Black people should never tolerate white privilege!

1500's- (murdering and enslavement of black Africans by white Europeans)

Declaration of Independence 1776 (didn't include black people)

U.S. Constitution 1787 (included black people as property)

Emancipation Proclamation (September 22, 1862 and January 1, 1863) (freed black people from bondage on paper but wasn't federally enforced)

Thirteenth Amendment 1865, abolished and prohibited slavery

Civil Rights Act of 1866, extending the rights of emancipated slaves

Civil Rights Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act (to combat them organizing to kill black people)

Civil Rights Act of 1875, prohibiting discrimination in "public accommodations"; found unconstitutional (1883)

Jim Crow Laws 1876-1965

Civil Rights Act of 1957, establishing the Civil Rights Commission to ensure black voting rights

Civil Rights Act of 1960, establishing federal inspection of local voter registration polls to ensure black voting rights

Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin by federal and state governments as well as some public places

Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act

Civil Rights Act of 1991, providing the right to trial by jury on discrimination claims and introducing the possibility of emotional distress damages, while limiting the amount that a jury could award

Five centuries later, I have the tolerance level of a people who have spent the last 500 years being treated and portrayed as inferior to those that share the skin tone of white European slave owners who enslaved black Africans.  

Black people have continually had to fight for everything that is our right as human beings and American citizens and those very rights we fought for are now enjoyed by many non-blacks.  Yet, in this screwed world sharing the skin tone of people who committed genocides on numerous countries around the world is far more prized than sharing the skin tone of those who fought to level the rights for all of us.

Non-white people should NEVER defend, excuse, perpetuate or succumb to white privilege.

The goal of slavery was to create a system that would continually feed the ideal that to be anything other than Anglo is meant to be shamed and destroyed.  The media(print and broadcast), texts, social history and policy have now taken the place of slavery in the mistreatment and enslavement of black people.  White privilege was spawned from the racism of white cowards that felt inferior without it, including America's forefathers.

Any non-white or white person that champions, defends or excuses a white person's ability to maintain a privilege in this world based on the color of their skin is a foolish enemy to us all.

May Black Woman Pain Films Now Die and Officially RIP

I suppose that there is no human being that doesn't desire to see themselves and their lives mirrored on screen in a way that gives voice to the things that happen in their everyday lives. The problem for black women is that our lives are generally only shown in a one-dimensional stereotypical manner that doesn't allow for us to be the humans that we are who experience life and its circumstances in the same way as any other being would.

During these production meetings it is if there is some 'wheel of torture' that is spun when people are trying to tell our stories and the only selections are PAIN, MISFORTUNE, NEGLECT, ABUSE, POVERTY, OOWB etc.  Do I think that it is always their intent to tell our stories from this point of view?  Yes.  I believe that there is always this intent because people have become conditioned and therefore accustomed to this being the only way that we [black women] can be seen on screen that we or anyone else will identify with.  EPIC FAIL! The motivation to continually portray and prey on us in this manner is a learned behavior and a direct product of them, like us, being raised on these type of films for years believing that these films represent all that there is in our lives.

Stellar Cast of "For Colored Girls"

Tyler Perry Presents: For Colored Girls arrived in movie theaters on Friday, November 5.  I went to the first showing in my area paying my $6.00 like the few other folks there who had the same idea I did (to get in and out quickly).  Trying to adapt the magnificent play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf" by Ntozake Shange for today's audience is an epic undertaking and unfortunately I don't think that it was done as well as it could have been done.  I don't know if Ms. Shange was not interested in adapting her original work for film but I think that she should have been the person to try.  It was an enormous fail for her to not have been the one to do the screenplay.

The actresses cast [loved them all] in this film are some of the most phenomenal of our time.  So when I hear laughing in a movie at inappropriate times... I know that not even the most stellar of actors can save something that was lost in translation.  There was not a enough back story for most of the characters to engage the audience into being interested in these women at a deeper level.  The transition from script to the original poetry was rough and distracting. Tyler Perry has been criticized incessantly for the lack of nuance in his films but to be honest a lot of his previous films didn't need it because most of them were the over the top slap stick variety meant for laughs.  This film needed to be more!  It needed to be all things and even nothing at times, in a way that relayed the greatness of life despite all its inconsistencies.

