powerkeg in our community. We're simply sick and tired of peeps dissing us and feeling confident that they can get away with it.

So what's next?

“The action today does not solve the problem,” E. Faye Williams, chairwoman of the National Congress of Black Women, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “Imus is not the first to denigrate black women, and he will not be the last. We can not allow his firing to be the end of what happens. It’s not over because CBS says that it is over.”

I hope it's crystal clear to Whites AND Blacks that this type of disrespect to our community and our women will NOT be tolerated. Now it's time for the rappers and other right-wing radio jocks to get the message as well.

IFGE Transgender 2007 Conference

This time last year I was making a little history at the IFGE Transgender 2006 event in Philadelphia. I became the third African-American transperson to receive a Trinity, the second highest award for service our community gives. As you can see from Denise LeClair's photo I also got to make a little speech while I was there.

Unfortunately my work schedule wouldn't allow me to attend this year's event. I was a little bummed about that because I was looking forward to seeing some peeps like Monica Helms, Angela Brightfeather, Kalina Isato, Beth Boye and Mechelle among others.

I also wanted to avenge the butt kicking that Angela gave me on the pool table last year and was looking forward to drifting back into my Texas accent while talking to Phyllis Frye. However, Dawn and AC are at Transgender 2007 to teach seminars and will be giving me the 411 about the happenings and all the excitement in Philly this weekend.

The first full seminar day was actually today, so it's still not too late to attend the conference which is running from April 11-14.

I like going to the big conferences despite the fact that most of the time I'm one of the few African-American transpeeps in attendance. It's one of the few times during the year short of a lobby day that you get to see everybody in the transgender community in one place. We renew old acquaintances and make new ones. Much of the community's politicking, education and other business transpires at the big conferences such as IFGE. I also enjoy getting away from the host hotel and seeing some of the sights the host city have to offer. I had a blast doing that last year courtesy of my homegirls Dionne and Jordana and sampling a real Philly cheesesteak.

This is the 21st annual IFGE conference and it's the one where the education and community political business takes place. The younger Southern Comfort Conference that takes place in the ATL every September is a blend of business and legendary partying. We're working on growing the Transsistahs-Transbrothas Conference into the same type of national event for the African-American segment of the transgender community.

I'm also curious to find out who the Trinity Award winners were this year.

In Praise Of Disco

I've come to praise disco, not bury it like the 'disco sucks' haters tried to do back in the day.

I'm one of those peeps who loves disco. I adore the fact that it's a blend of dance music, soul, funk, latin rhythms and jazz to an uptempo beat. When KRLY-FM changed their format to playing disco music 24/7 and called themselves Disco 94 my radio was tuned to it. I got some raised eyebrow looks from peeps and took some ribbing from my high school classmates for admitting that I liked the Village People.

I have this and a lot more to say about disco. It was one of the few music formats (jazz, R&B, country and classical are the others) that crosses racial boundaries in terms of its fanbase. Walk into any disco during the 70's and you would literally see a rainbow of people out shaking their bootys on the dance floor.

It started getting played on the Houston R&B radio stations about the mid 70's and it wasn't long before I started hearing some of my favorite artists recording songs to disco beats. In addition to being introduced to the Village People, I also became a huge fan of Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Sylvester, Chic and a few other groups. A 70's commercial jingle and backup singer by the name of Luther Vandross hooked up with a group called Change and sang lead vocals on the album's 'The Glow of Love' and 'Searchin' tunes. They got major airplay and set the stage for the 1981 platinum debut album Never Too Much that launched his solo career.

Rap owes its origins to disco along with house music. Without Chic's 'Good Times' the Sugarhill Gang would've had to use some other beats as the basis for 'Rapper's Delight'. Would the Pittsburgh Pirates 1979 championship be as memorable without hearing Sister Sledge's 'We Are Family' rocking Three Rivers Stadium? The tune was adopted as the Pirates theme song that season. Even the US Navy considered using the Village People's 'In The Navy' as a recruiting song.

