We're almost scared to type the following: another community member has started a blog. The last time we typed that, the same evening a community member stopped blogging. Is it a jinx?
We hope not.
Members of The Common Ills are familiar with the name Cedric. He's been an active member in the community weighing in with his thoughts and providing input on things that matter to him. Now Cedric's started his own site: Cedric's Big Mix.
Let's start with the title, how did you come up with that?
I planned to call it Cedric's Master Mix. I even typed that but then started thinking, "I'm African-African and I don't want 'master' in my name title." It may seem like a small thing but I probably spent twenty minutes debating it. A master mix is a good thing. But when I saw my name in front of the two words, I thought, nah, I'm not going like that.
A mix, in music terms, refers to a remix or a mix tape usually. Is that what you were going for?
Yeah because the hope is that I'll be able to pull some samples from all the community blogs and highlight them. So Cedric's Big Mix.
We're adding you to our link list. How's the word going on your site?
Well C.I., Mike and Elaine have all steered traffic my way and of course I've told all my friends about it so I'm getting a nice number of e-mails. I'm not sitting pretty yet, but I'm sitting!
You're using the same program that C.I. uses for the mirror site for The Common Ills and that Folding Star used for the mirror site for A Winding Road.
I'd written C.I. about it and got some feedback on it. I also wrote the UK Computer Gurus about it. They said they set C.I. up there because it's a mirror site and you can copy and paste something and it will go up exactly as it appeared. Let's say I want to put up your editorial, I'm going to have to copy and paste and then go through and space the whole thing, right?
Right. We do that with our blog spotlights and it can be a pain.
Well this lets you just copy and paste. When you paste it, it's up there. That's why the UK Computer Gurus set it up as a back up site for The Common Ills. They figured it was the easiest thing. And that's why I picked it because it is easy. I'm doing links when I can remember at the bottom of the posts, like a blog roll. That's the thing I don't like about it, that I can't have a blog roll. But I'd probably only do links to community member's sites so that's cool.
What made you start?
I felt like there was stuff I wanted to say and that I needed to do my part to make sure that everyone was getting noted for the work they're doing. That kid West got slammed by the site we're not supposed to give name to but when that happened it was obvious that gatekeepers were going to come after The Common Ills and Rebecca and I'm thinking, "I'm so sick of that shit." So my way to counter it was to not just be a member but to do my own site.
How often do you plan to blog?
I don't have a schedule. I work nine to five. I'm not blogging in the morning, no way on that. I usually roll out of bed, into the shower, rush to get dressed and then rush to work cursing the whole way. Nobody wants to read anything I could write in the morning. I'm not cancelling a date to blog. And while I appreciate what C.I. does, I'm not doing multiple entries. I've got work, dating, friends, family, church and I try to be active in my area and go to town hall meetings and help out where I can so I'm not laying it down like I'm going to be blogging seven days a week.
What are your hopes with Cedric's Big Mix?
To be one more voice, to be a spark like Eminem rapped, to say, "Look it up, I'm doing my part, what are you doing?"
You'll be writing about music and movies, you have written about them, and about politics?
Right. I e-mailed Kat before anyone else after I did my first thing and was all, "Is this cool?" Because Kat is the musical voice in the community. She said it was more than cool and that I should think about doing Cedric's Big Mix CD reviews for The Common Ills. I don't have that kind of time but I appreciate the confidence and props. I'm going to try to tell my truth and keep it real. It's about giving props and paying it back because I get a lot from The Common Ills community and I want to be giving something back. And let me give a shout out to Mike who's helped me and offered solid advice. (Laughing) I think he's just glad to not be the newbie on the block.
You haven't mentioned television yet and we were wondering if you had any thoughts on TV portrayals since you've weighed in on movies?
