(With My) Nappy Said:

“…These identities, outside of my blackness, or my southern-ness or my American-ness, are important. I’m not willing to tell someone in Africa that identifies as Massai, Igbo, or Sudanese that their identity is unimportant and they have throw that away to get to the point of us all being human beings. I can have identities and still recognize the need for unity in people….”

And Sea’s Response:

“I agree and still think we aren’t so far apart in overlapping ideas.

You skipped the step, I said “process the identity” then throw it away. And I’m not even sure what throwing it away looks like since I’ve never made it that far Actually that’s not true. I’ve worked on some things that I held tightly to–the case that comes to mind is of a crush, an obsession on a person–I processed that and was terrified that I’d lose my connection with the person if I didn’t act on the crush. But that was not what happened. The real part of that was love–and I actually had a more real and present connection after that. So that stayed. I threw away the old longing that was not about them.

I don’t expect you to throw away something that’s important to you.

Because whatever is left over after discharging is real. You can’t process away Truth. Who you are won’t go away. And I also would not ask the African individuals to deny their roots and family heritage.

My guess is whatever it is about our identities that merely pits us against each other isn’t helpful.

Thanks for your response”

For those who confuse a “colorblind strategy” and an integrative reality:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8047351706461342401&q=beyond+treason

Here’s a post that gets under the doctrinaire, kneejerk brain-cramp afflicting so many, so called progressives of all stripes:

(http://renegadeevolution.blogspot.com/)

An Open Letter to the Radical Feminists

Re: Please stop degrading me and others of my ilk.

Ladies:

I am allowed to call you that, yes? In any event, I would like to formerly request that as we are all part of the female half of the human species that you cease and desist in treating me and others like me as if we were something less than human. I would appreciate it greatly if you stopped assuming on one hand that I am unable of making my own choices, overly victimized, and deluded, or on the other, unconcerned with women in the sex industry who do not wish to be there, a greedy, ruthless whore, or a man pretending to be a woman.

I realize you all have your studies and statistics and stories, your reasons for feeling the way you do and believing what you do. I do as well. And I do firmly believe that my truth is no more valid than your own, yet the reverse is also true. I’ve not been raped, abused, or forced into anything by anyone. Economically, I am probably better off than a great many people in “normal fields”. I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose what I do and with whom. I am fortunate in that aspect. I also am not the type of sex worker, in any aspect of the field (stripping, nude modeling, porn, escorting, any of it) that ends up in your studies and statistics, because one: people like me do not produce the desired results, and two: though I pay taxes and play everything very safe, the last thing I want is legal trouble. There are more women out there doing sex work who are “in my boat” than you think, women who are college educated or using sex work as a means to pay for their higher education, women who are in various aspects of this business who have stable, loving relationships and do not desperately need the money, women who see sex and not an act of intimacy but as a purely biological function that can be sold just like the skills of a personal trainer or massage therapist. We’ve made a conscious decision, as adults, to do what we do. Trust me, I put a lot of thought into my career choice, and I did so logically.

I went to a potluck Friday night of my racial dialogue group. I co-facilitated a dialogue 6 years ago and the group has stayed together, breaking bread and continuing to converse about race and attending community events that somehow relate to our initial purpose. We do this once a month and its been held together by my good friend, Lady T.

An indigenous, Bolivian man, a newcomer to our group along with his wife, babtized our event with his presence. His wife translated our words for him, as his English was extremely limited.

We spoke about many things. One of the most noteworthy for me was a white woman in an interracial relationship who spoke of filling out applications for her children and being confronted with boxes for ‘Black’ and ‘White’ but no other designation. She was torn because her kids are both; she didn’t want to deny either, and she was concerned about funding that is dangled before one group or other based on the racial data collected by the state. This was a very difficult choice for her.

We spoke about “post traumatic slave disorder” and the ways in which black youth are hindered by well meaning, self-limiting parents through behaviors born of the plantation. We spoke about the perpetual focus on black people as “Problem People,” even among ourselves and how whites seem to escape being tagged racism’s PP’s.

One of our number sensitively asked our Bolivian friend if he had anything to say. His wife translated: ‘I think there is too much talk. We don’t have all of these problems in our country, it is not this complicated. Perhaps it is our difference in age, but we are not so interested in speaking but of doing what we need to do to make things better.”