This movie brought men into the forefront when they really should have remained more periphery.  There are many reviews that criticize this film for being another male bashing movie because the film focused more on the pain rather than the empowerment of the women for making it through some difficult situations that involved men but also involved poverty, race, gender and class.  More resilience and less sorrow could have saved this film from becoming the drudgery that it was to me.  I left that movie feeling emotionally beaten down.  Pain is not all that there is to living this life in brown skin.  Hell, it is not even in the top five if you are really living.

Visually I thought that the the film was beautiful but it was not enough to keep this film from being yet another miss at relaying black women stories in a way that doesn't evoke pain and suffering as a mainstay in lives that are extremely diverse and far more interesting than the way we are written.  Can we tell our stories authentically without being chained to "black pathology" in a way that cripples us all forever?

Imagine a World Where Every Black Athlete Walked Away

It's football Sunday and after reading an article on one of the media mafia's websites about the unbelievability of Sean "Diddy" Combs becoming an NFL team owner I couldn't resist flipping it a little and wondering what would happen to all those white owners if all black athletes were smart enough to leverage their economic power as a unit and walk out.  By the way, I don't give a damn about defending Sean Combs' ability to do anything because I consider him to be one of many infectious diseases that has corrupted one too many youth.


What would happen if all black athletes collectively chose to just walk away from their respective sport.  Take the time to think about that for a second.  Extreme madness, strokes and huge financial ramifications would occur and it would be epic.  I actually can't think about it without smiling a little.


The comment section had people defending Mr. Mabary by saying he was being satirical.  That may very well be what he intended (yeah right) but his use of the racist stereotypes tanked the satirical piece for me after that.  He crossed over into the same stereotypical racist BS that many white people have no problem doing because it is part of who they are in this world that has skewed so far white.

There’s also the issue of NFL owners, the oldest and whitest of old white guy clubs, being wary of a young owner with a dubious legal past and considerable media notoriety.

Why couldn't Sean Combs be an NFL owner? Debauchery and violence hasn't stopped this guy.  Anyway I will leave it to you to pick out the other racist elements of the article. 

The NFL and the NBA are billion dollar businesses where the players are 60% plus black and the owners are 99.9% white!  Everything that I see about this "business" dynamic reminds me of the history of plantation life both before and long after slavery. Yeah sure, the players make large sums of money but their salaries are NOTHING compared to the income of the white men behind the scene.

Too many black folks are extremely content with receiving money from white folks for funding instead of creating and pooling our resources so that we can have our own businesses that build up our communities and our people.  Think of all the industries that would implode--sports, music, fashion, cosmetic, hair care, entertainment, automotive-- if it were not for black people and black dollars.  Black people have yet to realize, control and benefit from our full economic power on a grand scale. It sure would be a beautiful thing to see.

The Preacher, the Peacock and the Pimp

Did you know that peacocks are best known for the male's extravagant tail, which it displays as a part of courtship?


Look I grew up in the church and I know the good that Christians can do.  But come on... not all "church folk" are Christians! There are still (after all the years of deception "in the fold") devout church folks who believe so much in the "man" that they will listen to and follow anything as long as there are enough Amens and Hallelujahs.  I believe there is a God but I DO NOT believe in organized religion that becomes a hustler's enterprise.

After looking at the comment sections of various reports on the allegations there seems to be two different groups speaking out about this issue, "the believers" and "the non-believers".  The "news" story about Bishop Eddie Long and the allegations against him have been going on for a week now and it just continues to unfold.
 
I am waiting to see what Eddie Long has to say for himself. 


Update: Eddie Long said nothing.  What I concluded from Long's "speech" is the fact that there seemed to be NO contriteness at all in regards to the situation.  He relied mostly on lofty rhetoric to portray himself as a victim who has been wrongfully judged and misunderstood!  Make no mistake... I believe this man is guilty of the allegations (and probably more) but he is also guilty of using this situation to perform in a grandiose manner to feed his HUGE ego.  Nothing he said was worth waiting five days to respond.  He did not once flat out deny an improper relationship with the young men in his congregation that were a part of his young men's group.  Long said that he will not try this case in the public but in the court system of justice.

"On the advice of counsel, I am not going to address the allegations and the attacks. I want this to be dealt with in the court of justice not the court of public opinion. I am going to fight. Fight very vigorously"

A man that counsels and preaches to people to have faith in God and believe in him ultimately decides to rely on man.

Education offers the best success in life!

