A.Y.Z.

My father and I have always had a tumultuous relationship, to say the least. Chalk it up to generational or cultural differences...or two strong wills going at each other...we've had a rough journey.

Recently (over the past four years), I've tried to appreciate him more for who he is, rather than his relationship to me. He immigrated to America with $75 to his name and managed to get his PhD and a LL.M. I will always be unusually hard on people when they claim that they don't have money to go to school, or they weren't afforded certain opportunities for education because I know my father had no economic advantages, a shaky grasp on the language and he still managed to get through. His drive to succeed is what got him through graduate school, the job market and life as a new American. The trait I'm happiest to admit that I inherited from him is his ambition. While my mother is certainly ambitious in her own right, the practically blind determination to make any and everything we want a reality is something my father and I share.

But I've also learned a few lessons from my father that I don't think he'd care to admit he taught me. I grew up listening to my father's story about going to a Coptic Christian kindergarten. My father is a Muslim - they lived in an area where there were a lot of Copts and my nena always had soft spot for Christians because she believed that a statue of the Blessed Mother in Zeitoun miraculously healed my father when he was an ailing infant - but he was allowed to attend the school, with the exception of the services. Every week the children would line up and go into church, leaving my father outside the doors with a teaching assistant of sorts. He was just a little kid and naturally, when he heard the music coming from inside the church, he wanted to go in. He wasn't allowed. He wouldn't take no for an answer, though...he would scream and kick and bang against the door "Let me in...I want to go in....please, let me in!"

That remains the story of my father's life in America. He's constantly trying to get into places and positions where they simply won't welcome him. He might get his foot in the door, but he'll never be fully accepted. Watching my father suffer blow after blow to his pride made me realize that sometimes you have to circumvent the system instead of trying to fit into it. Sometimes, no matter how much you plead, they will never let you in. My father learned that lesson a little too late. This doesn't mean that I'm discouraged - it just means that I know what I'm up against. I'm confident that I'll get where I want to be, but I refuse to pound on doors in vain and beg to be let in.

I raise my glass to my father, though. A weaker person would have collapsed in front of those doors long ago and retreated. A.Y.Z. will be damned if he doesn't at least leave those doors with some dings and dents to remember him by.

Read HITMEN while you're at it.

I'm sure it comes as a surprise to nobody, but take a look at Radio Payoffs Are Described as Sony Settles.

Once upon a time, I was a radio promo (and publishing) intern at aforementioned company, so I'm sure I'll have more to say later.

Happy 21st Birthday to PreScillia. Love you...and may the next 21 years ROCK :)

On my way to becoming a wordsmith...

My profile of the UK-based band, The Cribs, will be featured in the September issue of ZINK magazine. I've also been assigned to profile another group for the October issue of the magazine.

Hurrah.

On a side note, if you're on Friendster, MySpace or Facebook...feel free to add me...Josephine Zohny. I've become a networking whore.

-edit- Once in a while, Bomani Jones is really funny.

This is why I love The Boondocks sometimes

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/bo/2005/bo050724.gif

Urban Outfitters says...everybody loves an Italian girl! *insert picture of pizza here*

Yes, I do have one of those obnoxious shirts, courtesy of a friend. I break it out to wear when nothing else is clean. Apparently they were either fresh out of, or for some strange reason, don't make ones that say "Everybody loves an Afro-Arab-Italian girl."

When I was working with the Gottis, we pitched a story about "Guido Culture" and the popularity of Italian Americana with the boys as fashion plates. Victoria was horrified, claiming that it was offensive and perpetuated the stereotype of the loud, rude, stupid, brutish, fake baked, heavily groomed, mama's boy...

I thought it was hysterical, but keep in mind that I've also been known to refer to myself as a Guidette upon occasion. At any rate, we stopped pitching the angle. Recently, when browsing the article archives at ColorLines, I found this article by Libero Della Piana that attempts to take Italian American organizations to task about their "outrage" over stereotypical representations of Italians in the media - Shark Tales, specifically. He says:

As a son of Italian American and Black American parents I wondered whether CARRES [Coalition Against Racial, Religious and Ethnic Stereotyping] represented a new anti-racist consciousness in the Italian community? Or are Italian American organizations just irked by being stuck with the Mafia label? Are Italian American organizations just against stereotypes, or are they against racism at all levels of society?

He goes on to say that:

Italian Americans, like all other white ethnic groups in the U.S., were encouraged to accept in whole cloth the idea that they were part of a "white" race different and superior to other races. Never mind that Italians in Italy felt no more akin to Russians and English than to Syrians and Ethiopians. The logic of racism in the U.S. creates a hierarchy with whites at the top. Buying into the myth of racial superiority was in part responsible for lifting Italian Americans up from the tenements and sweatshops of the immigrant experience.

The fact is that comparatively lighter skin enabled a lot of Italians to assimilate and, in their minds, absolved them of any responsibility in terms of confronting (and rectifying) the problem of racism. CARRES thinks that their biggest problem is a stereotype often perpetuated by other Italians (see above). The article is old, so it didn't mention the organization's reaction (if any) to the recent scandal involving Gotti family friend and Italian American, Nicholas Minucci, beating the crap out of black man in what looks like a hate crime. The Sons of Italy haven't condemned the attack, nor has the National Italian American Foundation...heck, they haven't even said anything about Growing Up Gotti. Perhaps if somebody reminded them that the stereotype of the Italian as a bigoted, violent asshole was being perpetuated by the actions of this young man (and others in Howard Beach), they would give a damn.

But, no, they're mad about A Shark Tale. God forbid a cartoon character should speak with a Brooklyn accent and disparage the good name of Italians everywhere!

