obama, dont be a coward

i should first start out with apologizing for abandoning my baby, my blog. boy, its been a hot minute. but with the recent events i had to let it flow.

one thing that has become apparent to me is that a lot of white people have no idea what people of color (black people) in particular are going through. its also apparent that many americans are clueless about us foreign policy.

i know in politics you have to do some posturing. but damn 'bama! im dissapointed that he did not try to stand up for some of the things his pastor was talking about. sure, it might be difficult to talk about how the government is responsible for infiltrating drugs into the black community, but he could have talked about Hiroshima. i just feel like the truth is the enemy right now in america. hence colbert and his whole truthiness bit. white people aint ready for the truth, plain and simple.

so i will start with a widely circulated article quoting reverend Wright:

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.

"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost," he told his congregation.

1. did the united states bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki? YES, killing 220,000 people combined!

2. are the deaths from Hiroshima and Nagasaki more than the deaths of 9/11? YES

i happen to agree with the Rev. that many americans werent loosing sleep when the Japanese were killed.

3. has america supported state sponsored terrorism against the Palestinians? YES South Africa? YES

the first international relations class i took in college was on us foreign policy. i could hardly believe what i was reading. all these years i was brainwashed in high school with random foolishness. its interesting when i read some of the comments about Rev. Wright. do people really not know about us foreign policy? the united states has fiddled in many different countries influencing elections, killing up and coming leaders, supporting coups. all with the hopes of creating favorable conditions for them.

in this day and age you should second guess everything that is said on the news or in the newspaper.

its as if the internet does not exist. people arent using their brains because cnn and fox told them not to use it today. give me a break.

the bodies of Kisangani

watching Hubert Sauper's Kisangani Diary was tough. the bodies are too much. look like something out of a horror movie. they pick up a small boy that has been left for dead. he is too skeletal to cry out. lord help us.

i dont know what it means to starve. or to live in fear of being raped or killed. i dont know what it means to be truly poor. i feel guilty for being overly concerned with having clear skin and fashionable shoes while people are starving. damn im pampered.

the sight of starving people is harrowing.,the knowledge that they would soon all be murdered is unfathomable.

ignorance is bliss, once you are made aware you cant possibly live as if you arent? can you?

speak to me

i allow you to say nothing
when your sweat intermingles with mine
when limbs intertwine
when time passes by too quickly
such silences are laden with stories
shortcomings, fears, insecurities
all the things i need to hear than make
me feel you need me like i need you
however i will not allow silences
that are embolden by miles
miles that make me feel alone
you act like...
hmm

paris hilton walks

im not sure what the sheriff officials were thinking when they decided to let ms. hilton go. it sends a horrible message to society, reinforcing a common belief that if you have money you are in fact above the law.

what makes this situation worse is not only the class issues but also the race dynamics. a black girl or latina would not have received the same preferential treatment.

so paris is crying and is cold at night so she gets house arrest? give her a blanket for goodness sake. it jail! not the hilton.

i have some numbers for people to call to complain. she needs to go back to jail and finish her sentence.

LA Sheriff complaints - 323-526-5541 or http://lasd.org/contact_us/index.html

Board of supervisors of Los Angeles County:

Zev Yaroslavsky- 213-974-3333
Gloria Molina- 213-974-4111
Yvonne B. Burke- 213-974-2222
Don Knabe- 213-974-4444
Michael D. Antonovich- 213-974-5555

Mothers Against Drunk Driving 1-800-438-6233

stop snitching, so cam'ron can make a buck

so i was watching CNN last night and Anderson Cooper had a piece on 'Stop Snitching'. the same piece aired this past Sunday on 60 minutes.

the piece focused on how rap music encourages people not to snitch when they witness a crime. Geoffrey Canada was the voice of reason (thank God)! he commented on how the stop snitching mantra is undermining the moral fabric of the community.

tell me why they featured cam'ron (the rapper) and why was he ignorant as hell? Anderson asked him if he would call the police if he knew a serial killer lived next door and he said something like "no... but i would probably move"

it was so upsetting to see cam'ron so nonchalant and flippant. its as if he failed to see the relevance. although law enforcement has not been the fairest when it comes to communities of color that does not mean that we should not cooperate and in that cooperation try to change the system.

in the same piece, busta rhymes bodyguard was murdered and apparently busta witnessed it. but refused to cooperate with the police, because he didnt want to loose his street cred (credibility).

two things come to mind with this specific case. first, it encourages people to take the law into their own hands rather than let the police do their job. i dont know about you, but i would not want people running around shooting people who they believe are responsible for someones death. now the justice system may not be perfect, but its there for a reason.