This was a light bulb moment for me. I have been reading much about the Secret Government/New World Order/Illuminati, the real puppetmasters behind the Matrix presented to us as “reality.” I reflected on how world events are not as they seem, that what we hear on CNN is the phony trail to divert attention from what’s really going on.

I thought of my hero, James Emmanuel, the Paris expatriate who said: “race is something that needlessly occupies our minds…when we should be thinking about something else.” The issue of forms and racial designations and choices about who and what you are, who you should pledge allegiance to, what is your essence, who are your people - all of this became reordered in my mind.

“Somebody profits from this state of affairs - but not YOU!” Mr. Emmanuel bluntly told me.

Yep. Get it, got it…DONE!!!!!!!!

Race needlessly occupies our minds - as does nitpicking about it, about micro-critiquing racism, sexism, homophobia. But when do we get behind and underneath that which is shoved in our face, that which is designed to trigger our insecurities and fears? “What box should I check,” “black leftists scapping with black nationalists,” ” Can You Be Critical of Interracial Relationships if you Have a White Parent?,” “Can you be pro-black and have a preference for white partners?” These and other questions are reasonable within the confines of an insane asylum!

They are insane queries in the context of LEAVING this society behind and creating a New World. If one is still married to the status quo and its underpinnings, then obsessing about what box to check, or what color or gender people’s fuckmates are - makes perfect sense.

But who profits from people asking these silly ass questions? Who profits from people being mired at this level un-consciousness? Who profits from the ‘Black/White Binary?” Who publishes and PAYS for the scholarship that delineates the 32 flavors of whiteniggachinkkikemicwopleftrightcommiecapitalist that exist? Who wants us to remain segregated, mired in who’s ‘black oriented’ or ‘white oriented?’ It is those with the power to project images globally, project images on the moon, it is the land-takers and the soul-RAPERS who profit.

Keeping us mired in an interminable debate, as this brother from Bolivia simply pointed out, allows someone else to keep us at each other’s throats; meanwhile, they take the money and resources and run. I’ve been reading “The End of Blackness” by Debra Dickerson. I haven’t wanted to like the premise and there are many things about it that are troubling. But the premise, ‘that blackness and whiteness must end’ can’t be fucking argued. By me anyway.

They want us to hate each other. THEY want us to be ensconced in our racialized camps, surrounded by moats, drawbridges UP. They want us to call each other out and further subdivide ourselves: “I’m a ‘black oriented’ black person, though my mum is white; he’s a ‘white oriented’, pro-black person who has a preference for white women. Nah nah nah nanaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

This is the cranial calamity that pollutes us. This is why they keep the ‘OJ Simpson template’ handy, keep his name in white mouths. This is why they showed the notorious split screen when the OJ verdict was announced, the cameras at both a white and a black university to document (and manipulate) the responses of black and white folks.

They never want us to get together. They never want us to see our common humanity. They never want us to let go of our ‘legitimate’ grievances. They want us to remain divided/split/resentful. They never want us to resolve our problems, or better still, get to and at the ROOT of our problems and join hands.

They never want us to see who THEY ARE!!!

A tiny elite controls what we think and do. They are the ones who keep us focused on pettiness, nurture our pettiness, enshrine our pettiness. The media claim they only “give the people what they want.” Yep, all we want is war, hate, conflict, disease, murder, mayhem, rape, suicide bombings. We want Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, the NFL/NBA, sex crimes, serial killers and Cops.

We don’t want, but we GET, DU, stolen elections, false flag terror perpetrated by our government. Why aren’t we focused on that?!

This is bullshit. We are smarter than this; we can see through this. Our skins are different; so fucking what?! We can procreate with each other, can’t we?! It isn’t bestiality when whites, blacks , yellows, reds, browns mix and match. You may feel satisfaction being a proud, ‘black militant concubine’ for the ruling class; but you’re only seeing the trees, baby, and not the forest. You’re a righteous house nigga for Mr. Charlie and don’t even know it.

You can rock the Kente cloth, jigga, but for realz, you are leading your people into the ovens. I ain’t sayin’ racism ain’t real cuz we know it is; I’m sayin’ racism be THE “Master Tool” to keep the niggas’ niggas, the whiteys’ white and never the twain shall meet. As long as niggas are complaining about immigration, you know they got us by our brain nuts.

