Wisdom

..and the other one
sometimes he makes me smile
then the reality sets in
he's just not that into me
so then, it's back to
self preservation

Bliss

He makes me press my lips into a thin line
this is an expression of the distaste that the thought of him brings
I wonder could there be more
that's funny, very
because deep down in my being
I know that he's really not
capable
of
loving
me

Pool Party

"In this country "American" means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate."
-Toni Morrison

I came across this wonderful quote in the latest issue of The Sun (get you a subscription NOW!) magazine. I was simply elated when I read this. This quote has stuck with me for the past few days. Every since African-Americans set foot on American soil we have been hyphenated from the most simple and basic necessities of life and left at the mercy of the white capitalist power structure. It is simply a shame to have to fight for equal access to bathrooms and water fountains.

I know as some you read this, you are making the same defense used time and time again, "Slavery and Jim Crow is long gone. Racism is not as prevalent as it used to be. We have a Black President." True, but let's not be delusional. Just yesterday African-American children were removed from a Philly pool for simply being "black." When these children entered the pool the white children quickly exited. Which makes it pretty evident that somewhere in these white children's environment and close surroundings (mainly at home) they are learning that African-Americans are "inferior." Hyphenated minorities continue to be discriminated against in employment, housing, and financial practices at alarming rates.

Reality, America is for white folks "others" just have to manage and function while living here. Grabbing the crumbs that fall off the big table of capitalism. Yes, I feel this way while living in the midst of a Black Presidency. We have made strides in this country, African-Americans as well as other minorities, but the foundation and the fundamental principles that this country was built upon remain the same. We operate under a Constitution that at one time stated that Black people were "three-fifths" of a person. Yet and still these less than human beings were the very building blocks of an economic system that sprang America into being a world super power. I can not look up to nor revere men, such as our Founding Fathers, that promoted and harbored such beliefs. A man that conceives in his mind that another human, who is simply another color but yet has all the same bodily functions as himself, as "three fifths" of a person is not sane. Until we change the way our history is taught to ALL of our children there will continue to be Americans and the rest of us will remain"hyphenated." Separate and still not equal.

Philly Pool Incident-CNN

Remember the Time...

RIP Michael Jackson

My heart is heavy right now as I type this tribute. I loved you MJ & you will be truly missed. Your music left a lasting impression....

For Neda...

(photo credit: Getty Images)

"When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak."
-Audre Lorde

Words cannot explain the joy in seeing women young and old fight for revolution within Iran. I want to cry but instead I lift a defiant fist in the air while whispering, “all power to the people.” In a country where a woman is usually seen as totally submissive and having no voice, we now see them being beaten and even killed all while wearing their traditional religious clothing. These women are keeping alive the spirit of so many that have fought for women's rights and justice, in general, all over the globe

Women have always been the "veins" of a revolution. These women stand on the shoulders of such great women as Assata Shakur, Marilyn Buck, Angela Y. Davis, Rosa Parks, and Fannie Lou Hamer to name a few. I just simply want to tell these sistahs, we see you, we are paying attention, we appreciate you, and most of all you are not in this alone.

History has proven that revolutions are born through the young people. It is the young people that are standing in the faces of Iranian police saying, "shoot me and beat me." The Iranian government is learning that you cannot choke the human spirit it will burst at the seams and flood into the streets leaving the blood to speak for itself. Change is inevitable and it will come by any means necessary. For details on a situation such as this ask America for the blueprint.

RIP Neda Agha-Soltan

Cafferty File

CNN

The Ridiculous Right

This morning while getting ready for work, I was listening to a story on NPR about the recent Iranian elections. All I could do was shake my head at the comments from some of the top-ranking members of the Republican Party. Of course, they think that President Obama should be doing more and responding harsher to the recent turn of events taking place after the Iranian elections. For those of you that aren't watching the news, it seems as if the people of Iran have some legitimate concerns about the election being "stolen/fraudulent" in favor of the current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Right thinks that President Obama should impose sanctions on Iranian financial holdings around the world. What??

Oh, how soon do we forget about the stolen/fraudulent elections that took place right here in "spotless" America in 2000! The Right has an ongoing severe case of amnesia most of the time. Did other World leaders seek to impose sanctions or shut down American financial investments around the globe during our election woes? No, they did not. We cannot go around policing the world's elections just because we may not like the policies of a particular country. Yes, I do have a strong belief that the elections in Iran are possibly flawed maybe even stolen but that is an "internal" problem. The people of Iran have a voice and they must take action not America or any other World power. We must get out of this United States of American Police of the World mentality! I have the utmost faith in President Obama to diminish this imagine as much as he can while in office.

To the people in Iran that are calling for justice...in the spirit of the Panthers...ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

The Flight Plan

today I discovered my wings
they peeped out at first
I couldn't believe my eyes
so I did a double take
then all of a sudden
*pop*
there they were
no longer hidden and fully developed
for the world to see
especially those that thought they had me
trapped
no flight instructions needed
my instincts tells me it's time to
leave

Death of the Master

"One thing that all Americans have in common is that they don't have an identity apart from the one on this continent."
-James Baldwin

Your status cannot be a substitute for cultivating your identity. No matter how oppressed or how free you think you may be you must rise above or step outside of those boxes and place a claim on your own life. The American Negro and the American European upon arrival knew they would never be able to return to their native land and have a connection like the one prior to their separation. Therefore, they had to bear one another. It is evident that the American Negro became the oppressed but nevertheless there was still an unusual affection he held toward his master. They were both trying to build a New World and their own cultures therein. The question is, how do you build a culture or a new identity out of bondage? You dig deep down and draw from the spirit that lies within because when you look at your little ones you know you owe it to them. This what our ancestors did. You love in spite of the foot that is on your neck along with the whip on your back. When you hold on you get to the White House you become the head and not the tail. Power blinds. This power blinded the American European. He trusted his status instead of cultivating a new identity. Now he sees that status never lasts forever.

“What is honored in a country is cultivated there.”
-James Baldwin

While one group bore the pain, pressure, and oppression of the other the oppressor was building an economic power base. It started out as the trading of humans for profit. That profit, based on lives that they did not give, laid a foundation for the economic empire that is crumbling today. Those same human beings gave rise to one of the greatest cash crops in the world, King Cotton. The cotton grown on American soil was not the usual white color given but instead it was red. Red because it was drenched in the blood of the slaves that tended and picked it. The American European gave honor to power and money and cultivated those at all costs. Mainly, at the cost of many human lives the same human lives that were their initial cash crop and the building blocks of this country. Somewhere during slavery human life lost its value. I can not pin point where this value was lost. Was it lost during capture, The Middle Passage, or in the cotton fields? Instead of cultivating life and love and building on those eternal things, the oppressors of this country cultivated the temporal things which in turn were vanity. So and economic system build on free labor initially looked promising because there was only profit very little if any pay out. The American European was delusional in thinking that he had a “headstart.” Profit must not be one’s sole measure in life.