second, i think it teaches our young men that they have to 'act hard'. im tired of seeing young boys eschewing their emotions. you know this belief that nothing can hurt them. these are the same young boys who grow into men one day but are unable to hold down jobs, relationships, etc.. because they dont know how to deal with their anger, authority figures, and/or conflict.

cam'ron is a millionaire. that means someone is buying his music. it makes me sick that so many of our rappers have this whack mentality, that seemingly allows them to divorce themselves of the consequences of their work. while they poison our communities with their violence, misogyny, and lack of morals they dont see THEMSELVES as the problem.

cam'ron closes with:

"I just think that rap takes way more slack than the video games and the movies. We don't make guns. Smith and Wesson makes guns," Cam'ron argues. "Like, white people make guns and bullets and all we're doing is rhyming and putting words together."

again. there is a failure to take responsibility in the rap community. own up to it dammit. you cant just say smith and wesson makes guns and leave it at that. yeah, they make guns but they dont force you to use it or idolize using them either.

i would add that just because your record label isn't appalled by your lyrics or maybe even encourages such lyrics... that does not mean you should write songs that boldly claim that snitches should be killed. where is your pride? apparently the money is too good. you would rather sell the whole community to earn a buck.

wake up black people. we have got opportunist amongst us. while we struggle going to school, working, raising kids these rappers benefit off prejudice and stereotypical images of us.

they make millions living grandiose, over hyped lifesytles while they kindle the fire that is slowly burning the fabric of our communities.

pay 'em fair

on pbs today was a documentary entitled 'blackgold' that followed the lives of Ethiopian farmers in a fight to get paid fairly for their coffee.

it was appalling how little these farmers were paid for their coffee. farmers are paid so little that they are unable to provide for their basic necessities.

one case was particularly disturbing. a man who had been a farmer for about 20 years
explained his decision to stop growing coffee and grow chat(khat/mira)(a narcotic that is illegal in many countries). this was especially disappointing to me, because prior to that he had explained that each coffee tree takes about five years to yield good fruit, and yet here he was uprooting his coffee because he doesn't want to die of starvation.

according to the documentary approximately 7 million Ethiopians are dependent upon foreign food every year.

also, Africa's share of world trade is 1%, which is totally shocking to me. they stated that if the trade would rise by another percentage point (1%) that it would equal 70 billion dollars which happens to be the amount the continent receives in foreign aid! aint that something.

i know a lot of us are poor students and or recent graduates. but we must be educated consumers. buy fairly traded products. write letters to the big corporations. in the case of coffee the documentary listed four major traders: kraft, nestle, proctor & gamble and sara lee. you can add starbucks to that as well.

this doc reminded me of another one on pbs about the garment industry in China. the workers were overwhelmingly underage and female. they were working crazy hours i.e. 12- 17 hours straight under very strict rules. companies were buying pairs of jeans for like four dollars. can you remember the last time you saw a pair of jeans for fifteen dollars (giving them 11 dollar profit)and not on sale?

after seeing that i feel compelled to shop at used clothing stores/vintage. i dont want to participate in slavery. which is what that is. lets make no mistakes about it. straight up modern day slavery.

"nappy headed hoes," say what?

i guess im the last person to find out about this. why did my mama call me and in passing tell me that some radio show host called the Rutgers team nappy hoes? at first i thought she said horses, and i had to clarify it by saying "the animal"? and she said no "like the prostitute"!

i saw it on youtube and couldn't understand don imus' rationale. he actually insulted the whole team by calling them nappy headed hoes. i don't understand why they aren't just nappy, but their hoes as well.

it upsets me that white people still go around saying ignorant things about us. it reminds my of high school, when classmates would be weirdly fascinated by my braided hair and ask me questions about how often i wash my hair etc. its like theres this disconnect about black culture. someone recently told me that white people don't have to worry about our culture because there the dominant culture and were not.

his comments also made me think of the hyper sexual characterization of black womens sexuality. i honestly cant grasp why they have to be hoes. i mean does he know them personally, each and every one of them? or is he just ascribing a term to them that society has deemed plausible. oh, they could be hoes because they are black.

hell ya, i think he should be fired. him and his homeboy talking about jigaboos? JIGABOOS? i couldn't believe my ears. on national tv? are they not ashamed? we have reached a day in age where we can say almost anything and then issue an apology the next day. remember michael richardson's n***** comments? didn't he try to apology the next day as well?