Henceforth, I will call out how THEY do what they do. I will no longer brick myself into a coffin of prideful, racialized ignorance. Race does not exist EXCEPT in our minds. It does manifest in our behaviour, until we free our minds of the criminal’s teaching. We may have different histories and herstories, but we are more alike than different. The lie is that we are fundamentally, terminally unique. Our failure to see this genetically engineered crop is precisely the soil our REAL-EST enemies are busy tilling.

When do niggas drop the rock and graduate to human? I’m taking my mind and my soul back. I’m wearin’ my cap and gown - TODAY!

From CNN:

Chad president orders Chevron out

Saturday, August 26, 2006

N’DJAMENA, Chad (Reuters) — Chad ordered U.S. energy giant Chevron and Malaysia’s Petronas on Saturday to leave the country within 24 hours for failing to honor tax obligations, in a move apparently motivated by a desire to earn more from its oil.

“From tomorrow, the representatives of Chevron and Petronas must leave Chad and close their offices,” Idriss Deby, president of the central African nation, told a government meeting.

The surprise move followed Chad’s decision to create a new national oil company, which it said should become a partner in the country’s existing oil-producing consortium, led by U.S. major Exxon Mobil and including Chevron and Petronas.

Landlocked Chad, which began pumping crude in 2003, produces around 160,000-170,000 barrel per day but most of its people remain poor.

The invention of an enemy or threat, the use of economic and/or political sabotage will come to Chad courtesy of the New World Order.

Come on ya’ll?! ‘Survivor’ announces that they gonna foment some “overt” racial conflict. ‘Bout time, ain’t it?!

This is a new, ‘Takin’ the sheet off and lettin’ ya see our Social Darwinist ideology,’ moment. We should be happy they Keepin’ it Realz.

Aren’t you all tired of the covert, cloistered racism hidden behind maggot gagging, roach munching or the millonth ‘nigga-less’ Friends’ re-run?

Naw, this is THE time for niggas to put up and/or shut up. What we should be doing is passing the Survivor nigga teams EPO and chitlin’s so they can have all the endurance they need to beat the cunning white devil squad. A 21st Century Underground Railroad - with Oprah playin’ Harriet Tubman - should spirit ribs and collards into the black hut; tacos and jalapenos for the Hispanicos, etc, fucking etc.

This is our chance to beat these white muthafuckas at their game. I, for one, want to take full advantage of our natural superiority in strength, endurance and dancing on the ‘One.’

We GOT this shit niggas?! Got it sewn! Stop complaining fo’ they cancel this shit fo’ it starts.

We already took football, baseball, basketball, track, UPN. We got DC, Detroit, Hot-Lanta. Its only a matter of time fo’ we break off ‘Survivor,’ ‘Big Brotha,’ and ‘CSI!’

We Cannot LOSE!!!

If this post is sexist, may I wear gasoline panties in HELL!

To the WOMEN who might read this; I do mention a few sexual acts and parts of the female body that I love and desire in my mate. Please understand that I don’t want to offend you; so be forewarned.

• She’s a Black Woman/Woman of Color

• High intellectual, racial, political, social, spiritual CONSCIOUSNESS

• Emotionally mature

• Able to articulate thoughts and feelings passionately and respectfully

• Watery Deep in every way

• Physically fit – great bubble butt, medium large breasts with sweet, ripe nipples, wild, wonderful hair, long, lean legs, 5’7” – 5’9”

• Passionate

• Well read

• Concerned about the world around her

• Compassion

• Fearless

• Sexually adventurous and wide open

• Creative

• Strong

• Voices needs, wants, tells it as it is

• Wants to hear my wants and needs and is completely open to me telling her about them

• Has good balance of female and male energy

• Committed to growing as a human being

• She extends herself to further her growth and my growth

• She’s emotional and only occasionally irrational

• Nice toes

• Full, sexy lips – both sets

• Can suck dick and loves sucking dick

• Loves receiving oral sex

• Has an amazing sense of humor

• She has her own life and is following her own path careerwise, creatively, spiritually, intellectually

• She’s got financial resources

• She absolutely loves music, particularly jazz and hiphop

• She’s lover of the written word and film ∑ She’s stylish and has a unique fashion sense

• She’s a trendsetter

• Knows what true, healthy intimacy is and craves it

• Intuitive, psychic

• Able to allow me the space I need, but always available to reconnect

• We have an intuitive ability to tune into when to provide each other space and when to provide loving nurturing

• Great relational flow

• She’s a lover of travel and loves to travel whether its with or without me

• She’s my SOUL MATE. I know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. No DOUBT!

