Once Bitten Twice Gay

I am not sure where to begin. For those who don’t know because they have more important things to worry about (like real grown up stuff) Rihanna and Chris Brown are a couple. They were supposed to appear Sunday at the Grammy award and they both cancelled literally at the eleventh hour.

I had to put that in because until today I didn’t know any of this stuff.

Anyway Monday the police were looking for Chris and he turned himself in. He was later released but it as details leak out into the media it is becoming clear this is not going away. In cases of domestic abuse once the police become involved the charges are run thru even if the victim chooses not to press charges.

Now this is my own 0.02 on the subject of lil’ Chris Brown. There is almost no part of me that thinks Chris Brown is straight. I don’t say this out of some secret love or yearning for him, in truth I like my men fully grown and most of these little hip hoppers and rappers whatever don’t fit the bill. But Chris has always come off to me as just that gay kid, not effeminate just …gay.


I read a few reports that said Rihanna had not only been punched by she had been bitten. C’mon, he bit her (allegedly) I mean really? Up and down her arm. That is pretty much how girls (back in my day, today girls have a much greater martial skill level) fought.



Now the purpose of my blog. Domestic violence is a very serious subject and the reasons for it are still being studied, documented, and debated. But I will tell you one thing I do know for fact. Gay men who are not accepting of themselves or closeted or ashamed of who they are, are capable of many self destructive things. Domestic Abuse is just one of them, and while I am by no means trying to create a plausible excuse for what Chris (allegedly) did. One can say that this behavior is not unexpected and due to the climate of hostility of homosexuality in the black community a forgone conclusion.

So the next time you support a preacher who teaches hate, the next time you hear a kid being ridiculed for being a fag and a sissy or hey the next time you disown a family member for trying to live a life they are comfortable with, you are assisting in the destruction of the black community much more than homosexuality ever could.

He bit her…man oh man

Tuesdays Invitation!

Richard Parsons was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York april4, 1948. He is a lawyer and a business man and has currently been named chairman –designate for Citigroup.

I have to admit Robert was brought to my attention at a reading I attended recently. The author mentioned that Robert Parsons was the first African American to have the position of Chairman of Citigroup. I started doing some digging and Robert graduated from Albany Law school and received a Juris Doctor, he was also the CEO & Chairman of Time Warner helping to negotiate the merger with AOL. He is also on the President’s Economic Advisory Team and was considered for the post of Secretary of Commerce in the current administration.

So Robert Parsons please accept this invitation to the Dinner party of the year. Your opinion, your diversity, and your knowledge are more than welcome! Oh and yes we know you are a republican…your still invited!

Black History Month

Brigadier General Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr. (July 1, 1877 – November 26, 1970) was an American general and the father of Benjamin O. Davis Jr. He was the first African-American general in the U.S. Army.

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., was born in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1877. His biographer Marvin Fletcher (author of America's First Black General, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., 1880-1970) has presented evidence of his birth records indicating that he was born in May 1880 and later lied about his age so that he could enlist in the army without the permission of his parents. It is the earlier date that appears on his grave at Arlington National Cemetery, however.) He was a student at Howard University when—as a result of the start of the War with Spain—he entered the military service on July 13, 1898 as a temporary first lieutenant of the 8th United States Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered out on March 6, 1899, and on June 18, 1899, he enlisted as a private in Troop I, U.S. 9th Cavalry Regiment (one of the original Buffalo Soldier regiments), of the Regular Army. He then served as corporal and squadron sergeant major, and on February 2, 1901, he was commissioned a second lieutenant of Cavalry in the Regular Army.

He was promoted to first lieutenant on March 30, 1905; to captain on December 24, 1915; to major (temporary) on August 5, 1917; and to lieutenant colonel (temporary) on May 1, 1918. He reverted to his permanent rank of captain on October 14, 1919, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on July 1, 1920; to colonel on February 18, 1930; to brigadier general (temporary) on October 25, 1940. He was retired on July 31, 1941, and recalled to active duty with the rank of brigadier general the following day.

