ETHOS

From the entire Ethos staff, we would like to wish everyone a happy holidays. Sit back, relax, eat good food, enjoy family and friends and watch 24 straight hours of “A Christmas Story” Expect more from us in the new year (maybe…). In the mean time, enjoy the rich sounds of the holiday season:

Trey Songz and Flo Rida go extra hard on this one…(pause)

wait….

wait…

wait for it…

and…

Just kidding…We would never let you “dash through the snow with Flo Rida and Trey, whip on 24’s…” Enjoy:

Quite possibly the greatest Christmas song ever…Donny (30th Anniversary of his death…Jan. 13th)

I know it’s about a week old by now, but I thought it would be worth having in the ETHOS archives:

His name is Muntadar al-Zeidi and he is my hero.

Out with the old, in with the new is what they say I guess. Check out this long-ish sober (scary) assessment of what the new has to offer us from al-Jazeera English (yeah, al-Jazeera – contrary to popular belief they actually have some of the best coverage of U.S. politics and Middle East policy. Oh yeah, and they are also your one stop source for the latest Osama Bin Laden video).

The second part of the segment – a debate between Black Agenda Report’s Glen Ford and some activist preacher – can be found here.

Over and out,

Eric

Editors Note: This is a review I did over the summer that was withheld due to a conflict of interests relating to the employment situation of one of our bloggers. I am publishing it now because it has been several months, and I doubt Dyson would give a shit about a scathing review of one of his books on a blog as irrelevant as this one. But, if you are reading this Dr. Rev. Mr. MC Dyson PhD (or whatever it is you call your bespectacled self), if you don’t like the harsh reviews, start writing better books. Translation: If you can’t stand the heat, get out the kitchen.

April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr’s Death and How it Changed America

Michael Eric Dyson

Basic Civitas Books, 2008

270 pages, $25

Review by Eric Augenbraun

I intended to write this review sooner, but my principles interfered; in a word, I refuse to pay for books that I expect to be worth far less than the cover price. So, given the fact that professor, ordained minister, and self-proclaimed activist/public intellectual Michael Eric Dyson’s latest waste of paper book, April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr’s Death and How it Changed America, was checked out of the University of Pennsylvania’s library until about a week ago, I couldn’t get around to reading and commenting on it until now. Despite not paying a cent for this cute little mess—aside from Penn’s $50,000 tuition which includes library privileges (imagine that!)—after reading it, I still felt compelled to go back to the library and demand a refund of the time I had just wasted. But alas, the library has yet to invest in a time travel device—I can only urge them to look into it.

Many will recognize the date April 4th, 1968 as the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while standing on the balcony outside of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The year 2008 thus marks the 40th year since King’s tragic death. On this somber anniversary, Dyson’s deceptively short 270-page volume is an “effort to grapple with King’s death—in [Dyson’s] own mind, and in the life of the nation.” With ten chapters sandwiched between a short prologue and a lengthy afterword, this book is divided into three parts, each with a somewhat distinct area of inquiry. Part one explores how King understood his own mortality and dealt with the looming threat of his death as he rose to prominence in lockstep with the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. Part two is an examination of the state of black America in the post-King, post-Civil Rights, post-Voting Rights Amendment years. Finally, part three is a look at black leadership since King’s death—namely, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Barack Obama. Unfortunately, Dyson’s book delivers very little that could be considered new or particularly insightful, and where it strays from the beaten path it arrives at several conceptual and methodological cul-de-sacs.

(more…)

“They say [Ethos] is dead, I’m here to resurrect me…”~Common/Paul

No Ethos is not dead, but as overly ambitious college kids, we get busy. The Ethos staff has most likely written around 1,250 pages (seriously…) in a few short years, so sometimes we forget about the important stuff…like the procrastination machine that is this blog. Don’t fret loyal followers. We will be back in about a week or so with the Top Ten Albums of 2008. Should be mildly amusing, in the sarcastic, dark humorish Ethos way you’ve all come to love.

In the mean time just watch this video of Penn’s dopest dance group Freaks of the Beat do one of the greatest things that I have ever seen…it should hold you over for a while.

Song: The Pharcyde’s “Drop”

Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah
Happy/Merry/Feliz Kwanzaa (cuz I really celebrate kwanzaa…smh)
Happy Holidays