Month: July 2020

Leave a comment Posted on current events, real talk

Black Ignorance

I have read a couple of the social media posts of two famous black celebrities and it made me think about why this plight has been so difficult in achieving true equality for our people. Some Black people, once they get a little clout, they forget really just how real the injustice for us is. They isolate themselves to a degree from everyday America and they love to use to refrain ” I don’t care what people got to say” or “I have this with a black person, so there can’t be White Supremacy.” In this case I’m referring to Marcellus Wiley, who hosts a show on Fox Sports One, and Ice Cube. Apparently, these two men have a distorted view of what’s going on in this country at the moment. The reason why is pretty damn apparent; they have a life that doesn’t subject them to the same normalcy that we are and it shows.

Let’s take Marcellus Wiley first. I really get tired of hearing some “I’ve got a little stature” black people talking about how they don’t see White Supremacy because they host one little show with one other black person, who replaced one black person. What kind of fucking sense does that make? I think somebody hit you in the head with a stupid brick because it doesn’t make sense. Secondly, he uses the fact that he was born and living in the world prior to the Black Lives Matter movement being founded, but dumb ass, the movement is just the latest iteration of the Black Civil Rights Movement. It’s the latest organization to attach itself to the cause for the whole. The fact is the movement is a carryover from the decades and hundreds of year fight of black people seeking freedom. Which makes Wiley’s claim that he’s been fighting longer than the movement moot and fucking ignorant.

Additionally, let me take issue with his comments regarding the NBA’s decision to use their platform to keep the movement going in the national mainstream conversation. His statement that it’s going to be divisive to the country to have that displayed sounds like a Conservative line I’ve heard. I guess for Wiley, because he now has his position and money, he doesn’t want anything to upset his apple cart. Well, I’m glad that he isn’t leading this cause. I’m glad that every day folks like myself aren’t taking our cues from him. I guess for many people out there, a little agitation is enough. God forbid we want to truly make substantial change for the community for the race, not just your weak ass pockets. This common narrative seems to be very pervasive through Conservative channels and some in Black America. Because they have reached a level of success, it means that the injustices and inequalities that are obvious and blatant aren’t real. That’s how White America has remained in control.

There is no to be fair for Wiley, because when I read his entire statement, his position is based upon the face that the mission state for BLM says they want to blow up the nuclear family structure and they want to end the patriarchal dynamic that exists. For him, it makes sense right. He is the man of his house and the bread winner, so he calls the shots. I guess if a movement does want to end that thought process and make it more equal mission, that Matriarch or Patriarch is accepted and should be the model. Meaning, either man or woman can be the power and head of their households. Funny, that he doesn’t want to upset that dynamic right. Too many people are concerned with “nation fatigue” with regards to the in your face, unapologetic nature of the movement wanting to force its way to change. I guess in the 60’s when King and Malcolm were pushing for change. When the NAACP and SCLC and other organizations made protesting and lobbying for equal rights an every day issue they were bordering on nation fatigue right? If you got a weak stomach or you’re satisfied with the status quo, that’s fine, you are entitled to have your feelings and positions. But don’t bring you sponge ass on television trying to assert that a nation is going to get tired because people are forcing change, just sit you fuck ass up and let the movement reign.

Now on to Cube. I appreciate all that he’s done and is doing to advance the upward mobility of black people. With his label and basketball league and movie producing. It is something that we can’t take for granted or marginalize. However, he seems to think that he’s on the right side of the issues by aligning with Louis Farrakhan. I’m not sure what planet he walks to think that his mindset is the correct one, but that’s his right to believe it. Just don’t try to correct someone else, because they want to hold the man accountable for his homophobic and anti-Semitic views. Come to see lately, Cube has had his share of Anti-Semitic views as well. His social media has been littered a bit with his anti-Jewish dislike. His portrayals of Jewish people using Black people to their advantage needed context that he was unwilling to provide.

I took some time to research this issue and there is a fundamental issues that needs to be addressed. The Jewish people were part of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and other Slave Trades that caused Africans to wind up here in America. However, the question is did they really play such a large role in the enslavement of African people. Yes they did own slaves, much like British people and Caribbean folks and some African people, along with the French and others. Yet, when we were trying to obtain our freedom in America and Jewish people were here, they didn’t make much of effort to aid in the fight. That is a very valid point that through research has never been explained. They are a group of people that every turn make mention of their enslavement when they were in concentration camps and murdered like they were less than equal.

I think that in our rush to make points about one race versus another, we must be careful to provide the context necessary. We also need to make sure that just because one gets to eat, they don’t marginalize those fighting for all to be able to eat. That’s a problem in our community, we don’t know how to stick together for the good of the race, we just worry too much about the good of the self.