• Our interests are similar, yet she has her own thing, her own life and loves, interests which she pursues with my full support

• She is completely in love with me. She is THE ONE!! Tailor made for me.

• She has the depth, the quality, the intelligence, the sensitivity, the heart and soulfulness of my best girlfriends

• We can talk for hours because we are on that spiritual wavelength + that I have caught glimpses of with certain female friends

• Open hearted, tender hearted

• Real, an authentic person trying to become more herself

• Great instincts

• A teacher as well as a student, but not rigid about roles

• Touchy, likes physical contact, giving and especially receiving

• She MOVES me, STIRS me, makes my eyes water in contemplation of her, my heart feels like bursting in her presence, my pride in her and all that she represents is boundless

• She’s a Warrior

• She’s a Goddess

• She’s a Sacred Prostitute

• She allows me to minister to her sexual desires

• She’s extremely supportive; she’s a contributor to my creativity

• She’s my MUSE!

• She believes in me

• She accepts me COMPLETELY

• She’s emotionally and spiritually honest

• Precisely when things get sticky and tough, she moves towards me to heal the rift or disagreement

• She is God’s gift to woman and God’s gift to me

• She is ‘MUTHAFUCKIN’ Tiz-IGHT!!!!’

“I left a comment about your sexism a few weeks ago and you asked for some evidence on your sexism. You are a man, are you not? Then you are sexist. That’s a start. Then there’s your post on what you want from a future girlfriend wherein you outline that she should be of a certain shape and size, love sucking your dick and generally serve your needs. I’m posting here, not because I think there is much use in pointing out your sexism to you, but because I followed a link from a blog I read and it seems that some of the bloggers (women) I read comment here. I wonder why none of these women have called you up on your sexism.”

• Why aren’t you women readers of my blog calling me on my sexism?
• How is wanting a woman as a partner - physically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually - and her wanting me just the same, sexism?
• Am I really a hopeless sexist or do you have some other axe to grind? Did I call you on your racism and this is quid pro quo?
• ‘I am a man/All men are sexist/Therefore, I am sexist.’ Correct?
• Does my race mitigate against my sexism, or are all men truly created sexistly equal?
• Ruth, are you a white person?
• Are you a racist?
• Do you hate black people?
• Could the fact that some of the women who comment here AND on the blog that brought you here recognize something that you don’t?

Love, Julian

The great Knee-grew author, Fox News contributor and chef (Juan-Tom Soup), Juan Williams writes…

“Banish The Bling

A Culture of Failure Taints Black America

By Juan Williams

Have we taken our eyes off the prize? The civil rights movement continues, but the struggle today is not so much in the streets as in the home — and with our children. If systemic racism remains a reality, there is also a far more sinister obstacle facing African American young people today: a culture steeped in bitterness and nihilism, a culture that is a virtual blueprint for failure.

The emphasis on young people in today’s civil rights struggle is rooted in demographics. America’s black, Hispanic and immigrant population is far younger than its white population. Those young people of color live in the big cities and rely on big-city public schools.

With 50 percent of Hispanic children and nearly 70 percent of black children born to single women today these young people too often come from fractured families where there is little time for parenting. Their search for identity and a sense of direction is undermined by a twisted popular culture that focuses on the “bling-bling” of fast money associated with famous basketball players, rap artists, drug dealers and the idea that women are at their best when flaunting their sexuality and having babies…“The real question is how one does battle with the culture of failure that is poisoning young people — and do so without incurring the wrath of critics who say we are closing our eyes to existing racial injustice and are “blaming the victim.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/20/AR2006082000527.html

Who controls the “Culture of Failure,” the culture of “Bling-Bling?” Who indeed is “poisoning” young people? Who controls what Fiftee Cent burps out of his Gucci sewn handkerchief head? Who controls Hip Hop? Who controls MTV? Cable TV? Hollywood studios? Who has black children believing all they need is one ‘misogynistic, gangsta-refried’ record deal? That all they have to do is trade their black dignity for some gold plated chains?