His first service as a commissioned officer of the Regular Army was in the Philippine Islands with the 9th Cavalry on the Island of Samar. In August 1901, he was assigned to duty with the 2d Squadron, 10th Cavalry, and returned from the Philippines with that organization for service as Adjutant at Fort Washakie, Wyoming. In September 1905, he was made Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Wilberforce University, Ohio, remaining there until September 1909, when, after a brief tour of duty at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, he was detailed as Military Attache to Monrovia, Liberia, until January 1912.

He then was assigned to duty with the 9th Cavalry at Fort D.A. Russell (predecessor of Fort Francis E. Warren), Wyoming, and at Douglas, Arizona. He remained with his regiment on border patrol duty until February 1915, when he again was assigned to duty as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Wilberforce University, Ohio. He remained there until the summer of 1917, when he went to the Philippines for duty as Supply Officer of the 9th Cavalry at Camp Stotsenburg. He returned to the United States in July 1920, and was assigned to duty as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, where he served until July 1924, when he became Instructor of the 372d Infantry, Ohio National Guard, stationed at Cleveland, Ohio.

In July 1929 he returned to Wilberforce University as Professor Military Science and Tactics serving until late 1930 when he was detailed on special duty with the U.S. Department of State in connection with affairs relating to the Republic of Liberia.
In late 1931 he was assigned again to serve as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Tuskegee, Alabama, where he remained until August 1937 when he was transferred to Wilberforce University.

During the summers of 1930 to 1933, he was placed on detached service for duty with the Pilgrimage of War Mothers and Widows, making frequent trips to Europe on behalf of that organization. For his work on this assignment he received letters of commendation from the Secretary of War and from the Quartermaster General.

In August 1937 he was transferred from Tuskegee Institute to Wilberforce University. After a year at that institution, he was assigned as instructor and Commanding Officer of the 369th Infantry, New York National Guard. This organization was later changed to the 369th Coast Artillery (Anti-aircraft) Regiment. In January 1941 he was ordered to Fort Riley, Kansas, for duty as a brigade commander with the 2d Cavalry Division. The following June, he was assigned to Washington, D.C., for duty as Assistant to the Inspector General.
He was assigned to the European Theater of Operations in September 1942 on special duty as Advisor on Negro Problems and upon completion of this special duty he returned to the United States and resumed his duties in the Inspector General's Department.

In November 1944, he became Special Assistant to the Commanding General, Communications Zone, European Theater of Operations, stationed in Paris, France, and in November 1945 was granted a period of detached service for the purposes of recuperation and rehabilitation. In January 1946 he again became Special Assistant to The Inspector General, Washington, D.C. He retired on 14 July 1948, as the senior Brigadier General on the 184 member Permanent list, and after having served fifty years. General Davis died on November 26, 1970. His remains are interred in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. His son, General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., (U.S. Air Force, Retired), is the fourth African American graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and the nation's second African American general officer.

Black History Month

Mae Carol Jemison, M.D. (born October 17, 1956) was the first African-American woman to travel to space. She went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.

Dr. Jemison was a Science Mission Specialist (at NASA first) on the STS-47 Spacelab J flight, a US/Japan joint mission. She conducted experiments in life sciences and material sciences, and was co-investigator in the bone Cell Research experiment in the Spacelab laboratory module. Jemison resigned from NASA on March 8, 1993.

Chemical engineer, scientist, physician, teacher and astronaut, she has a wide range of experience in technology, engineering, and medical research. In addition to her extensive background in science, she is well-versed in African and African-American Studies and is trained in dance and choreography. Her inspiration for going into NASA was African-American actress Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lt. Cmdr. Uhura on Star Trek.

Dr. Jemison founded The Jemison Group, Inc., located in Houston, Texas, to research, develop and implement advanced technologies suited to the social, political, cultural and economic context of the individual, especially for the developing world. Current projects include: Alpha, (TM) a satellite based telecommunication system to improve health care in West Africa; and The Earth We Share, (TM) an international science camp for students ages 12 to 16, that utilizes an experiential curriculum.

This attitude and her high achievements in historically exclusionary fields led Dartmouth College to invite her to its Hanover campus in 1993, where she taught a course on Space Age Technology and Developing Countries. Dr. Jemison is currently a member of the Dartmouth faculty in the Environmental Studies Program and is Director of The Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries at Dartmouth College. The Institute was established as an agent for identifying, assessing, researching and implementing advanced technologies that may be employed advantageously to the development of less industrialized nations.