There is nothing worse to me than to see a child suffer not being taken care of in a manner that would offer them an opportunity at a great life. Granted there are no guarantees that there won't be pain or disappointment in life but when a child is sent out into the world unprepared and unsupported we all suffer the consequences! Education is important for everyone's life.

Watching Oprah on Monday allowed me entree into other lives that have been affected by an ENTIRE educational system that is flawed.  It is a damn shame that in 2010 the United States of America has a poor educational system at all. When my daughter was in the 5th grade the English department came up with an idea to use shaving cream and play-doh as motivational tools to encourage better spelling.  I flipped out I will admit it, but can you blame me?  I contacted the school along with other parents and "Operation Play-Doh" disappeared!  Now why should I have to look out for ridiculousness like that! 

The U.S. may have some of the "top schools" in the world (by it's own assertion) but when you are considered to be the most advantaged country in the world and ALL of it's children don't have access to the same quality of education because of perceived entitlements of wealth and location, then that system is screwed.  It takes much more effort to go out of your way to deny the many those things that are afforded to the few. So I absolutely take it personally because it is obviously meant that way. 

Education should not have any element of exclusivity.  Exclusivity is a bullshit term used by shallow and insecure people to justify their excess and delusions of greatness. Dumb ass Americans continually vote against their best interests-- probably thinking that the smaller the educated group is in America then all the better because it's easier to lead sheep rather than having an intelligent and well formed society.

I don't use the word hate often because it's usually reserved for things or people that evoke a gut-wrenching and visceral reaction in me that doesn't end well for the people on the receiving end of that emotion.  But I HATE the way this country operates in regards to the welfare of ALL of it's children.  When a bank account, zip code or skin color can determine whether a child gets the best advantages in life then you are begging to be hated!  There are some in this world who understand that you can't deny ANY child a quality education and expect good to come from it.

"I certainly owe all my success to having had a great education. I went to an incredible school, and I remember the teachers who encouraged me. I'm so lucky. I had what every kid should have, honestly," Gates said in an interview.
"We're a country that talks about equal opportunity, but without a great education, there is no equal opportunity. And we're a country that talks about how we're the best and the richest and we set an example. But without good education, our relative position in the world will decline." Bill Gates

Parents-- get your asses down to your child's school on the regular (yes, it is possible) so that your presence is known!  Ensure that your children begin school knowing:

• how to spell and write their name
• your name (not Mommy or Daddy), the one listed on your birth certificate
• their home phone number
• how to respect adults and how to respect themselves
• their ABC's (not the damn song)-- able to associate the pronunciation with the letter
• their 123's-- associating the pronunciation with the numeral
• colors (at least 10 of them, come on!)
• how to tie their shoes (it can be a true and easy sense of accomplishment for them)

The way to accomplish what is listed above... talk to and read to your children everyday.  No damn baby talk past a year old! (I would normally say not past 9 months but I'm flexible)  Always remain active in your unyielding advocacy for your child.

Teachers-- If you are not personable and don't like people then it is time for a career change so that you can get the hell out of my child's classroom. Choose to earn your living in any profession that doesn't require personal interaction, patience or compassion but get out of the classroom! I believe that being a teacher is a difficult job... just like parenthood it ain't for everybody. I accept no excuses when it comes to the people who have the access and power to influence my child's self-esteem and outlook on the world.  Go elsewhere! 

Having said all of that I do realize:

• you are bombarded on a regular basis with 30 or more different personalities
• some parents are not involved as they should be (parents get on your J-O-B)
• children today can behave as if they have no home training (parents get on your J-O-B)
• you work within a system that strangles your ability to do your job well (don't we all)
• not all of you are BAD teachers but TOO many of you are
• that to be a teacher you have to find a way to make it work

Non-white children tend to be the ones that suffer the most under the current U.S. educational system.  With bank accounts, zip codes and skin color reigning supreme in our social structure these categories almost always ensure that the majority of non-whites will be the least educated in America-- the land of the free and the home of the brave.  

Wake up people. Demand equal quality (not equality) in everything for the children and for yourselves!

Black people RESPECT yourselves

"The people formerly known as niggers"



Powerfully to the point! (h/t Ankhesen Mie)

RIP Mitrice

KTLA news has confirmed that the body of Mitrice Richardson has been found after being reported missing almost a year ago. My prayers go out to her family and loved ones.