“They get you drunk and then lock you up for being drunk; they sell you whiskey and then lock you up for being drunk. They sell you a deck of cards and then lock you up for using them…Many of our people turn to crime. Stealing, gambling, prostitution; crimes that have been organized by the white man… You don’t organize any crime HE organizes the crime!”

Malcolm X

HE organizes the brainwashing and the propaganda, too. The white man trots out his “colored mind doubles” (Ishmael Reed) to savage black people and to smudge the fingerprints of racism/white supremacy on the door knobs of our wretched condition. White people control the words and images of black people on the radio, on television, on the movie screen. They have a vested interest in degrading our people - it sells - and they utilize all of their powers to affect this (real) degradation for profit.

And then they get their Juan-Toms to cover their tracks.

I received this email yesterday:

“Please stop using the N word. It is degrading. http://www.abolishthenword.com/”

I had a plethora of contradictory responses and random musings:

Is it degrading?

How is banning a word going to make niggas not niggas in a system of racism/white supremacy? Given a choice, I’d rather ban the practice of R/WS than Nigga.
Is the energy to ban the so-called “N” word useful? Could that energy be better spent trying to end the conditions that make black people and other non-whites “functional niggas?”

Maybe this anon has a point; perhaps this word is degrading. Maybe I should just stop using it?

One of the points made on the ‘AbolishTheWord’ is that one of the last words black people probably heard when they were lynched was nigger; the “N” word is so closely asssociated with lynching that use of the word triggers trauma in black people.

I’d rather be called what I am, rather than the current state of affairs, where white folks smile ‘32 pearly white niggas at me on a daily basis.’

I actually like the word, I like how it sounds when some black people use it, including myself. The word is incredibly powerful and as a writer I lust after words that live, breathe and sting truthfully.

I do believe the word can be used irresponsibly, however, I have no hard and fast rule regarding its usage by others. I refuse to use the word in anger at other black people, as in “I love black people, but I HATE niggas!”

It is the conditions that make us niggas culturally, economically, socially that I object to, NOT the word, though, clearly, I don’t want to hear some white person using it liberally.

Truth is very important to me and banning words and burning books is not for me. We need to FEEL shit, instead of neutering words while the conditions they describe continue to expand.

What cha’ll think?

What if Democrats and Republicans are two horns of the same devil perched on your shoulder offering you a choice between bubble wrapped indentured servitude and   booble headed-chattel slavery, strung with a red, white and blue noose …

What if electoral politics is actually “electronic poli-tricks,” a ‘mind control’ operating system, featuring software promoting citizen control that masks the hidden hand of the nefarious programmers who rig the votes as they wag our tails…

What if “freedom” is an illusion and we are fat, happy retards who suck our fairytales and CNews through a fruity straw

What if we just said NO and stopped feeding the machine our tax/gas/cable/utility/medical bill/rent/auto and mortgage $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$…

What if we had a bloodless revolution and ceased participating in ANY way with this mad, Nazi, fake-patriotic, treasonous, ignorant, manipulative paradigm…

What if the dead zone found off the coast of Oregon last week, in which thousands of crabs and other marine life were found DEAD due to lack of oxygen - was OUR fate…

What if…

it doesn’t have to be this way…

Blogging While Wack

Some criticisms are welcome. If I receive compliments from my enemy - I’m doing something wrong. When certain white folks rip me, I feel like I’ve won an Oscar. They don’t realize I’m trying to “separate the game from the truth;” I want to provoke, trigger them to expose themselves. Their true selves. (Addendum: When some POC’s rip me, I feel like I’ve won a Tony)

I will not allow certain words or statements to be said on my blog - about me or about people I care about. GONE! There’s no debate, YA just out. If you can behave yourself like a civilized human being - we can talk. But this is my house, you’re an invited guest - until you violate house rules.

One of the great lessons I’ve learned the last few years is that divisions like “conservative” or “radical” are quite narrow, and in fact, are non-existent when it comes to race. There’s a suprising unanimity among white folks across party lines when it comes to niggas and questions of white privilege, racism, or justice. The liberal/progressive/radical uses different tactics to convey the same resistance to kicking white privilege. The sheets folks wear now days aren’t white and they aren’t visible; these New Age Sheets are their ideologies, their opinions, their stances and “Ultra-Bright Smiles.” They hide their racism behind the Maya Angelou, the Toni Morrison, or the “Our Bodies, Ourselves” books on their bookshelves; under the Bob Marley records on their coffee tables, or in their bees wax jars.

