Randomosity: Blurred Lines

*dancing like T.I.* “HEY HEY HEY”. LOL

I love that song. I only named this post that because it’s what I’m listening to. Then again, maybe we’ll be able to pinpoint some blurred lines within this post after all…

Let’s start with the kind of week America has had. ~Phew~ America…well, the WORLD over has shit going on EVERY day. What we see in the news is a mere modicum of the world’s weighty chaos. For shits and giggles, though? We’ll talk US fuckshit.

• The Trayvon Martin/Zimmerman trial got started this week and it’s been a doozy thus far. I missed the opening statements, but I heard all of the boo’s and tomatoes flying at Don West for his poor taste in banter.  “Knock knock. Who’s there? User. User who? User DUMB ass for that knock knock joke!” Don’t get me started on all of the hoopla surrounding the testimony of Rachel Jeantel, Trayvon’s friend and the last to speak to him the night he was killed. Her articulation has been questioned, roasted, lambasted, etc,…by the nation over. Her attitude was put on trial and I could only ask myself during this time, “Why does it matter what kind of attitude she has when the truth is…this is about Zimmerman’s guilt. Not HERS in the court of public opinion?” Why was it super important for a lot of Black folks to renounce her and call her everything but a child of God? To distance yourselves? To show the world…to show “massa” that YOU’RE not like that. You got book learning and is a GOOD speaker…right? A lot of y’all pissed me off, because while you sat there and made memes and jokes and judgments…you also seemed to be pissed at Paula Deen for wanting to dress your grandfathers up in slave butler outfits for a wedding…
• Which brings me to my next random. Paula Deen’s snafu, faux pas, oopsy daisy. She admitted to using the N word and she was quoted as lusting over a good old-fashioned plantation wedding; niggers dressed up in period wear and all. After apologizing and going on Today to tell Matt how racist she isn’t, Paula has suffered through the ostracizing of her brand. Food Network has decided not to renew her contract. Smithfield has taken back all their ham. Walmart, Sears, and a slew of other businesses have marked her shit down to free and asked her not to bring NOTHING else up in there. Even the publisher of her book which is #1 on Amazon, has chosen to drop her like a hot potato greased down with a pound of butter. So, yea Paula is roughing it right now and Jesus be a sedative so she don’t get ill behind the hoopla. (Yes, I have compassion for her…Yes, I think she needs to be sat down and made an example of…the two are not mutually exclusive) …So tell me why you mofos can go in on Paula in one breath and then disparage Rachel in another. You don’t make it easy to keep White folks from wondering why they can’t call us what we call ourselves. Now, I don’t THINK that’s what we should do (let them call us what we call each other) but, what peeved me is for a lot of us to go in on that young woman with NO chill and NO remorse about her looks and speech was outta pocket and short exact change. What the fuck is WRONG with people? Why do people feel the need to state every opinion, hurl every negative thought outward from the tongue and bask in the trials of someone else? Goodness gracious…We’re SO harsh on each other, but we want everyone else to regard us? Think on that.
• Aaron Hernandez…this dude here. Like, he couldn’t have been dumber if he’d just gone ahead and buried the body in his yard…but, HEY…maybe he’s innocent! 
• While folks were wondering if Paula Deen’s pots were going to be newly priced at free and were counting the times Rachel Jeantel called Don West “sir”…The VRA was fucked with and now some of y’all may not make the voter’s booth come next election. I guess the gay community’s big win at Capitol Hill was too much freedom for one week. Basically they said, “Look…either y’all ninjas can vote or the queer can marry…can’t have both.” We see you America O_O
• Kanye’s album sucked. I’d ask for my money back, but I ain’t pay for it. 
• Po’ North West…her parents are Dumb and Dumber for that shit. STOP NAMING THESE KIDS PUNCHLINES! They gotta play on the schoolyards and date and work and shit. Do NOT name your kid “Kryss’Tel’eyes” and wonder why they’re fucked up by adolescence. 

