Anna Nicole Smith

Many people are writing about Anna Nicole Smith now. Of course we have always been writing about her and many of the celebrity fans watching Anna Nicole Smith. They say she achieve fame with few real accomplishments. But nevertheless she has the X factor. Plus she’s the archetypal American star.

Many of us watched this new Marilyn Monroe like we watched the old Marilyn Monroe. Many of us delighted in her antics. The celebrity journalists in print and TV focussed many of us on Anna Nicole Smith. Of course, they could have told us about other Americans, but they wanted us to know about little Anna Nicole Smith. Many of us watched her and those connected to her self-destructing in front of us, and many self-destructing along with us, or just destructing, and we watched and watched and watched. Fascinated.

We certainly have nothing against Anna Nicole Smith. She, for many, represents the “American dream.”

Many young girls from small towns have such dreams. Many young girls from big towns have such dreams. Many young girls from all over the world, especially young girls in poverty, have such dreams. Even young girls in plenty have such dreams. These are the American dreams.

I am of the generation of the great leaders. I shall call them that. The generation when we had other types of American dreams, along with these types. The Malcolm X generation. The Bob Dylan generation. The Cesar Chavez generation. The generation that thought they could “change the world.” Some of our children are adopting African children, some of our children are investing in China and Africa, some of are children are saving the neo-slaves–again in Africa–the fishing children that the New York Times and Oprah have told many of us about. These new African slave children, being sold by their own parents to slave masters who are also parents. This is the new world.

Oprah says she has been to Africa many times. Good for Oprah. She gives standing ovations to white people going to Africa saving little African children and returning them to their slave-seller parents. Good for these white people.

However, I am not going to scapegoat these neo-slave seller parents. Yet.

But what do their children think about them and think about their society. They call this white woman “Mama.” What do they call their own mamas? Do they call Oprah Mama?

What names do they call their African Papas.