It was on September 17, 2009 (about 1:30 a.m.) that a visibly confused Mitrice Richardson was released from a police station in the Malibu area without any concern for her welfare because they released her into the night with no identification, phone or anyone to assist her in her confused state.

The circumstances surrounding her disappearance have always reeked! And from reading this LA Times article there are still more questions than answers. The article stated that the Los Angeles police department were the primary investigators in her disappearance based on where she resided and not where she went missing. It's puzzling that the sheriff's station that released her did not participate in her search until much later even though she was last seen leaving the Malibu Sheriff departments station. That is all kinds of 'something ain't right'. This very same article stated that she was a fixture on cable and TV news after her disappearance... she was never given the same amount of attention as a Natalee Holloway. <- That's a wikipedia link just in case you're wondering.

I hope that Mitrice's family will not allow the police to bury this case because there is definitely something foul going on. And if there weren't doubts about the shadiness and carelessness in the search for Mitrice it was definitely confirmed when the Sheriff's department scheduled a press conference to confirm Mitrice Richardson's death BEFORE they contacted her family and lost his cool when called on it!

I hope they find the person(s) responsible and sadly I fear that it will be an internal investigation of the people who were sworn to protect.

At What Cost?

"Destroy the woman, Destroy the people."

Black people have been continually under siege in America since the day our African ancestors set foot on these shores in 1619 and the only difference in the last almost 400 years is our oscillating acceptance of it. There are some who will say that we are in a different time period and the things that our enslaved ancestors went through is not the same life that we lead today-- and in saying that they would be dead wrong!

Our history in this country --really around the world-- due to the horrors of slavery doesn't afford us the same latitude as white people because for centuries our culture and our people have been defined and maligned by them based on white superiority being the ideal. Just think about that for a moment... in order for them to be superior... colonialists went above and beyond to ensure that generation after generation Black people and white people would continue to pass down "white people's truth" of black inferiority to our children! For them to ascend they had to destroy us as a people and they chose the women as their path because if you destroy the woman then you definitely destroy the family.

It is absolutely imperative to our future that Black people stop continuing to make the mistake of seeing ourselves as "the same" as white people in this society!

My Roots Are Showing

For as long as I can remember I have always been interested in knowing where my ancestry began. It started with writing my family tree (as I knew it) on a piece of notebook paper--first, middle and last-- first, middle and last -- until everyone was accounted for. It always made me feel good to know that I knew my people but at a certain point (the age of 12) I realized that there had to be more. My family tree always began with my grandmother and ended with the youngest child born.

To go back further I would have to rely on the sources available to me. Off to grandma I went. She was rather forthcoming but only to a certain point. I began by asking her mother's name then her father's name which she answered but when I asked for their parent's names she turned and faced me and asked me why did I want to know that. I proceeded to tell her that I had been writing our family tree over and over again for years and it always began with her and I wanted to go back further. My grandmother politely and lovingly shut me down and told me that all I had was all I needed to know. Confused by her response I probed further by asking, but why? She just repeated that that was all I needed to know.

Being the ever inquisitive child I continued on and went to other relatives trying to find the answers to my questions, all the while I'm thinking that there was some sort of mystery to be solved and I was all about that. During my queries with other older relatives I was able to find out my maternal great great grandfather's name but then that was it-- nothing else for another 15 years-- no one was talking!

After family members started dying more relatives started asking questions and finally those that knew started talking. Suffice it to say my grandmother was not one of them and it still puzzled me as to why she wouldn't want to participate in our history being passed on to each generation. I would later discover that it had more to do with her not wanting to mentally connect to a part of most Black Americans past-- Slavery.

In college I was able to study Black history in depth going beyond the basic Black history month sanitized version that was sometimes taught. Needless to say, the truth about Black American's history in this country was extremely disturbing. Our present isn't going to be any better if we don't wake the hell up!

I have been able to trace my maternal history back five generations but there are holes in that history, as there is with most Black Americans. Because we were considered and listed as property on the United State Census prior to 1870, we have to try and find slave owners' records that might list our ancestor as an individual and not a number. I don't need to tell those who have started this process the degree of difficulty in finding this information.

The research continues (between bouts of anger)...

Black people... subdued into a coma!