I could keep going, but why? Did you really come here to see me rant? (Of course you did, lol) 

I’mma show some restraint though. The world is something else. Our little first world problems ain’t shit. The difficulty in which we may struggle to vote ain’t got shit on being raped to correct homosexuality or children as guerrilla soldiers trained to kill for little to no reason. So what you ran out of your special almond milk…you better get you some Carnation milk, mix it with some water and pour it over that cereal and enjoy it! Shoooot. lol 

I guess all the lines this week were blurred…and many crossed. At least I can say I was paying attention…

Peace y’all

What if…

What if Trayvon Martin had been the survivor? Standing cast over the lifeless body of George Zimmerman…

Do you think that he would’ve been taken at his word?

Or that the police would have skipped any protocol…such as a drug/alcohol test, a background/wrap sheet check, a call to George Zimmerman’s family, using his own cell phone. How about just checking the phone records on the calling history? That alone would’ve revealed a 911 call and a little more perspective into the series of events.

Do you think the police would’ve hesitated to arrest Trayvon…age be damned? His hoodie alone, the supposed mark of suspicion…would’ve given the police enough reason to stereotype what kind of person Trayvon might be…seeing a need for apprehension and an immediate comprehensive investigation.  Do you know that the longer they wait…the “colder” the case gets?

We’re not new to this people…we’re not. We’ve seen many a Black man gunned down by trigger happy police and wannabe police, vigilantes and bigots. Some walking home carrying nothing but a wallet. Some celebrating the last night of being single. Some…accused of glaring too long at a little white girl, “needing” to be made an example of. We’re not new to the slaying of our children, our men, our sisters…these kinds of crimes are hundreds…thousands of years old. The threat of the “brown germ”…giving the non-brown any and every reason to attack, maim, disrespect and rally against.

So, what makes this different? Why is Trayvon different than Yusef Hawkins? Sean Bell? Amadou Diallo? Nothing and everything…

With the careless, non-responsive policing involved…is American hatemongers being told by silence and inaction that a free-for-all can commence on our community? As if there weren’t a million things to worry on as we go about life daily…now we have to be concerned that our young boys can’t even go about the street to the store and back without being considered a target? My 17yr old cousins can’t walk our hometown as it IS because of the violence corroding what was once a community of homes and good schools. Now, there’s this?

We’ve been up in arms about the wrongfully accused, the harshly convicted and the legally lynched. Now once again, faces and voices and pumped fists holding signs are asked to stand up. The never ending fight for rights unobtainable and barely maintained peace ensues and snowballs. Another full on movement is at hand and we’ve got to act swiftly and do what is within our reach. We’re stopping in the middle of  women trying to reclaim our vaginas…to reclaim our safety. Our ancestors and fallen civil activists did not die, leaving behind legacies and empty chairs at the head of the table so we could pretend things will get better.

Communities all over have rallied, wearing hoodies as a show of solidarity. Justice is being sought…demanded. Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, Brothers…people with family they know could’ve been Trayvon…are making their voices heard. Do a little…do a lot…but, do something. Sign something…SAY something.

Here’s a link to an online petition for the arrest of George Zimmerman. If you want to see Anderson Cooper’s interview of Trayvon’s parents…click here…perhaps seeing the faces of these grieving parents will endear you to the cause.

I am Trayvon Martin…

11:08pm

I like this picture, because it is a collection of faces…that become Troy Davis.

Troy Davis…

Executed on the 21st day of September, 2011 at 11:08pm…in spite of overwhelming reason of doubt…the state of Georgia still rejected the stay of execution and took this man’s life.

Let me state here…this won’t be a blog full of legalese, dripping with political terms and agenda. There will be no recounting of the evidence or lack thereof throughout the trial. I’m not here to run down the precedents, the list of witnesses or even Troy’s background of criminal activity before his subsequent arrest for the murder of Officer McPhail.

What this is…is a woman trying to make sense of the senseless. Someone trying to remember that God’s will is by far vaster than anything we can dare conceive. How it is that a 16yr old, held and tried on flimsy evidence…and eventually…recanted stories…is sad.

Yes…

It could’ve been my cousin, my uncle, my dad, my friend…it could be them still. Yet, this isn’t about the many men who Troy symbolizes…or even the many women who have lost their sons to the system. It’s about a sleep-walking creature called Racism. I say sleep-walking, because it’s not sleep…and it’s not quite conscious. It’s alive. It’s breathing. It’s quite possibly…even infectious. It’s surely not dead. It did NOT die with MLK, Malcolm, Medgar, Marcus, Rosa anem. It wasn’t even remotely subdued by Huey, Angela, Bobby, Assata anem. Yet it’s not conscious anymore.

