WCS 65: ‘No more white girls!’

w/: Cool Nutz Xmas Show + G-League Juju + GOP weed future

The poet, activist, and icon Nikki Giovanni died last week, with her poetry and activism occupying a distinct niche. She was on Oprah’s list of “Living Legends,” and in that classification there is not a lick of hype.

How many celebrated poets can you name?

While most of the online discussion of Giovanni’s legacy that I came across was respectful of her accomplishments, a predictably scathing and embarrassing sort of feedback came when photographs revealed that Giovanni’s partner was a White woman.

The late Nikki Giovanni and her wife Virgina Fowler.

It was brutal enough that I won’t repeat it here. Find it if you like.

The commentary came within the week that comedian Jamie Foxx proclaimed “No more White women!”—a reference to his six-year relationship with Katie Holmes—in his new Netflix special. (To copious applause)

As someone who has at various times in my life mumbled, in frustration, “No more White women,” these talking points are compelling.

In the past I have been all White woman-ed out. But have I also been all Asianed out? All Jewed out? You betcha, bub. And don’t even get me started on the Blacks and Latinos.

I know—as do Jamie Foxx and anyone who’s sampled the diversity of the love our culture has to offer—that the White girl experience is complex, with certain annoying commonalities. All ethnicities have their quirks. But Jamie’s got a live, Black audience to pander to and a lot of near-death Jesus shit to work out. So, I forgive him.

The Giovanni business is tougher to let slide. Just a week prior we’d gone through a version of it with Quincy Jones’s passing: Why? Why do so many of our revolutionary figures end up with White women?

I understand how and why these purity tests come to pass. Black people don’t want to be left behind, and when our Brightest lights partner with someone who resembles the oppressor. Here’s the tough part:

The game is rigged.

Our American lives have been so circumscribed and narrow that non-Black lives usually have a higher satisfaction threshold. Less drama, more possibilities. What cannot be done has not been driven into their psyches.

Make no mistake, as Black we’re catching up. Living bigger lives. But anyone who’s being real will tell you that the ongoing threat to 20th-century ideas of Black unity has been the access to a larger world that’s represented by interracial love.

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The Full Herb Caen

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10 How will weed fare under GOP rule?

A lot of us had it in our heads that a California Democrat in the White House would mean a clean path to federal legalization. Signals have been murky since Nov. 5, but it’s fair to ask what Republican have in mind.
MJ Biz Daily

• In a wide-ranging column, corporate attorney Rachel Gillette of Denver’s Holland and Hart firm points out that canceling Section 280E, the onerous tax code provision, is in line with the party’s pro-business mentality.

• Gillette points to a 2019 Portland State report that found overregulation to be one of the main reasons that people stay in the illicit market.

Lil Hit

• To hear Coach Karl tell it, USC sophomore Juju Watkins could get rotation minutes in the G League right now.
  @trysta_krick