One thing I must point out about the 'Disco Sucks' movement is the homophobia and racism that were a component of it. I found it interesting that the main peeps hollering 'disco sucks' when I was in high school were overwhelmingly white males who were hardcore rock fans.


Best of all, before disco got eclipsed on the American music scene it was fun. I was reminded of that when I got taken to Polly Esther's Culture Club by some friends a few weeks before I moved to Louisville. It has three themed rooms. One of them is a 70's room complete with a lighted flashing disco floor and mirrored disco balls hanging from the ceiling.

I observed as the DJ continued to spin my fave tunes from the 70's that there was a multicultural crowd dancing to it. Nobody cared whether the artist being played was White, Black, Latino, gay or straight. The music was slammin', everybody was having fun and you didn't have to be a Soul Train dancer or know the latest dances to groove to it.

I need to find my Disco Greatest Hits CD. Time for me to relearn how to do 'The Hustle'.

Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta Call For Imus Firing

TransGriot Note: When you have pissed off the two oldest African-American women's organizations in the country with a combined membership of over 400,000 professional college-educated women worldwide, your behind is in deep, deep, deep trouble.
****

Alpha Kappa Alpha Assails Remarks Of Don Imus And Bernard McGuirk

President Urges Members To Flex Economic Muscle For Maximum Results



Chicago, Illinois
April 10, 2007

Alpha Kappa Alpha's International President, Barbara A. McKinzie, assailed Don Imus for his reprehensible characterization of the Rutgers Women's Basketball team and expanded her criticism to Bernard McGuirk, producer, whose callous remarks triggered the disrespectful exchange. She said she supports the sense of outrage that is enveloping the nation in the wake of these egregious remarks and believes he and McGuirk should, as a tandem, be fired. However, consistent with the economic theme that drives her administration, she asserted that the public should flex its economic muscle if powerful results are to be achieved.

Against this admonition, McKinzie urged the 200,000 members of the Sorority to divest of all stock in NBC, CBS and their parent companies; and to urge their families to do the same.

She said this is part of a multi-pronged strategy to address the economic and spiritual dynamics of this episode. As president of the world's oldest and largest sorority for college-educated African-American women, McKinzie said Alpha Kappa Alpha is a major stakeholder in protecting the image and self-actualization of black women.

In this vein, McKinzie noted that the language co-opted by McGuirk and Imus in their now-infamous exchange, was taken from the black rappers who have gotten rich and made white producers wealthy by defiling black women in their music, She said the offensive lyrics that invade the airwaves have created a climate where it is 'acceptable' to defile black women.

"We must provide an atmosphere where our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts and children will not be subjected to this degree of public disrespect. This can be most effectively achieved when we take away the economic incentive that says it's all right to utter such racist and sexist remarks. We must stand strong and stop buying the records whose hurtful lyrics degrade black women."

In her remarks, McKinzie recalled that the late C. Delores Tucker, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, waged a valiant – but lonely — campaign — to expose the damage that these lyrics inflicted on black women's psyches.

"She was vilified for her courageous stance," recalled McKinzie. "However, it was the right position because as its core was a resolve to derail the economic engine that creates this climate."

McKinzie said that, ultimately, the policy at the stations should change because the behavior cannot be changed.

"We can fire a Don Imus or Bernard McGuirk but unless there is a change in policy, another tandem will surface who will be equally offensive."

McKinzie said this episode can result in a positive outcome if NBC, CBS and their owners craft a policy that will prevent any future shock jocks from coming on the air and assaulting the airwaves with their sexist and racist vitriol. She said such a "sincere" outreach can open up a national dialogue that can address the gulf that divides our nation."

McKinzie said that Alpha Kappa Alpha and its talented core of members would serve as resources for such a landmark effort.

Until such a movement is launched, McKinzie urged members to divest themselves of stock in CBS, which is owned by Westinghouse Electric Company and is part of the Nuclear Utilities Business Group of British Nuclear Funds; and to sell all stock in MSNBC, which is co-owned by NBC (a subsidiary of General Electric) and Microsoft.