Dr. Jemison is the host and a technical consultant to World of Wonders series produced by GRB Entertainment and seen weekly on the Discovery Channel. She is also in demand as a speaker to civic and government organizations, schools and corporations around the country and internationally.

Awards and honors she has received include Essence Award (1988); Gamma Sigma Gamma Women of the Year (1989); Honorary Doctorate of Science, Lincoln College, PA (1991); Honorary Doctor of Letters, Winston-Salem, NC (1991); McCall's 10 Outstanding Women for the 90s (1991); Pumpkin Magazine's (a Japanese Monthly) One of the Women for the Coming New Century (1991); Johnson Publications Black Achievement Trailblazers Award (1992); Mae C. Jemison Science and Space Museum, Wright Jr. College, Chicago, (dedicated 1992); Ebony's 50 Most Influential women (1993); Turner Trumpet Award (1993); and Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth (1993); Kilby Science Award (1993); Induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame (1993); People magazine's 1993 "50 Most Beautiful People in the World"; CORE Outstanding Achievement Award; National Medical Association Hall of Fame. She was honored by the establishment (1992) of the Mae C. Jemison Academy, an alternative public school in Detroit.

Dr. Jemison is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Science; Association of Space Explorers: Honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; board of Directors of Scholastic, Inc.; Board of Directors of Houston's UNICEF; Board of Trustees Spelman College; Board of Directors Aspen Institute; board of Directors Keystone Center; and the National Research Council Space Station Review Committee. She has presented at the United Nations and internationally on the uses of space technology, was the subject of a PBS Documentary, The New Explorers: Endeavor by Kurtis Production, and made a cameo appearance in the episode "Second Chances" of Star Trek: The Next Generation as Lieutenant Palmer.

In 2006, she appeared in the PBS documentary, African American Lives, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. The documentary, which uses DNA testing to trace the ancestry of several African Americans, revealed that Jemison's maternal grandfather is East Asian.[1]

She resides in Houston, Texas with her cats, Sneeze and Little Mama.

Black History Month

Butterfly McQueen (January 8, 1911 – December 22, 1995) was an American film and television actress.

Born Thelma McQueen in Tampa, Florida, she trained as a dancer and took her stage name from the "Butterfly Dance" after performing it in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
McQueen made her first film in 1939 in what would become her most identifiable role—as Prissy, the young maid in Gone with the Wind, uttering the famous words: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!" She also played an uncredited bit part as a sales assistant in The Women, filmed after Gone With the Wind but released before it. Around this time she also modeled for the Mrs. Butterworth bottle. She continued to play maids and small parts in various films including Cabin In The Sky (1943), Since You Went Away (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945) and Duel in the Sun (1946). She also played Butterfly, Mary Livingstone's maid in the Jack Benny radio program, for a time during World War II. But by 1947 had grown tired of the ethnic stereotypes she was required to play and ended her film career.

By 1950 she had played another racially-stereotyped role for two years on the television series Beulah, which reunited her with her Gone with the Wind co-star Hattie McDaniel.
Her acting roles after this were very few, and she devoted herself to other pursuits including study, and received a bachelor's degree in political science in 1975. She had one more role of some substance in the 1986 film The Mosquito Coast.

McQueen lived in Aiken, South Carolina and died in Augusta, Georgia as a result of burns received when a kerosene heater she was attempting to light exploded and burst into flames. A lifelong atheist, she donated her body to medical science and remembered the Freedom From Religion Foundation in her will.

Tuesdays Invitation! Black history

Black History month, began by Carter G Woodson as Negro History Week, began in 1926 and was celebrated the second week of February. That week was chosen because of the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, two people he felt had made a great impact in social condition of Black Americans.

While many people feel that the need for an entire month dedicated to the education of one race of people has far outlived its usefulness, especially in the wake of the Election of President Obama and our new “post racial” society. But I believe that there can never be enough education in general and that education about Blacks in American history continues to be lacking. So Derrick’s Window will celebrate Black history month. I invite you to join in.