Jack & Jill Politics

Steve Gilliard (1964-2007)

For those of you who may not know who Steve Gilliard was, let me introduce you to him.  He earned his claim to fame by putting then GOP Candidate Michael Steele in Minstrel Blackface to mock him for toting the GOP’s water:

I’m surprised I could still find this picture, since Steele took a whole lot of trouble to get it scrubbed. But that picture was vintage Steve Gilliard.

He was a journalist from New York City, who caught the blogging bug very early in the game.  He was an African-American blogger who literally made a living at this thing we call blogging.  He was the pioneer for many African-American bloggers such as us here at JJP, Racialious, Skeptical Brotha and the Field Negro.

Steve lost his battle with his kidneys in June 2007.  He was 42 years old.  But he was the best blogger I knew because he brought it real, he kept it real, and didn’t care about being popular or winning friends and influencing people.  He always brought things from a historical perspective and the historical role African-Americans played in it.

As we celebrate the election of the first African-American President, I’m remembering Steve Gilliard because he would have so loved covering the developments of the Obama Campaign if he’d been around to blog about it.

He was my friend, even though I never met him in person.  He gave me my first Headline blog post, and for that, he became my friend.

As I sit here watching President-Elect Obama give his victory speech, I’m thinking about Steve Gilliard and what this election would have meant to him.  In Steve’s honor, and in celebrating the election of President-Elect Obama, I’m posting a tidbit of Steve’s blog, and providing the link to his archives so you can get an idea of the first African-American blogger who paved the way for us to do what we do, and in playing a visible, viable role in the election of this nation’s first African-American President.

Shut yer festerin’ gob

I’d rather take advice from a cat before I would
take if from Frank Luntz

Frank Luntz

I am not in the habit of offering partisan linguistic advice to Democrats. But in the genuine spirit of bipartisanship – seriously – I thought this is the perfect time to convey a simple point to the still-euphoric faces of Democrat activists …

Don’t twist the knife.

Let’s briefly sketch the political landscape in America today.

Republicans are still reeling quite deservedly from the political thumping they took in the November election.

The following are Steve’s comment on Frank Luntz’ observations:

Ignore this stupid motherfucker

The GOP are the largest bunch of whining children I have ever seen.

George Bush says vote Republican or die and now, when the Dems have real power, he wants to hand out lectures on not twisitng knives?

Where was he when Tom Delay was around? Sucking his balls.

The GOP likes compromise when they are the minority. When they’re the majority, they can bully and lie like it’s free.