Founded in 1908, Alpha Kappa Alpha is the oldest and largest sorority of its kind with 200,000 members in over 900 chapters worldwide. Because of its stature and nearly 100-year-record of service, AKA is hailed as "America's premiere Greek-lettered organization for Black women." Its membership includes high-profile women from all walks of life and from all disciplines including astronaut and physician Dr. Mae Jemison, poet Maya Angelou, actress Phylicia Rashad, entertainer Gladys Knight, entrepreneur Suzanne de Passe, U.K. Member of Parliament Diane Abbott, performing artist Alicia Keys and a host of local, regional and national political leaders.

Barbara A. McKinzie is International President of Alpha Kappa Alpha and will serve through 2010. Because her term coincides with the Sorority's Centennial in 2008, she is hailed as the Centennial National President and her term is characterized as the Centennial Administration. The theme of McKinzie's administration is ESP, Economics, Service and Partnerships.

The Sorority will celebrate its 100-year anniversary in 2008 with a birthday celebration at its birth home at Howard University in January; and with its Centennial Conference in July. Over 20,000 members are expected to converge upon Washington, D.C. to commemorate this milestone.

* * * *

Sorority Calls for Don Imus' Immediate Dismissal




Washington, D.C.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a public service organization of more than 200,000 college-educated women, is calling for the immediate firing of Don Imus! We are outraged with the decision of MSNBC and CBS to simply suspend airing his radio show for two weeks following his racist depictions of African-American women.

Delta's National President Dr. Louise A. Rice said that the suspension is a mere slap on the wrist that only trivializes the harm done through his hateful, demeaning attack when on a recent radio show, Imus called members of the mostly black Rutgers University Women's Basketball team, "nappy-headed ho's." Dr. Rice also stated that his abominable remarks degrades young African-American women college students, athletes, and all women who are working hard to make a positive contribution to American society.

"We believe that it is time for media corporations to draw the line as to what is unacceptable in a nation that calls on its young to go to fight in Iraq, pay taxes, vote and perform acts of responsible citizenship but at the same time, they are unprotected from predatory, divisive and inhumane degradation of their character on public airwaves," said Dr. Rice.

"It is incredible that anyone would use the public airways to display such utter disregard for the dignity of human beings such as the Rutgers student athletes whose commitment to scholarship and athletics is bringing honor to the university and our nation," she continued.

Since its founding in 1913 when the members marched in Washington, D.C. for suffrage, Delta Sigma Theta has been in the forefront fighting for the dignity and just treatment of all humankind, particularly women. Delta considers the talk show host's despicable remarks an intentional attempt to single out one group of Americans for public humiliation and ridicule.

Imus' apology does not go far enough to heal the wounds caused by this misrepresentation and name-calling aimed at young African-American women. If Imus does not face serious consequences, other like-minded individuals will continue this course of singling out African-American women for public ridicule. Therefore the 200,000+ members of Delta Sigma Theta, operating out of 900 chapters located in the United States, Japan, Germany, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Korea, Jamaica, and St. Thomas and St Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands are calling for the stations that air Imus' show and MSNBC that simulcasts it, to disassociate themselves from him and his polluting the airwaves with racial hatred. Fire Imus and send a strong message that hate speech will not be excused, tolerated, or protected. Don Imus must go!

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated

Dissing Black Female Athletes Is Nothing New

Don Imus' racist comments have exposed something that is a major irritant to me and many other African-Americans.

I'm tired of the racist comments and negativity that is hurled at African-American female athletes, whether the racism is blatantly out in the open or subtle. The Rutgers women's basketball team is only the latest group of peeps affected by it. And how dare some of y'all accuse Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. of 'self-promotion' by rising to the defense of these women. I would've called both their behinds out if they'd stayed silent on this issue.

Before Title IX mandated increased funding for women's athletics in 1972, the African-American community was long a proponent of allowing women to compete in athletics. The YMCA's, YWCA's, sports clubs and HBCU's ensured equal funding for boys and girls sports in our communities and in many cases to insure excellence insisted that the girls play by the tougher men's rules.