*Deep breath*

While we're on the topic of Italians, I'll leave you with a picture of my adorable Italian mommy with me at my graduation (bask in my hair's straight glory - courtesy of a very kind Dominican woman):

If she was a Palestinian, she would have been riddled with bullets...

JERUSALEM — The detainee was the very picture of defiance. She scrawled slogans on the walls of her cell. She mocked her interrogators by chanting loudly whenever they tried to question her, or by reviling them as traitors and stooges. She even refused to reveal her name. Her jailers reported, however, that she also sometimes got homesick and cried. Which wasn't particularly surprising, given that she was only 12. In recent months, Israeli teenagers and preteens have become the shock troops of a nationwide campaign of protests against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip this summer, Israel's first such ceding of settlements in war-seized territory the Palestinians want for their future state.

Click above to read more.

Things you probably shouldn't do on a date + "Why it gotta be an Egyptian again?"

• If your date is ethnically indeterminate at all, it's probably in your best interest to refrain from telling racial jokes, making racist comments or telling skewed racialized history, unless you want to ruin your chances of ever gettin' any again.
• Scenario: You've already told your date that you don't have any children. She asks you what your children's names are in an attempt to show that she doesn't trust you. Don't blurt out "Damien and Angelica" and then say "Uh, I mean...I don't have any children."
• Don't ask your date if she told her friends that you're hung like a horse and then begin making horse like noises in the middle of a quaint little Turkish restaurant.

Now, if you were on the receiving end of this horrible date, I recommend going to pizzeria Uno and ordering the Cookie Sundae to share with your friends along with many, many Raspberry Coladas. Not that I would, um, know or anything....

Onto other things...

An Egyptian man named Magdy El Nashar was detained by the Ministry of the Interior (which my father was a part of once upon a time) in connection with the recent terrorist bombings in London. Arab News reports...

The Egyptian Ministry of Interior said yesterday that Magdy El-Nashar, the
33-year-old chemist, an Egyptian who was arrested in Cairo over the London
bombings, had no links with Al-Qaeda. “El-Nashar who was arrested on
Thursday has no link with Al-Qaeda; so far we don’t know if he is innocent
or not. The British Scotland Yard will attend the investigation within the
next 48 hours,” said the Egyptian Minister of Interior, Habib El-Adly.

I hope and pray that he isn't involved in this. There is enough turmoil in Egypt right now with Mubarak and his fucked up faux democracy - no Egyptian should be concerned with anything other than that. I'm not advocating terrorism to get rid of Mubarak, but take all that anger and set up a government in exile or something. Protest without ripping the clothes off of women in the crowd, maybe? Rally the people in a non-violent way. Worry about the "infidels" later --revolution begins at home, son.

Because I know all of you were waiting with baited breath...

Welcome to the official launch of jzohny.com!

I know, I know - contain your enthusiasm. Basically, I thought it was time to set up a site that was strictly business - with an occasional smattering of rants and musings - since I'm all grown now.

For those of you unfamiliar with me, I'm 20 years old and a recent graduate of New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study - made famous by the Olsen twins. And, yes, I did have a class with one of them...Ashley, as a matter of fact. She was in the freshman writing class I was forced to take second semester of my senior year in order to graduate. And she was a lovely person. Strangely attired, but lovely. I wish I could provide you all with juicy gossip that involves her doing lines during class, but I can't. But I digress...

I've worked in various capacities in the music industry since I was about 16 years old - first, as a lowly intern, then as a promo gopher, then music publishing and now music publicity. I also spent a good nine months as a fashion/general entertainment publicist in a firm that represented House of Rocawear, Ryan Kenny, Ice-T, Kelly Osbourne's Stiletto Killers, The Gotti Family, T-Boz and Chase's Closet by T-Boz of TLC, among others. It was a good experience and I don't regret it, but it wasn't really my bag and I'm glad I moved on.

Currently, I'm the publicist for Putumayo World Music. Those unfamiliar with the label should check out the link on the right. The position is a nice little meld of all the things I went to school to study - Music Business, Writing - Creative Nonfiction (what is public relations, if not creative nonfiction?) and Race and Ethnic Studies. Putumayo's ultimate goal is to educate through music and that's something I respect. Their North African Grooves collection is dope as fuck, too, so that helps. I also have a burgeoning publicity/promotions company - WeRoqq - that I founded with my friend and partner in crime, I. Samantha Worrell. It's our baby - still young, new and with goo on it - but we love it.

Press releases will be posted here. They will often be ones that I've written (for myself and others), ones that I'm posting to shout out my colleagues' work or ones that are just plain interesting.

Although I pay my bills doing publicity, I'm a writer at heart. I've had two articles featured on PopMatters.com and I've recently started doing some freelance work for ZINK magazine. Feel free to check out my work on PopMatters:

http://www.popmatters.com/music/features/050209-michaeljackson.shtml
http://www.popmatters.com/features/050614-arabidentity.shtml

The first article is about Michael Jackson. I *heart* MJ. Writing about him is also a nice way to exercise my hard earned degree - who else sits at the crux of as many issues involving race, sex, the music industry and the media?

You'll note that the second article is about Arab-American identity. Although I'm not entirely comfortable using the term arab in describing myself as someone of (partially) North-East African heritage (I think it's used by some to negate any African involvement in the dawn of civilization and by others to denegricize themselves in an attempt to attain some sort of quasi-whiteness), the world has deemed it suitable to describe me. So, I try to rep it as hard as possible whenever I can since few others do (notable exceptions can be found on this very page).

Make sure you check out the links I've featured on the right and see you soon.