Niggas have to constantly unmask the Left, as well as, the Right Wing Racists. Two wings of the same bird.

The disbelieving Birkenstock-set like to interrogate colored folks utilizing the Socratic method. These dred wearing Columbo’s prefer marathon Q&A sessions that go over the same ground over and over again - with or without shining a light in our faces. They understand little of what they ask and less of what they’re patiently spoonfed.

Who has time - let alone the patience - to play ‘Kizzie to Miss Anne in 2006?’ Sorry, but I lost my handkerchief in the 1860’s.

No wonder “non-white” bloggers threaten to quit the blogging game - who wants to wrestle a 400 pound gorilla that keeps fracturing your toes? The white anti-racist poseur-neophyte who “trys to understand” racism, is like an enormous, food flinging infant, who makes a complete mess while feigning surprise when mommy and daddy get pissed at their outrageous behavior. Can white folks be this ignorant, or, is this what Racism/White Supremacy in a progressive girdle looks like:

“I think that nubians acceptance and promotion in the feminist blogsphere is pure tokenism, because it sure has nothing to do with her quality of work. She outlines things in the most simplistic, black and white, and imflamatory ways to clearly prove that she is always right and everyone else is always wrong. Real criticism is always just racism in disguise and she never addresses any of it.” Sarah.

Black thought is always “reverse racism,” “tokenized,” (they practice affirmative action in the blogosphere, too?!) “inflamatory” or “simplistic.” According to this view, we just raised our knuckles off the ground! And poor Sarah, who, in the little pie slice above, demonstrates EVERY failing she accuses Nubian of, positions herself as both the grand inquisitor and judge…. Sounds like a “White Wack Addict” to me.

I ain’t sayin’ niggas can’t be wack as hell, that we can’t whack each other; the only difference is we don’t have a dominant culture or global system backing our bullshit. One of the main reasons I take on Racism/White Supremacy FIRST is: how’re we gonna address our internal “injuries” when we haven’t dug niggas out of the rubble of racism STILL raining down on us? We’re still in the disaster area, still at Ground Zero catching sniper fire. How we gon’ get on the same page/pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, when, every day, we’re ducking and dodging the slings and arrows of our so-called white friends, our avowed, un-closeted white supremacist enemies and their shared, pervasive ‘Golden Goose’ of a system?

Oh, the enemy allows us to surrender, waving a ‘white flag,’ our hands up AND our dignity and trousers around our ankles. Want a free pass? Be a Chia Pet for the white man; you can pull an Armstrong Williams and get paid to write what your white handlers tell you to; Be a ‘Sell-out Shelby” and trade on your blackness to gain entry to the academy and Harper Collins. “Bootlicking Larry’s” can get radio & television shows AND book contracts to pump rounds into their own people. And these white folks who critcize strong black women, feminists who shoot their hate speech for Niggas ‘Telling It Like It Is’ from the hip - ain’t got shit to say about ‘Plantation Patty’s,‘ Michelle Malkin or LeShawn Barber.

Naw, those are good niggas. Having a: “put your hands up, pull your pants down, spread your cheeks” mentality, will gain a nigga a fat bankroll, head pats or hair tugs that exemplify MAKING IT. But what have you made it as, NIGGA?! That is the question. If Malcolm was right and “we didn’t land on Plymouth Rock; (but) Plymouth landed on US,” then, don’t we have to raise this muthafucka off our ass before healing can even begin? Shouldn’t niggas demand white folks standing on our necks get the fuck off and listen???? Don’t we need all hands on dick to dig our colored asses outta the wreckage? That’s why I blog…but cha’ll don’t hear me tho’.

Have a look around, let me know what you think.

Peace Niggas!

“If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.”

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.”

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.”

“Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.”

“My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.”

“It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.”

“I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic — in the sense that I live in my world. I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself.”

“Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live.”

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection”

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

Henry Miller:

“I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.”

“I have never been able to look upon America as young and vital but rather as prematurely old, as a fruit which rotted before it had a chance to ripen.”

“Life, as it is called, is for most of us one long postponement.”