For example, you have many women's basketballers in my mom's generation and mine who played full court b-ball while shooting the regulation men's ball. Many of them also routinely played pick up games with the guys. I still remember a frustrating pick up game I played in college in which I was expertly boxed out from the rim and thrown off my game by a UH women's player who was five inches shorter than me. The late Kim Perrot used to light the elite guys up at Fonde Gym before moving on to help the Houston Comets win two of their four WNBA titles.

So when the ripple effect from Title XI began to take hold in the late 70's our community was positioned to take advantage of it.

But with that success came negativity. The L-word was (and still is) hurled at many women athletes. The WNBA was so sensitive to it in the early days that despite a fan base that is 10% GLBT peeps, they still market their athletes by heavily playing up their femininity. They are seen glammed up, you'll read articles on WNBA.com concerning which WNBA players have the rep for being fashionistas or they inform the public when players miss the season due to pregnancy.

Black women athletes face additional challenges. If they perform at high levels they are quickly accused of cheating by the white male dominated sports reporting world and the court of public opinion which is shaped by their blustering comments.
Florence Griffith-Joyner was accused of cheating after she destroyed the women's 100m record during the 1988 US Olympic Trials. That 10.49 time she clocked still hasn't been close to being threatened almost 20 years later. Those accusations followed her to the grave. Even the autopsy didn't dissuade the haters from persisting in their attempts to paint Flo-Jo with that negative brush despite the fact she never failed a drug test.

The other challenge is the racist views that sometimes color news coverage of Black female athletes. A prime example is the coverage of figure skater Debi Thomas in comparison to her German rival Katarina Witt during the runup from 1985 to the Calgary Games in 1988. Debi was described as 'athletic and powerful' while Witt was called 'graceful and artistic'. Never mind the fact that both women won figure skating world championships during that period, that's the perception. It's the same one in the figure skating world that has dogged Surya Bonaly of France as well.

Don't even get me started on the negativity that permeates the coverage of the Williams sisters. They've been branded as 'athletic' by tennis analysts and not being given as much credit for their knowledge of the game as is routinely done with others of a lighter pigmentation on the women's tour. They're hit by some media outlets and the blogsphere with every negative sobriquet from 'surly' to being called 'trannies'. In addition the Williams sisters have to deal with the racist remarks that are sometimes hurled at them at various tour stops.

Now comes Imus and his recent dissing of the Rutgers women's team. Instead of coming home to celebrate an almost-Cinderella season, the Rutgers team faced "racist and sexist remarks that are deplorable, despicable and abominable and unconscionable," Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said.

She also touched upon another more salient issue. "You see, because it is not about these young women...It's not about the Rutgers women's basketball team. It's about women. Are women hos? Think about that. Would you have wanted your daughter to have been called that?"

A season that should have ended with celebrating a run to the championship game that just fell short to mighty Tennessee has been blown to Hades. This championship game will not be remembered for the fact that Pat Summitt won her seventh national title, Rutgers going from worst to almost first or the coronation of Candace Parker as the best women's player in the nation, but for a shock jock calling young African-American women 'nappy-headed hos'.

That's something we should all be angry about.

It's A Shoe Thang...You Wouldn't Understand

One of my biowomen friends on another Internet list I'm a member of posted that she'd just received a pair of shoes she ordered online. Sadge tried them on and discovered they were a little tight but declared she was keeping them. She admitted that she has a weakness for shoes and then asked the question to the group as to why that is so after we chimed in with how large our various shoe collections were.

If there is one thing that we share in common with our genetic sisters, it's a weakness for shoes. Whether it's Imelda Marcos' infamous collection of 7000 plus shoes, various celebrities like Patti LaBelle's large collections or the average woman's shoe closet of ten to twenty-five pairs or more, we gotta have 'em. Sometimes we'll risk raising the ire of our podiatrists and go to the torturous lengths of cramming our foot into a shoe that's a half to a full size too small in the name of fashion to do so.

Guys may shake their heads, joke or grouse to their friends about the amount of closet space taken up by a woman's shoe collection, but get them in a room and they'll freely admit that they're turned on by a woman that's wearing hose and a pair of sexy heels that complements their outfit.

So why do we have so many shoes? I think it comes down to six basic reasons:

*The shoe matches an outfit we have in our closet.