“Systematic…when you have a way of doing stuff and you do it the same every time, kinda like how we hang the sheets and we hang them first so we can put the socks in the cracks…” ~ Nettie & Celie “The Color Purple”

^^^That…a “systematic” thing…so commonplace and banal in repetition…that eventually becomes subconscious. It is second nature to those who made the “ism” of racial inequality…their practice. What this looks like to me is a very loud and resounding cackle in the face of America’s people who thought that with the election of our first Black president, things would change. The hope was beautiful, the dream was glistening…bright like angel eyes…but, decidedly unrealistic. How it is that in the face of stories changed, reports of police coercion and others confessing…that they’d still take the life of a man, whose journey to injustice began as a child? I don’t know…seems like that beautiful dream died an egregious death.

What was beautiful…was seeing so many different colors blur and “become” Troy Davis. The petitions were passed around, the numbers posted were called…the pictures of him were posted for reminders of urgency…and no one cared what the person standing next to them looked like.

I just said to my sister on my Facebook status:

“…it’s the epitome…the worst case scenario of how wrong it can go. You know how we speak of people who get away with things they do with evil intent…and others who just want to live in peace can’t find it…they get harassed, disregarded and oppressed by bad instances? This is that. This is a man who when this case begun was a tender teen…maybe not purely innocent, but a child nonetheless. He spent his entire adolescence damn near…fighting for his life. There has got to be a higher purpose for this. I’ve prayed and asked for God to give us all strength to be what we need to be and stand up in this with everything we are. Perhaps he was a beacon of light. Not quite angel, but more like vessel of purpose. Maybe his purpose was to show how we can all become a blurred audience of one…standing in love for a brother. Not a “brotha”…but our HUMAN brother. I don’t know. I’m still making sense of it.“

That’s all I got…

Rest In Peace, Troy…I pray that your  life doesn’t go unaccounted for. I pray that your transcendence leads to a portal of light bright enough to shed light on injustice and blind the holder of those scales…for real.

My bro, Rippa posted this…I decided to post it here as well…

Nigga What?

Nigger…as defined by Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary:

1
usually offensive; see usage paragraph below : a black person
2
usually offensive; see usage paragraph below : a member of any dark-skinned race
3
: a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons

Interesting…now, go to Dictionary.com and skim over all of the info on the page given for the word “Nigger“.

Wow, right?

Now…in spite of what I showed you, I am NOT here to advocate the eradication of  the “N” word. I am ACTUALLY here to defends it’s use amongst the Black community. I understand that it is a word that has been associated with the oppression and discrimination of our people. I get that it’s used to slur us and demean our humanity…I do get it. I even understand the concept of negating it’s negativity by not using it…a sort of “picketing”…a protest. An oral petition, so to speak. I. Get. It. I attended a rare Black Studies class in HS and it turned my thinking around. I went from thinking in a Euro-Centric mindset, to thinking with an Afro-Centric POV, as my teacher put it. To see things from the positive aspect of a Black person living here in America as opposed to eating academically and socially what I was fed and being blind to what was blatantly in front of me. Yes, the word “nigger” was told to be negative and therefore should be used…never.

Yet, I feel that the word is significant enough to warrant a little researching. I believe that if the knowledge was spread amongst the community about the TRUE origin of this supposedly disgraceful word…that we could systematically empower our people to see themselves as the royalty we are.


BULLETIN: It does NOT matter how many of us erase it, it will still be used and referred to. This world is too corrupt for anything to change that. To ignore it is to become deluded into believing that this world will ever erase the lines of racial division long enough to truly respect each other. I had the dream, too…but reality is dictated daily.


