3 posts tagged “aging”

[...] Consider this: Just 40 years ago, one could make certain assumptions about the average Negro, or black American. She was probably no more than one generation removed from the South; whether a Northerner or Southerner, he had first-hand knowledge of Jim Crow, or segregation; when it came to religion, he or she was most likely Protestant. But scholars like Vernellia Randal, a law professor at the University of Dayton, point out that those assumptions have fallen in the face of urbanization, migration and integration. [...]

Afi-Odelia Scruggs' Cleveland Plain Dealer op-ed "Obama's identity crisis"

[...] "I think it could very well be generational—that people like myself, who are older and more established and have these relationships, will stay with the people that we know. Whereas younger people, who don’t have these relationships, will say that this fellow seems to be an outsider too—and so, therefore, they are attracted to him." [...]

Ex-New York State Comptroller Carl McCall, quoted in Jason Horowitz's New York Observer article "Clinton, Obama Vying for Black Power-Brokers"

Update:

[...] According to Census Bureau figures, in 2004, African-Americans cast 14 million votes nationwide. Now comes this stunner: Because African-American men not only are fewer in number but also register and vote at much lower rates, black women cast almost three of every five of these votes - 59 percent, to be precise. White women also outnumber, out-register and outvote white men, but the disparity is smaller (53 percent to 47 percent). [...]

[...] Senator Obama's allure may be perceived as more generationally prospective, whereas the appeal of Senator Clinton - the former first lady married to the man novelist Toni Morrison once called the "first black president" - is deemed more historically retrospective. "He brings a lot to our heritage and culture, especially to our youth," said Victoria Haynes, a 47-year-old Denver native who worked on the campaign of newly elected Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. "She brings a lot of strength as a woman who came from behind her husband to lead as a woman." [...]

Thomas F. Schaller's Baltimore Sun op-ed "Black women face dilemma in Democratic primary"

[...] There is one moment in my teenage years when I remember being ethnically accepted. I was shopping for a television with my father at Price Club, when one of the salespeople, who was Latina, mistook us for her peers and graciously -- in Spanish -- told us that the TV we were interested in would be on sale in two weeks. It seemed as though she was giving us the inside scoop because we were comrades, members of the same club. Luckily, I'd taken about five years' worth of Spanish, so I got the gist of what she was saying. We came back in two weeks and got the TV for 15 percent off. And it felt great. [...]

Kevin Sintumuang's "The Curly Cue"

[...] The 34F does not mess around. It might look like the curtains, but it is made of chicken wire and upholstery. You would lose a fight with this bra. It is the Rambo of bras. But for all its toughness, it still exudes a come-to-Grandma sexiness.

Still, it's mine now, and I am at peace. And not, as some people think, in pain. I am architecturally sound -- tall and broad-shouldered and hippy enough to have basic structural integrity, with triangulate distribution of weight-bearing loads. The edifice is sturdy. The center can hold. So, no, there is no need for surgery. There's only one way out of this, and that is down. [...]

Rachel Manteuffel's "Getting an 'F' in Biology"

[...] So, on the one hand, I'll never know what Julia Roberts looks like. On the other, I loved when, during a viewing of "Erin Brockovich," my wife leaned close and said, "Oh, I wish you could see what they've done with Julia Roberts's cleavage." I admit that I will always have to imagine Ms. Roberts's achievement. But I do have a good imagination. I don't mind the work.

I get turned on by your accent, your fragrance, your laugh, your enthusiasm for almost anything. Strictly speaking, I don't even know what my wife looks like. Instead, I live for the thrill of the touch of her lips, and my hands are privileged to see her. My wife lives in a luminous blue corona of light, and that is good enough for me. [...]

Stephen Kuusisto's "The Beauty Myth"

[...] What's more, beauty is now a mass phenomenon, almost as ubiquitous as electricity or water. Hard to remember, but high-speed, high-quality color printing is only about 50 years old (the same is true for color television). Our world, in which ordinary people view hundreds of lifelike, full-color, drop-dead gorgeous images daily, is entirely the product of that brief period. For most of history, ordinary people saw few, if any, deliberately beautiful images in their entire lives. Paintings and sculptures were for palaces and cathedrals; most human beings until recently lived on farms or in isolated villages. If they visited town and saw a beautiful statue in the square, the sheer rarity of that experience would heighten the sense that this beauty was in no way related to their common lives.

Now, movies and television give us beauty as an everyday experience. We watch stories set in offices, schools, hospitals, neighborhoods just like the ones we inhabit ourselves. We're encouraged to relate as peers to the beautiful people who act out these stories. That's my life up on the screen! Or, I feel as if Julia Roberts and I could be best friends. Or, why can't the boys at my school be more like Zack and Cody? Other media, using still more beautiful models (airbrushed and Photoshopped), cheerfully explain to us how to eat, exercise, dress and groom so that we can be beautiful, too. [...]

David von Drehle's "Looking Good" (with discussion)

[...] So, at this very moment, how do I appear to myself?

It's the morning after my rendezvous in the kitchen with Stephen. In the door mirror of our home office, I stand straight, feet together and shoulders back. I see an attractive woman in a white linen blouse and an apple green cardigan that fits her full bust to a T. The blazer drapes gracefully over her waist. The skirt will soon sway like the perfect pendulum over her ample hips. The sweet chocolate open-toed wedgies on her feet keep her balanced. The look she gets from her husband makes her late for work.

Carla Broyles' "A Well-Rounded Woman"

• Now that I have the sense not to, I can run for president.
  
• I'm mo longer lumped in with that highly-sought-after 18- to 34-year-old male demographic.
• No. 1 song when I turned 18, almost half a life ago? In the U.S., "Good Thing" by the Fine Young Cannibals; in the UK, "Back To Life (How Ever Do You Want Me)" by Soul II Soul featuring Caron Wheeler.
• No. 1 songs today? Hot 100: "Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland; Hot Latin: Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" featuring Wyclef; Hot R&B/Hip-Hop: Yung Joc's "It's Goin' Down"; Hot Ringtones: Koji Kondo's "Super Mario Brothers Theme"; Hot Country: Kenny Chesney's "Summertime"; Adult Contemporary: Daniel Powter's "Bad Day"; Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock: Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dani California" (I've only heard three of these seven songs. I must be getting old or something.)