*We buy the shoe to potentially match a future clothing purchase.

*We bought it because it was cute.

*We bought it becase it made us feel sexy and powerful when we put it on.

*We bought it on sale.

*We bought it off the clearance rack and can't take it back.

I'll cosign on Point 4. I love heels. My six foot plus behind doesn't like them any shorter than 2.5 inches or taller than three. When I slip on any of my numerous pairs of three inch heels along with my fly clothes, then combine it with trips to the nail and beauty shops I feel like the sexiest woman alive.

Heels also are a distinctive gender thing that scream 'female'. Yeah, there are cute flat and feminine shoes that I own to wear with my suits. But when I want to look my feminine best and feel the estrogen coursing through my body heels are a must have-must wear accessory.

On that note, time to go shopping and see if those pumps I was checking out last week are on sale.

Imus Calls Rutgers Women's Team 'Nappy Headed Hos'

Don Imus is in the hotseat after he, his executive producer and a sports reporter dissed the Rutgers University women's team during his April 4 MSNBC simulcast radio show 'Imus In The Morning'.

After executive producer Bernard McGuirk referred to them as 'hardcore hos' and also compared the two teams to “the Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes” from the Spike Lee School Daze movie, Imus chimed in with his comments.

From the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning:

IMUS: So, I watched the basketball game last night between -- a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women's final.

ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night -- seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.

IMUS: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --

McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.

IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know.

McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.

IMUS: Yeah.

McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes -- that movie that he had.

IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough --

McCORD: Do The Right Thing.

McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

IMUS: I don't know if I'd have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?

ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.

IMUS: Well, I guess, yeah.

RUFFINO: Only tougher.

McGUIRK: The [Memphis] Grizzlies would be more appropriate.



The National Association of Black Journalists called for an apology from Imus, encouraging all journalists to boycott his show until an apology is issued.

“Has he lost his mind?” said NABJ President Bryan Monroe. “Those comments were beyond offensive. Imus needs to be fired. Today.”

Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer was also incensed by the comments about her team, which has eight African-American and two white members.

"I am deeply saddened and angered by Mr. Imus' statements," said Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer. "To serve as a joke of Mr. Imus in such an insensitive manner creates a wedge and makes light of these classy individuals, both as women and as women of color."

In a joint statement, NCAA President Myles Brand and Rutgers President Richard McCormick condemned Imus' slur.

"It is unconscionable that anyone would use the airways to utter such disregard for the dignity of human beings who have accomplished much and deserve great credit," their statement read.

Imus apologized on his Friday show.

School Days II-Falcon Quest

Our Gold and White we love so dear
We'll remember through the years
Courage, love and loyalty
True to our school we'll always be
Falcons stand out among the rest
Meeting each and every test
Cherished you will always be
In and hearts and memories.

I recently renewed my Classmates.com subscription after getting numerous e-mails about peeps checking my profile. Being on there the last few days I've seen the names of some of my old classmates. Its triggered a flood of memories for me about the Class of 1980 that made me pull out my senior class memory book and yearbook.

Ah, the memories. Beating Jack Yates my sophomore year. The great state-ranked Falcon basketball teams. That heartbreaking last-second basketball district championship loss on a dunk we suffered against Wheatley in 1979 that eerily replicated itself for me at UH in 1983. The dances. Beating Sterling on a last second field goal during the 1979 'South Park Super Bowl'.

The Vanguard beach parties in Galveston and some of the other wild-and-crazy things about life in Vanguard. The costume day during homecoming week in 1979 when Charmaine Tolliver came dressed as Wonder Woman. She had the body to pull it off and was followed through school by drooling brothers hollering "Save me, Wonder Woman, Save Me!" Me and Lonnie Prothro cutting up during tennis practice and running laps for it.

The mornings we spent cracking jokes in the cafeteria or in front of the school auditorium before school started. Sneaking off campus to go to Popeye's and Mickey D's for lunch. The Max and Kyle Living Singleesque dissfest that me and Jocelyn Woodard used to engage in before she transferred to another school my senior year. Peeps used to accuse both of us of having feelings for each other which we both heatedly denied.