Not really. I'm not into TV that much. I mean, I grew up on Happy Days and Gunsmoke, my grandfather's favorite show, and A-Team and 21 Jump Street and all that stuff. But there's not a lot I want to check out anymore. I loved Martin and that was probably the last show that made me laugh. Jamie Fox's show was okay. I feel bad for cutting on him like that but it wanted to be funnier than it ever was. UPN has a few sitcoms that are probably okay but there's this whole now we'll name check some obvious thing like do another Stevie Wonder is blind joke that's just old and tired. And you'll hear the audience go wild like someone just said something new and funny. But it's not funny. It's just stuff like "You ain't no Halle Berry!" And people are howling like it's funny. It's like name checking and it's not like life. I think it's insulting really. I got an uncle and an aunt who are like stand up and competing for laughs. They're telling funny stories and jokes and they don't need to name check because they're talking about real life and stuff that actually went down. I was talking with Ava and C.I. about that because they do TV reviews. Tonight they're doing one that they don't think is funny and it's for the same reason. I was like, "It's tired. It's insulting."
But that's not just with black sitcoms. I mean, none of the sitcoms on any network are funny to me. And TV really sucks. I wish it weren't that way but I really don't have time for it so . . .
There's a world outside the front door, you know? I'm not going to zone out to avoid it.
Closing words?
I'd say get out there if you want to put it out because if we all put it out, we get it out there. When I read the thing on save the community, I was glad I had already started up because I mean there is this whole attitude of "C.I. will say it." Or someone else will. And we need as many voices as we can get out there. We're up against a corporate media that thinks a crumb tossed here or there cuts it. They'll lie to you to push tort reform or war or any other crap. They're not interested in you, they're not out to protect you or help you. Realize that and take action. It's like the whole nation's spent too many years sleeping or zonked out in front of the TV and we need to get back to the idea that this is about our lives. We got so screwed up because we counted on others to speak for us. So it's time to get out voices out and lay our truths down. And right now we can do that on the internet. We need to be doing that while we can. It might not be that way forever. So take action now. I mean like, The Common Ills did Black History Month, okay? But like who else was laying it down? Not a lot. So you either take a part in the dialogue or you'll be left out in most avenues, you know? As an African-American male, I can go to sites and somebody's piping off and in the comments someone will point out, "Hey, that's kind of overlooking black people" and they blogger will rush in with, "Oh, I support black people!" And maybe that cuts it with white people, but if you're African-American, you're sort of like 'Uh-huh." Or they're obsessing over something in another country and holding that up as "See, we talk about black issues." There are black issues in this country. The prison issue is something that I don't see a lot of places. You know what I'm saying? Or maybe a site has a link to The Black Commentator and they think somehow that covers it. "Oh, I've got a link." They publish once a week but cause there's a link there no one needs to note them? They come out on Thursdays and they got this great mix of stuff and I wait and wait to see who's going to give them a shout out and there aren't a lot of sites that do that. I can count on The Common Ills and sometimes it seems like that's it. So it's really important if you're a minority that you put out your own voice because you're not going to be heard otherwise. You can sit on your ass and point your finger but you aren't doing nothing to change anything. And you can scream "racist!" but it might just be people not knowing. If you're not putting it out there, how's anybody going to know?
It's like the Democratic Party and I hear this from a lot people I hang with. They want our votes but they really don't know our issues, you know? Or they don't care about them. I voted for John Kerry but I really don't think he spoke to us and using a surrogate to speak to us at this late date is kind of insulting to me. I've got nothing against Jesse [Jackson] but if you can't relate yourself to people, to all people, why do you want to be leader of the United States, you know? Maybe Kerry can relate. He ran a bad campaign. I felt like his wife knew how to relate to people. I felt like Kerry or people controlling the campaign wanted to play it safe. Want to know how to override the southern strategy of appealing to racists? Come out strongly against racism. Come out strongly in favor of inclusion. What happens is someone plays the race card and the other candidate moderates. They need to stop doing that. If some candidate's using the southern strategy, make it an issue. Get on TV and say, "My opponent can't appeal to racism but I'm for everyone and I think it's disgusting." Instead, they get scared and worried. And it looks like they're afraid to be associated with blacks, or women, or gays or Latinos, or Muslims or whatever. Jesse's Rainbow Coalition had power but he blew it. Maybe he'll get back on track. But it seems like you got Republicans playing the southern strategy to appeal to white racists and you got Democrats too often afraid to call them on it because the right wing press will rip them apart and because they might look too close to blacks. If you don't want to look close to a community, don't expect them to turn out in large numbers to support you, you know? Little gestures are insulting. We should have moved past that a long time ago.