The first BnB “I Love Black Men” week

Well, I just finished watching the Oprah special at the White House with the Obamas. It did my heart good to see a Black man and a Black woman, educated, intelligent, attractive and in love. Now that's true bougenificence. I did notice a lot of my Twitter-Sisters just a-swooning over Barack for his devotion to his wife, his sense of humor, his overall classiness. On the flip side, I also watched some of The Jacksons on A&E. Not quite as positive an experience but still, my Twitter-Sisters were able to find something swoon-worthy in the AARP brothers (except Jermaine, he came across kinda b*tchy). This just further cemented my belief that we (as women of color – any color) can find something to love about just about any black man on the planet.

Let's face it, we hear enough about how black men do wrong. In life, in love, in living. I get all that. To err is human. I still love the brothers. Tall, short, light, dark, round, big, small, whatever. The Nubians have a li'l sumthin' sumthin' about them that just makes me pause, smile and take inventory. No offense to all the other men of the rainbow out there, but this week I'm talking about the African-American male specimens. (God Bless them). Can't show love without a mixtape! Here's my virtual musical salute to the brethren.

Here is my Why I love Black Men story of the day: I was at a friend's bachelor party at a club in lovely Downtown Fort Worth. Another friend was the DJ there so we had the club mostly to ourselves. Thankfully it was more of a hang out, drink and tell stories kind of bachelor party than a stripper-jumping-out-of-the-cake, bom-chicka-bom-bom party. At any rate, there were about six women and twelve men there. I had known mostly of the guys from my college days. We got to loud talking about some exploits and my overdramatic self hopped up to illustrate my point with hand gestures waving a drink around in the process. Out of nowhere, some unwise Caucasian gentleman came over and told me to "learn my place, sit down, and shut up." The entire club went silent. My tipsy behind swirled and said, "Excuse me? Do I know you?" This guy says, "You probably need to," and slaps the drink out of my hands. [Yeah he did] Before I could finish saying, "Someone get this fool," eight guys got up, showed him and two of his friends outside. I don't know what was said or done but the guy came in, apologized to me and handed me a bottle of champagne "with his deepest regrets." Moral to the story: Good brothers protect their own (and get a little something extra tossed in).

So we'll kick off the week with a little music and a poll or two. Then we have my Blog Brothers Dame from This May Concern You, Citizen Ojo from The Desultory Life & Times of a Public Citizen and Max Reddick from SoulBrother v.2 here to answer a few questions about why men do what they do and I'll explain why I love them anyway. We'll take a look at stereotypes, what drives me crazy, and romance. So here's a poll to get it started:

What music would you add to the Black Man Salute Virtual Mixtape? Any questions about "I Love Black Men" Week? Comments? Poll suggestions? Anecdotes?