My girl, Diva posted several statuses the other day and her purpose was to educate those willing to learn what she was teaching. I respect her immensely for taking the word out of her vocabulary and for reaching out to others to do the same. I overstand her objective, but it inspired me (being my naturally adversarial self) to question WHY we SHOULD remove this word from our vocabularies. It IS in the dictionary…but then so are a lot of words. I’ve been taught that words, nor things (and in some cases…people) aren’t bad or good. It’s the way we use them. It’s what we do with things…it’s how we behave as or treat people. Everything in moderation is a balanced civilization. White is no more a “good” or “perfect” word anymore than black is a bad or hateful word. You can say “white snow” and it infer pureness and then say, “white lie” and infer dishonesty. It is indeed how you use your words. We use “bitch”, “ass”, “cracker”, etc…and it can be a good or bad thing. We KNOW bitch is a female dog, ass is another word for donkey and cracker is a thin baked wafer used to snack on. We also know that bitch is used to degrade women, ass is used to describe someone of ill character and a cracker can be a slur for a White person. Are we removing these words from our vocabulary? Are they being voided completely?


I found a site called Race and History. There the original meaning of the word nigger is broken down to microscopic pieces. Click the link…I encourage you to take time out to read this page and give me some feedback about what you think. I read it and took lots of notes, but check what stood out to me:


The word nigger…is an English word derived from the Kemetic word n-g-r…which translates into “God”. It is very clear how the word looks like it sounds. The British heard the Kemetic (Egyptian) people calling one another this and adapted the word phonetically to describe darker people. I’m sure down the line, as battles for land and a people took place…the word became used in a negative way.


So, let me ask you this. If you educated yourself on what the word derives from…and even it’s derivative “nigga”…would you not agree that you are addressing people as “God”. 


::pause::


This is where I come and reconfigure my OWN analysis of this usage. I don’t refer to another human as “God”…but, I would and could respect the term being used to acknowledge the God IN us…since we’re made in his image and such. This isn’t about the reverence of our brothers and sisters and a placement of veneration. It is about turning a negative connotation into a positive affirmation. Empowering (do you see the word “emperor” in that word?). It’s about instilling the king and queen back into our culture with understanding and education. Validating our past and it’s impact on the now without losing the sense of respect we look to gain amongst one another. People will always disagree on this…hell, Oprah and Jay-Z went head to head about it on her show once. Two different generations…looking for the solution to a people’s pain from a single word.


>>play>>


So, if we’re really addressing the God in one another…and even the most ignorant of ANY race is acknowledging this as well, even without intending to do so…why again should we erase the word? Would it not be a form of denying our heritage and power?


Tell me…what do you think?

Don’t Make NO Sense!

I watched Rosewood again this morning. I was SO mad when Esther Rolle got killed on her porch…for telling the TRUTH! They knew GOOD and well that woman hadn’t been raped…but rather than admit she was a lying whore…they torched homes, hung families…including women and children all for the “precious honor” of Fannie Taylor.

I saw this movie when it came onto VHS (yes, I rented it, lol) and I just remember being upset and crying at the animalism. The joy they took in killing “negras” and searching for the non-existent rapist. In spite of the fools that led the lynch party…there were a few who refused to be roped (no pun intended) into killing innocent folks on a foolish rampage of imaginary justice. John Wright, played by John Voight (Angelina Jolie’s father) was the merchant who helped hide some of the Rosewood survivors fleeing from imminent death in January 1923…and secured a train ride to Gainsville. 

Rosewood was a majorly Black/Seminole Indian populated town that had a thriving community where the families owned their own homes and businesses. They were upstanding citizens who were hunted down like wild dogs to satisfy the lie of a woman afraid to tell her husband the truth. As I watched this movie for what has to have been the 4th or 5th time…I looked at how disgusting hate can be. How ironic it was, to have them refer to Black folks as less than human, when it was THEM who displayed the ways of inhumanity. Barbecuing, dismembering and maiming the bodies of lynched and burnt men and women…ugh.

Anyway, I saw this movie and it had my spirit unsettled for a few. I’m ok now…but, I had to let it out. I think in a way, a part of me questions how much of that hate has REALLY dissipated. How just because we’re not being physically lynched, burned and killed…doesn’t change the fact that there are still hatemongers amongst us with the same mentality. The lynching has turned into false imprisonment and unnecessary brutality. The burning is something like rights being violated…and the killing? Well, they’re still doing that…they’re just finding ways to call it justified.

Don’t make NO sense!!

Is This 2009 or WHAT?