To be honest, I was a little jealous of her. Jocelyn was a beautiful girl, smart, never had a hair out of place and we rarely saw her in anything but dresses, heels and hose. Before she left for Lamar I had the pleasure of beating her butt at Mattel electronic football.

The girls that were interested in my 'twin' I kept at a distance because I was afraid that if I fell in love and that relationship progressed to marriage plus kids one day the gender issue would blow everything up and I'd have three or more people's feelings and lives hurt instead of just my own.

It was also torture for me to watch my female classmates blossom into womanhood. I felt like I was on the wrong team, I was being cheated and a cruel cosmic joke was being played on me. Little did I know at the time that I had a fellow Vanguard classmate that was going through the same feelings from the female to male aspect of it.

My time at my high school alma mater was a mixed bag. I'm very proud of my classmates in 'The Class With Class' as we're known in Jesse H. Jones lore. Many of them have gone on to greater success or are still working on it like I am. Sometimes when I get nostalgic about my time at JJ there's a little bit of residual sadness that washes over me because of the internal gender conflict I was dealing with and felt I couldn't tell anyone about.

That senior year seemed almost magical when I look back at it. I ended up going to TWO proms that night, ours and Sterling's. Ross Sterling was the high school my neighborhood was zoned to and my junior high Albert Thomas was a feeder for. I was at JJ for the Vanguard magnet program and many of my junior high friends ended up at Sterling. I spent almost as much time around Sterling events as I did at Jones and it was ironic that we held our prom the same night at two different Galleria hotels. We kept trading peeps back and forth between the two events.

The All Night Senior Party event at AstroWorld was the bomb. I got my license on my 18th birthday just a few weeks before graduation and recall the mixture of relief and sadness I felt during Senior Week. I also remember the last day of school of my senior year. It felt like that day took ten years to pass. Now ten years passes by in a week.

However, there are times I wish I'd just dealt with the gender issues then. I could've walked across that stage when I picked up my diploma as the person I am right now and I'd be in a better position life wise. Then again I'm also talking about the late 1970's as well.

I also have to consider the fact that if by some miracle I'd been able to do teen transition, would I be the same person I am now? I probably wouldn't be as open about my life since the advice gender therapists were giving then was to blend in and not let anybody know you were transgender. But then again I had buried it so deeply that when I finally did come out, the weight lifted off my shoulders was so liberating that I didn't care if peeps knew or not. I probably would've had the same reaction then as I did in 1993.

I managed to graduate with honors, but when I look back on it there were some things I would do differently if I could. I'd be more active than I was. I was on student council, part of the Model United Nations group my junior year but I feel I could've done more. I realized several years ago that I have a God-given talent for writing. That's something that should have clicked when I was one of my junior high school's winners of that NASA writing contest. I would've spent time on the school paper, joined the yearbook staff and went out for the tennis team sooner instead of my senior year. One of the side effects of the gender issues conundrum was that I spent so much time and energy trying to play 'boy' and eradicate any hint of my female persona that I didn't leave myself time to focus on what I really wanted out of life. I didn't have the self-confidence built up to fearlessly go for it.

I'm still the premier trash talker bar none and opposing fans who made the mistake of walking over to our side of Barnett Stadium or Barnett Fieldhouse found out the hard way. One night we were playing our bitter rival Jack Yates my junior year and they were trashing us 40-0 in response to the buttkicking we gave them my sophomore year. This loudmouth comes over to our side of the stadium and yells, "What's wrong Jones? Y'all couldn't program the computers to beat us?"

I shot back, "At least we have people at Jones smart enough to program computers, unlike you future TDC (Texas Department of Corrections) residents." Homeboy went scurrying back to the Yates side of the stadium with our laughter ringing in his ears.

I am blessed to still have in my life some of the friends I made during my time there. Some have remained so through my transition. I have gone to our reunions in 1985, 1990 and 2000 and plan to be there in 2010. I'm hoping I'll get to see at the 2010 reunion some classmates I haven't seen since we left JJ. I'm hopeful that while I'm on Classmates.com I get to reconnect with some others and reminisce about our times walking the halls of Jesse H. Jones.