“Topographically the country is magnificent - and terrifying. Why terrifying? Because nowhere else in the world is the divorce between man and nature so complete. Nowhere have I encountered such a dull, monotonous fabric of life as here in America. Here boredom reaches its peak.”

“No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.”

“Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense.”

“Hope is a bad thing. It means that you are not what you want to be. It means that part of you is dead, if not all of you. It means that you entertain illusions. It’s a sort of spiritual clap, I should say.”

Visible Man said… I found this quote by the right-wing Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky from the mid-early 20th century that says pretty much everything that’s wrong about Israel.

“There can be no discussion of voluntary reconciliation between us and the Arabs, not now, and not in the foreseeable future. All well-meaning people, with the exception of those blind from birth, understood long ago the complete impossibility of arriving at a voluntary agreement with the Arabs of Palestine for the transformation of Palestine from an Arab country to a country with a Jewish majority. Each of you has some general understanding of the history of colonization. Try to find even one example when the colonization of a country took place with the agreement of the native population. Such an event has never occurred. “The natives will always struggle obstinately against the colonists - and it is all the same whether they are cultured or uncultured. The comrades in arms of [Hernan] Cortez or [Francisco] Pizarro conducted themselves like brigands. The Redskins fought with uncompromising fervor against both evil and good-hearted colonizers. The natives struggled because any kind of colonization anywhere at anytime is inadmissible to any native people. “Any native people view their country as their national home, of which they will be complete masters. They will never voluntarily allow a new master. So it is for the Arabs. Compromisers among us try to convince us that the Arabs are some kind of fools who can be tricked with hidden formulations of our basic goals. I flatly refuse to accept this view of the Palestinian Arabs. “They have the precise psychology that we have. They look upon Palestine with the same instinctive love and true fervor that any Aztec looked upon his Mexico or any Sioux upon his prairie. Each people will struggle against colonizers until the last spark of hope that they can avoid the dangers of conquest and colonization is extinguished. The Palestinians will struggle in this way until there is hardly a spark of hope. “It matters not what kind of words we use to explain our colonization. Colonization has its own integral and inescapable meaning understood by every Jew and by every Arab. Colonization has only one goal. This is in the nature of things. To change that nature is impossible. It has been necessary to carry on colonization against the will of the Palestinian Arabs and the same condition exists now. “Even an agreement with non-Palestinians represents the same kind of fantasy. In order for Arab nationalists of Baghdad and Mecca and Damascus to agree to pay so serious a price they would have to refuse to maintain the Arab character of Palestine. “We cannot give any compensation for Palestine, neither to the Palestinians nor to other Arabs. Therefore, a voluntary agreement is inconceivable. All colonization, even the most restricted, must continue in defiance of the will of the native population. Therefore, it can continue and develop only under the shield of force which comprises an Iron Wall through which the local population can never break through. This is our Arab policy. To formulate it any other way would be hypocrisy.”

Its Called Cultural Appropriation, FOOL!!

Cultural appropriation From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It denotes acculturation, but often connotes a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture.[1][2] It can include the introduction of forms of dress or personal adornment, music and art, religion, language, or social behavior. These elements, once removed from their indigenous cultural contexts, may take on meanings that are significantly divergent from, or merely less nuanced than, those they originally held. Or, they may be stripped of meaning altogether.”

In the dreads/cultural appropriation post recently, several of the white commentators, sought to muddy the water and confuse the issue by removing the context: “…connotes a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture. To deemphasize the fact that we live in a white supremacist/racist culture, these apologists for cultural rape seek to make an A/B comparison between whites wearing dreads and, say, black Americans wearing clothes from the Gap. I submit that, one is cultural appropriation; the other is borrowing from the available tools in the toolbox. One person is a member of the dominant group that controls every aspect of the society; the other is a member of an oppressed group that controls nothing.

Another tactic that they use is to identify the “origin” of a practice to indicate that it has been appropriated/borrowed “by many others” for centuries before white folks got around to pilfering it. So dreads being worn in Asia or Ireland long predates the Rastafarian movement (the fact that most dread wearing whites have only seen ‘locks in “The Harder They Come” or Bob Marley videos notwithstanding).