I received this email from my friend, Angela after viewing the above picture on her wall on Facebook. I laughed at first, because besides it’s obvious buffoonery (a monkey with a bottle) I laughed a little out of disgust. I’m sure some may have seen this picture and heard this story but for those who haven’t, here’s the email:

In this day and age, racism and ugly stereotypes continue to rear its ugly head. The recent Gates case, the Boston police officer calling Gates a “banana eating jungle monkey”, and others are strong examples.

Racism and negative stereotypical portrayals of African Americans comes in many forms.

John Taylor and his wife, Donna who live in North Carolina , recently went to COSTCO in Greensboro and could not believe what they saw perched on the shelf for sale. As the photos show, the

baby doll is being hugged by a monkey and the doll has a cap on its head that says ” lil’monkey” !They have lodged complaints with the COSTCO Corporate HQS and while their efforts succeeded in getting the doll

pulled from the Greensboro store, the doll is still on sale in Winston Salem and likely in other locations.

These dolls are in insult to us all and need to be pulled from all COSTCO stores or wherever they are being sold. COSTCO also owes their customers an apology. I hope you are as outraged as I am and if so,

call COSTCO HQs and demand that this product be removed from their shelves without delay. It is the “Cuddle Baby” product #404860 and the corporate headquarters number is 800-7742678.

Please feel free to spread the word to your networks to contact COSTCO and demand they stop selling this doll.

Most of us have already heard or seen the fiasco behind the watermelon flavored soda sold in Target with the minstrel-like logo. It’s becoming ridiculous that we’re still fighting THIS level of ignorance in 2009 when we should be evolving AWAY from the blatant hatred of people’s skin color. I sigh in exhaust off of the different things I see daily that set us back hundreds of years. I JUST wrote a blog on how people use the texture of their hair to become classicist within our own people. So, as Black people struggle to get hold of some semblance of unity in the wake of our Black president’s induction…in a country where most media marketing uses our music to touch the younger demographic…where women tan and implant to achieve a more “ethnic” or “exotic” appearance…I just can’t believe there’s a black doll packaged with a monkey. I asked my friend to let me know if there were “Caucasian counterparts” to this doll. Just so that I could relate, relax, release. Yet, when I thought of it, how different would it be? It would be just like the soda can’s other side having a little Caucasian boy on it. All to offset the impact. A few friends laughed and said, that if there ARE other dolls…they’re probably not with the same animal. There might be a puppy or kitten, etc…but no monkey. As I researched, I didn’t find much on any other versions of the doll…but, I did read that there WERE dolls of the Caucasian and Hispanic persuasion that also came with monkeys…but as I said, it doesn’t matter. The damage was done. By the time I’d read about this, the dolls had already been swiftly removed from Costco’s shelves. This one site where it was being discussed in comments had very good points. One person states:

“Mom’s across the world refer to their children as “Little Monkey”, it is a term of endearment like “Sweet Pea”. The “Little Monkey” doll set comes in all ethnic “colors” and is accompanied by an actual stuffed monkey. People look for reasons to be insulted. You would think people would tire of looking for insults around every corner, it’s energy consuming. First you have to convince yourself you look like a monkey, then you have to declare the monkey uncute or undesirable so the comparison is offensive, then you have to find someone to complain to and wait for sympathy. Geeze. Find something better to do with your time.”

She could have a point, but then I am curious to know her ethnicity…yet again, it doesn’t matter. Most BLACK people don’t need to go through a step-by-step process to comprehend the offensiveness. It’s instant. When in the history of racism, there have been certain images and stereotypes linked to our appearance, one doesn’t need to “feel” ugly to see the ugliness in something like this. Some things just need more careful consideration and research when being marketed to a country where the history of slavery and racism doesn’t always quite feel like history. From now on companies should have that ONE token Black dude or chick from the mail dept. to come up and give their opinion. If they’d asked someone from the streets…they would’ve known better.

Do you want to know what is funny ironic…not funny comedic? When I was pushing opinion on the watermelon soda and fighting against it’s imagery, not the fruit…I likened it to the concept of someone throwing a banana in a black kid’s hand and inferring that the child was a monkey. That we wouldn’t stop liking bananas…just the hate behind the concept. Right about now, the thought of a banana is making me nauseous.