By the way, me and 'errbody' else in Vanguard are still pissed about that Animal House like double secret senior trip some of y'all took to Dallas-Fort Worth and didn't tell us about until y'all got back. ;)

Mission Accomplished?

I posted last month about Tubby Smith being under attack by a faction of UK fans who wanted him gone because he hadn't won enough in their expert opinions. The FireTubbySmith.com fans and the other Tubby hate sites were using euphemisms like 'saving the program' or 'defending its traditions' to mask their racism.

The episode gave UK basketball a national black eye and a negative reputation from which it will take years to recover. The elite recruits that were coming here are reconsidering their commitments as the rest of the SEC was saying thank you for the early Christmas present. They are salivating at the prospect of getting their shots in this fall on a weakened UK program that has tormented them for decades.

Since I wrote that Quit Hatin' on Tubby post on March 22 Tubby left UK to take the job at the University of Minnesota. There was glee in UKKKville as websites like FireTubbySmith.com posted the infamous George W. Bush Mission Accomplished photo op.

Like Iraq, their mission ain't over. The person that was number one on their list to replace Tubby, Florida's Billy Donovan is turning down the UK job. With that announcement the UK fans who were so in love with Donovan in the wake of Tubby's exit and him winning back to back NCAA championships have turned on him like rabid dogs. Rick Barnes of Texas said no as well.



I had a feeling that was going to happen in Rick Barnes case. Texas alums not only have a nationwide fanbase, tradition and passion for Burnt Orange that matches UK, they have deeper pockets. As long as he continues scooping up the best talent in the Lone Star State he'll continue prowling the UT sidelines. While he's there he needs to schedule UH for a game or two. He's played everybody else in he state EXCEPT us.

Now the UK faithful have turned their sights to Tom Izzo of Michigan State and Billy Gillispie of Texas A&M and hope that one of those coaches will sit in a coaches chair that has become about as radioactive as Chernobyl.

Tom Izzo? He's an institution at Michigan State? He's got Detroit and Lansing as a recruiting base. Michigan State fans aren't demanding perfection every year or calling for his head (yet).

Gillispie left Texas A&M to come here and I hope he realizes what he's gotten himself into. He could've stayed at A&M, built that program into a national power to compete and beat the hated Longhorns and had the undying love and devotion of Aggies worldwide. I wonder how long a honeymoon he'll have if he doesn't meet the stress inducing expectations of the UK faithful. I'll just have to tune in to 'As Rupp Arena Turns' to find out.

Hmm. Wonder if I can get any University of Minnesota apparel at Mall St. Matthews?

Angela Bofill-The Angel Of The Night

One of my favorite songs is Angel of the Night by Angela Bofill. For those of you who were toddlers during the 70's or weren't even thought of yet you've probably heard the song played regularly as part of your local radio station's Quiet Storm format. She was also the first Latina to find success in the R&B world.

Angela's a New York City girl raised by a Cuban father and Puerto Rican mother in Harlem. Her godfather was the legendary Tito Puente and she has a three and a half octave range voice. Bofill growing up was exposed to various music styles ranging from Motown to Aretha to Celia Cruz and of course her godfather.

She's an accomplished, classically trained opera singer and songwriter. By the time Angie was 18 she was doing jam sessions with music greats such as Cannonball Adderly, Herbie Hancock, and Dizzy Gillespie. She was a featured soloist for the Dance Theater of Harlem, majored in theater at the University of Hartford, voice at the Hartt School of Music and holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the prestigious Manhattan School of Music.


Bofill began her solo recording career in 1978 with a singing style that blended pop, R&B and jazz. Her first album, Angie contained the hits Next Time I'll Be Sweeter and Under The Moon and Over The Sky. It quickly established her as an up and coming vocalist and evoked comparisons to another vocalist with a similar singing style, her label mate Phyllis Hyman.

Her sophomore album, Angel of the Night contained my fave song and 'I Try'. Both albums topped the R&B, pop and jazz charts for several months in 1979 and firmly established Angela Bofill in short order as a musical force to be reckoned with.