Here’s where the fun begins. The cunning white chess playa shovels out a coupla… “Red herrings, introducing irrelevant material to the issue being discussed, so that everyone’s attention is diverted away from the points made, towards a different conclusion.” OR “Straw men where they misrepresent someone else’s position so that it can be attacked more easily, knock down that misrepresented position, then conclude that the original position has been demolished. It’s a fallacy because it fails to deal with the actual arguments that have been made.”

Examples include: “Personally, I don’t think encouraging White people to stay in their White bubble and only partake in “white” hairstyles is going to solve racism.” OR “Where do we draw the line….white people should not eat okra soup, white people should not learn aboriginal languages, white people should not wear baggy pants (as a previous poster said). And while we’re at it, “blacks should not play golf,” “nobody but American Indians should play lacrosse,” “only Americans can play basketball.” These are classic examples of using logical fallacies to torpedo serious conversations about racism/white supremacy. Rather than listening, listening some more and listening HARDER still until you actually comprehend what’s being said; the white person assigns themselves the “expert” position. The fact that R/WS might fatally compromise their ability to analyze their privilege and blind them to their complicity and perpetrator status in CA is not considered.

“I eat granola, pump Jimmy Cliff and am on my 15th pair of Birkenstocks. My veggie turds stinketh NOT!”

The conversation that the “enlightened” comments were made on was not about SOLVING racism through white folks “only partaking in white hairstyles.” Here’s what the conversation was REALLY about: “The traditions of people of color/non-white people (that) are still under attack across the planet. Appropriating our traditions and ways of dressing/presenting is a further attack on our communities.” AND “Appropriating other cultures means you neglect looking at your own ethnic roots and traditions.” {How many niggas have heard a white person say (whiny, nasal voice), “gee, fella, we don’t have any culture”? Probably because your sunburnt nose is strapped to the grindstone stealing other people’s cultures. Where would white folk find the time to even begin looking at their own culture?}

AND that conversation was also about: “The struggle against racism is more than just not saying racist comments or knowing that the United States was built by slave labor. It is also a struggle to recognize and understand the ways racism/white supremacy are woven into every aspect of life. One of the ways racism plays out which is often ignored or not seen by white people is through appropriation, “the act of taking or making use of without authority or right.” Appropriation ignores the lives and struggles of oppressed communities, and instead takes what is seen as interesting, useful or beautiful, disregarding our cultures and lives. In the US and other countries, appropriation is part of long histories of racism and genocide. Colonial governments and peoples appropriated the homelands of First Nations/Native people. Europeans appropriated the bodies and labor of African peoples during slavery.”

But these white folks don’t want to deal with HOW “racism/white supremacy is woven into every aspect of life.” They want to know if they’ll have to stop eating okra soup. ‘Where is the line,’ they cry, the line between what niggas’ll surrender by intimidation or coercion and what white folks’ll have to send the military in for later. “Appropriation ignores the lives and struggles of oppressed communities” and when discussing it, cultural appropriators ignore anything that interferes with their “having” everything. Actually seeing how CA operates? Hah. Boil it down to okra and basketball; absurdify the proceedings and maintain a death grip on your ‘White Card; don’t leave home without it!’

“Among progressive/radical white people, the problem of appropriation continues to damage communities of color. Mohawks and dreadlocks worn by non-Native/non-African people is one form of appropriation that often goes unnoticed and unchallenged and is often misunderstood. Healing the legacy and current reality of racism and colonization means looking closely at the ways we perpetuate these forms of violence. It means, in part, letting go of cultural symbols that are appropriated from people of color/non-white people and instead looking deeply at the complex issues that surround race and racism.

But these people who act as if culture appropriation is their birthright (which it has been) aren’t really interested in OUR healing. They aren’t concerned about the damage and violence done us by cultural appropriation. They pretend not to recognize that dreads and Mohawks are but “one form” of cultural thievery. These Left-Right white folks aren’t interested in ending racism/white supremacy - if it means having to give up okra, or white privilege. Nope, as long as its painless, costless and seamless, these white folks are all for social change. If they were actually interested in our liberation, they’d be riveted on understanding the affect of racism/white supremacy on non-white people, instead of leaping, IMMEDIATELY, to what THEY will lose and how we are simplemindedly taking it away from them. This is pure selfish entitlement. Fuck your swing and your mojo: I ain’t your muthafuckin’ Bagger Vance!