A coma... that has to be it! Right? It would explain why so many of us are behaving as if there isn't a hell of a lot of wrong going on in the way that this world operates when it comes to race... there is work to do and truths to be told! There are not enough people speaking out on BS (in any and all arenas) and too many are behaving as if it's okay that Black people and communities are failing-- and silence, deference and denial equals complicity.

The frustration and anger that I feel when I see the lukewarm concern about the negative way too many of us view and treat ourselves and each other, and the negative way we are portrayed en masse is overwhelmingly deplorable. I am a Mom (of a beautiful daughter) and I tend to always think about the world living up to EVERYTHING that it should be and in order for that to happen the "status quo" is NOT sufficient.

Regardless of how much we accomplish individually, love it or hate it, we live in a world that places people in "seemingly" identifiable groups based on the color of one's skin. What exacerbates that aspect "of life" in this world is the fact that a person's worth and potential is still attached to the color of their skin and not the 'content of their character'.

America will forever be soiled with the blood of a people that endured kidnapping, familial separation, rapes, beatings, murders and disenfranchisement [due to a government complicit in Slavery, Black codes, Jim Crow and Redlining] until it does right by the generations of people who were wronged. America's character is currently defined by the destruction of a people who built it and received less than what they should have in return.

For the record: I have no problem with people noticing the color of my deep mocha skin but I have every problem with being treated as less than or invisible because of it!

Truth To Be Told

1. We live in a white paternalistic sociopathic society that unfortunately continues to thrive.

2. Education for the children of America in regards to history-- is whitewashed, hollow and riddled with benign truths and horrendous lies. Why has that never been challenged on a national level? An unabridged and limitless education for our children is but one of the many important steps toward righting the wrongs that have been done and continue to be done.


I'm not finished... just getting started!

I AM a BLACK WOMAN.

I am not one or the other I am both. As a Black woman, all of my exquisiteness is as offended by racism as I am by sexism...then there is also the classism that rears its head based on the racism and the sexism. And Black women seem to be getting pummeled in society by all three! I can say an accelerant for those fires to me is being told not to take it personally. WTH? It is personal!!!

I DO NOT defend the indefensible. So seeing Black women and Black men contribute to the Black woman's destruction makes me passionate enough to ask... what exactly are we trying to accomplish? We assist the mainstream's full blast assault on the Black woman (conveniently after the first Black First Lady) by choosing to publicly and privately tear each other down. No other ethnic group does that!!!! At least not on such a pervasive level. So.... what is our goal because if we destroy the Black Woman...we destroy us all. I can't believe that that is the goal. All human beings have the desire for self preservation, right? Today's society has an overabundance of malice and depraved indifference and unfortunately we have given the okay by our actions to hold ourselves up as "free game" for those who would choose to take a swing. WAKE THE HELL UP!

I am NOT writing this for white America to gain a better understanding of the intricacies of the current relationship between the Black woman and the Black man. This post is strictly for OUR understanding, reflection and acknowledgment that something has to change before it is too late. I love Black people love...which is the reason my main page photo reflects it! That love has to be respectful because when I look in the mirror and I don't love who I am then no one else will. I treat myself the way I want to be treated so that in no way will I ever allow anyone to treat me less than.

Black man... I am your reflection and I will understand all of who you are in a way that no one else can...period. That is not to say that love for someone is bound by the color of ones skin but it is saying that in today's world too many of you have bought into the nonsense that a Black woman is not good enough. Black man... when I pursue my best self (in whatever that may be) that is not a negative for you or towards you; that just means that I'm able to give the best of who I am to you and I have the right to require the same from you. Black man... you WANT me to be intelligent, confident and strong because that means that our family will thrive because of those qualities. Black man... in order to love you in the way that you need, I need to be loved in the way that I need!

Black Woman... being a good woman to a man does not mean sitting back and politely eating shyt with a fork! Dignity and respect are a good thing. Black Woman... loving a man should not mean losing who you are in the process or loving yourself less because the RIGHT MAN does not need or expect you to be less so that he can be more. Black Woman... supporting the Black man does not mean settling for or defending inexcusable behaviors. (Stop that shyt...seriously) Black woman... it is not good to punish a good man for a bad one's behavior. Black woman... owning your sexuality does not mean catering to the male fantasy by putting all the wares on display for the world to see. Black Woman... pursuing your best self AND self-interest is a good thing because it means that you value yourself.

BLACK WOMAN... Despite what current society would have you to think YOU are beautiful and valid in your own right.