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A Distraction Needed

So, the time has come for the “normalcy” to return as many people keep calling for. We are about to have sports return, television networks filming shows for the fall and for some it couldn’t have come sooner, for others it’s returning at an opportune time. We are still in the middle of a burning hot pandemic, we have a civil rights movements underway and now we’re about to interject the world of sports back into the equation. Many have talked obsessively about the need for the sports professionals to come back and entertain us. Take our minds off the Coronavirus pandemic and the civil unrest that the Black community has undertaken to further our cause for equality. As we sit and wait for the leagues to determine if they will indeed be able to have a season, we are faced with answering the question of whether this will take our eyes off the health crisis and social crisis griping this country.

I have listened to both sides of the coin and I am honestly torn as to exactly how I feel. On the one hand as a fan, yes I want to see the sports world return. To have a reason to laugh loudly, trash talk playfully, watch attentively as my favorite players and teams vie for championships. But, on the other hand, I think about just how dangerous this virus is out here. How it’s hitting people regardless of stature. But how it is disproportionally hitting the Black community. Then too, it’s the protesting and unrest being displayed by black people trying to obtain equality. Trying to get the nation to change from the racist and bigoted ways of the past four hundred plus years. I wonder if this sports return will make some forget that we are still protesting in the streets. Still out pushing and lobbying for change in state legislatures and national legislatures.

I do think that the platform that many of the black athletes will have when they return to live national television, will possibly allow for us to have the conversation furthered to a degree that maybe it still isn’t being received currently. There is something powerful about the most influential athletes openly speaking and displaying the need for reforms. Primarily, because so many white people think that the more financially well off people speaking out makes a situation more important. Also, if these athletes take the position of the community organizers and emphasize more patronage of black business and boycotting those corporations who aren’t showing with actions that they support the cause, it will be more effective.

Yet, sometimes I also feel that it’s very sad and unfortunate that we can’t have regular people be the leaders of this movement. The catalyst can be regular people, but the ignitors have to be famous individuals. This is the unfortunate reality for the Black community but necessary for change to really take hold. Primarily because White America see money as the measure of power, and that’s why black people have to use our collective dollars to continue to hold accountable corporations and white people to ensure that we don’t allow this movement to end. The dichotomy is obvious and the movement taking place hopefully will work towards ending that making this a more fair, equal fight.

Leave a comment Posted on current events, Politics, real talk

That is a symbol of Hate

When you hear that phrase what do you think of? You think of things like a noose hanging from a tree or a cross being burned in the yard of a church or in front of someone’s house. You think of seeing the kkk garments that White people wore. See in general you think of things that are unmistakably racist or prejudiced and all things included. But you wouldnt’ necessarily attach that to having the Black Lives Matter signage painted or displayed on your street or on a billboard. Unless, you happen to be this president or some other conservatives who are looking at things beyond what people are specifically saying the cause is for.

I have a question to Conservative White America. Is this really what you all believe? Are you really that single minded and stuck on power and hierarchy that you don’t care about the lives of the people who you work with, live next to, watch play your favorite sports, care for and raise your children, help build your buildings and cars, who will till your land, who will design your office space or home. How can you really sit and tell me that seeing the racial inequality, the judicial inequality, the financial inequality doesn’t bother you? I think if that’s the case then all the bull shit that you blabber about the flag being sacred and this country being the best ever is just that.. bull shit. How can we live in this society with those thoughts?

Yes I know that that’s exactly the world that we have lived in for thousands of years. For hundreds of years, yes we have had this mentality and you wonder why so many over the years have protested against this country. You wonder why so many black people say that there is no fairness or there is no great American promise for all, because we have been and still are the most marginalized people in the country. I have written about this point many times and I will continue to reinforce it, black people are the only ethnic group that was forced to come to this country. We are the only people who came as a mass into slavery. We are the only people who didn’t get educational and financial assistance upon coming to further our people. I guess for some of you, you think that’s fair because your ancestors down the line benefitted from having black servants. You benefited from having slaves build the railroads and houses and bridges that you used and occupied.

The question that I have for some of you white people, is when you go through Black neighborhoods and you double check to make sure your doors are locked or you make sure to speed up just a little so you get through a little faster, why is that done? Are you really scared of us? Because when you pay us to wash your cars, or we take your orders at a fast food establishment, or you pay us to manicure your lawns, or you pay us to be a mechanic and fix your vehicle? Because, a good number of those individuals live in those exact same neighborhoods that you are so seemingly frightened to go through.

It is a sad commentary that as we are embarking on the next phase of the Black Civil Rights Movement, we’re still left to talk about people who see symbolisms of the movement has hatred or less than. How long do you really want a people to be held down and suffocated? Is there ever a time that you believe that the preamble of the constitution should be applied to all of it’s citizens? Is there such a time where you feel that all people should be entitled to the same opportunities as you and family that came before you? Maybe you will never reach that point. Maybe it will be up to your children and the generations after to see that equality should be for all, on all fronts and that will be the only time when you can say that American lived up to her lofty goals.