She released Something About You in 1981 and Too Tough in 1983. The title track on this album became a major dance hit and the album went gold. Angie released a few more albums during the rest of the decade with varying degrees of success and also appeared in stage plays such as “God Don’t Like Ugly” and “What A Man Wants, What A Man Needs.”

On January 10, 2006 she suffered a stroke that paralyzed her left side and impaired her speech. She spent a few days in the hospital before being relased January 15, 2006 to recover at her California home. Like millions of Americans Angie didn't have health insurance at the time so it's been a long, tough fight to recovery. She is able to lift her leg, has feeling in her shoulder and her arm but has no mobility in it. She's determined to sing again and she's currently undergoing speech and physical therapy. There was a benefit concert held for her in Detroit on March 21, 2007 and according to her agent the R&B Foundation feels she qualifies for assistance as well.

Here's hoping that one of my fave singers makes a full recovery and we once again get to hear the Angel of the Night in her full glory.

April 2007 TransGriot Column

Chill Out Calling Women You Don’t Like Trannies
Copyright 2007, THE LETTER

One thing I’m getting a little sick of is the trend in the blogosphere, the Internet and elsewhere to use ‘trannie’ as an epithet for women you despise.

For several years now 6-foot conservative commentator Ann Coulter has been bombarded with the ‘Mann Coulter’ wisecrack. Yeah, she’s said far worse things about gays, liberals and a whole host of peeps that we need to forcefully call her on. But why stoop to her middle school level of discourse?

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about from the blog ‘Moon Over My Hammy’:

‘Isn’t it Ironic . . . that Ann Coulter would call Edwards a "faggot" when she looks like a post-op transsexual?'

It’s hypocritical for the progressive community to get its panties in a bunch about Coulter’s f-word insult of John Edwards and then counterattack by calling her transvestite, transsexual or transgender. The part that galls us even more about this is that we’re supposed to be your allies in the struggle against these conservaidiots.

It’s not just progressive bloggers who are culpable. Gay ones such as Perez Hilton and others have savaged 5’8” Paris Hilton as well by repeatedly calling her and her sister Nicky trannies. Tina Fey commented during a recent interview on Howard Stern’s Sirius radio show that “Paris looks like a tranny up close.”

That remark is also hurled at 6-foot former model Kimora Lee Simmons as well as any other women perceived as having traits that ‘belong’ to the opposite gender. While I would expect that crap from the general public, It angers other transwomen and me even further when GLBT peeps such as Perez Hilton are engaged in doing it.

Let me ‘edumacate’ y’all on something. GLBT peeps should know that better than any other humans on Planet Earth that no one is 100% male or female. You get some of your genetic and physical traits from mommy and some from daddy. In many cases you get a blend of the two.

One of the things my female relatives noticed about me before and since transition is my naturally long eyelashes. I got relentlessly teased in junior high about my 'girl's legs’ and ‘girl’s butt’ by the fellas in my gym classes.

Just because Paris Hilton wears size 11 shoes and Ann Coulter has a huge Adam’s apple doesn't necessarily make either one of them transsexuals until they proclaim otherwise. I know more than a few petite transwomen as well as genetic women who are taller than my 6’2” height.

While there are a lot of genetic women that we in the transgender community would happily embrace as our sisters and welcome them with open arms, Paris and Ann ain't high on my personal list of peeps I’d love to see declaring they are transwomen.

The problem with using transgender or transsexual as pejorative terms is that it reinforces the views of some less-than-enlightened people in our society that being transgender is wrong or strange. Some people in the transgender community also consider the term transvestite an inflammatory insult, so it’s doubly wounding to us if you call somebody out using that word simply because you loathe them.

If you feel the need to insult someone, find some other creatively shady epithet to use (and not the b-word either). Transwomen deal with enough accumulated slights, slurs, negativity and assaults on our self-esteem and images from our foes. We don’t need our allies contributing to the dissing of us as well by using the terms we chose as a community to describe ourselves to insult our genetic sisters.