Forgiveness and the Black Diaspora...

"...agony is the price that you pay in the end; domination consumes you and calls you a friend, it's a twisted foe..."
--the heavy metal band Pantera, from their album 'Far beyond driven'

On March 22, 1994, Pantera released their seventh studio album 'Far beyond driven' pictured to the left. 

I kid you not when I say I played this album every day for  several months after I bought it. 


Do you remember hearing your favorite musical artist for the first time? I liken it to a person's first crush or the first time they're love struck after being with a man or woman for the first few weeks. 

In my eyes, this band was the most perfect blend of guitar, bass, drums and vocals I'd ever heard in my life; and their lyrics resonated with me on a very visceral level. 

But there was a problem... 

After about a year of obsessing over this band and their album, I found out they were a bunch of white bigots. And, I found out the majority of their fans were largely comprised of white supremacists.

And it was painful...but I had to give up listening to their music.

Now recently, a woman...and I'm guessing she's a Black woman, read my Blog post titled, 'The cult of the curly-haired, light skinned, bi-ethnic looking Black girl', and gave props to Lupita Nyongo for being a dark-skinned Black woman who was named one of the '50 most beautiful women' on 'People magazine's' cover, pictured to the left.   

Now, I agree Lupita's fine; but I commented that the reason they, meaning the white elite, did this, was to emphasize the point that in order for Black men or women to win oscars or be lauded for their work or physical appearance, they have to do something self-debasing like play a slave, butler, crooked cop or maid (reference Halle Berry in 'Monster's Ball' or Denzel Washington in 'Training Day'; also, Denzel was on People magazine's cover as the 'Sexiest man alive' in 1996).

The woman responded back saying she disagrees with my assessment because Lupita is a role model for darker-skinned Black women globally. 

I then commented back the reason I disagreed with her;
but then I said, okay, the nature of debate is to disagree, so I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. 

Another woman, who I'm guessing is Black as well, commented that darker-skinned Black women shouldn't let 'damaged' Black men make them feel bad about themselves; and I thought she was talking about me and my Blog post. 

I was perplexed at why she would get that message from my post when I wrote it to tell darker-skinned sistas to value themselves; then this woman commented back saying she agreed with my assessment of why Lupita was being lauded on the People magazine cover and she was just commenting on how the majority of Black men make her and Black women feel about being darker-skinned. 

This actually made me rethink the main tenet of my Blog. 

Anyone who's read this Blog for a minute knows the main question it poses is: how do we heal the rift between the Black man and woman?

But after this encounter I realized, before we get to this answer, there's a step I may have overlooked. And that is, before we can heal the Black Diaspora's rift, there are certain things we (Black people) have to be willing to give up.

Firstly, we have to give up looking for white people, i.e. the white elite to validate us and our existence. 

Even when we genuinely want to feel better or more empowered about being a Black man or woman, we instantly respond favorably to being praised by white supremacists. 

I remember there was a forum of 'conscious' Black men and women I saw on YouTube who said even though they despised Quentin Tarantino, they saw 'Django Unchained' several times.

I just shook my head. 

But understand, we can only do this once we recondition ourselves at the subconscious level to remove the white supremacist dictator in our minds. This is the only way we'll ever truly love ourselves for being Black...the only way. This is work people, the subconscious mind rules over every cerebral process, and it's NOT user-friendly. 

It's gonna' take several years of meditative 'reps' to recondition ourselves out of this self-hatred.

Secondly, and most importantly, we have to give up looking at Black people with enmity so we can see things not only from a Black man or woman's perspective, but from the perspective of what's best for the Black Diaspora as a whole.

This is the only way we can arrive at a place of finally loving and forgiving ourselves and each other. 

The Black woman who commented about 'damaged' Black men making darker-skinned Black women feel lesser valued can only come to a place of healing once she knows how Black men also feel this way about Black women who say they don't or won't date a darker-skinned Black man. 

Remember, we BOTH SUFFER FROM THE SAME SELF-HATING SICKNESS!

We've ALL been conditioned to dislike ourselves regardless of gender; now, I know that as a Black man it's hard for me to see things from the perspective of a Black woman, conversely, it's hard for a Black woman to see things from the perspective of a Black man...but this is what we MUST DO TO HEAL THE RIFT BETWEEN THE BLACK MAN AND WOMAN. 

WE MUST THINK ABOUT THE BLACK DIASPORA AS A WHOLE...FIRST!

And it's not easy to think this way, or to give up our collective self-hatred; 'cause quiet as it's kept...white supremacy is seductive.

The perks of subscribing to the american or white supremacist status quo are lovely; 'cause there's not much thinking involved...you just do and beLIEve what white people want you to. 

The only down side is, you'll hate yourself for the rest of your life, consciously or sub-consciously for being Black. 

But most of us are not only content to do this, but the overwhelming majority of us don't even recognize this as a problem, especially at the subconscious level. 

And I'm including myself in this. 'Cause years after I learned about the metal band Pantera's views on my people, I still loved their music. 

And, it was HARD TO GIVE UP. But I had to.

Just like the first woman who commented on my Blog post about Lupita's being a role model; it's difficult, but I have to look at this from her perspective. Maybe this sista never saw a darker-skinned sista on the cover of any magazine. And she was using this cover to empower herself.

I have to remember physical beauty means something different for women than it does for men; that doesn't mean that I don't want her to see my perspective on the matter, but I need to realize how this might be the first empowering tool that gets her on a path where she won't need to value herself through the eyes of white supremacists. 

And it might take her some time to get there...just like it took time for me to get over and give up Pantera's music.

So, when you have a critique of your people as a Black man or woman, remember to temper your thoughts with a loving forgiveness, so you don't turn that anger inward and continue to hate yourself for being Black. 

This is crucial!

And I'm not saying you have to hold the hand of every Black person you meet and sing 'kum-bye-ya'; but you should look at the whole of the Black Diaspora the way you'd like to see yourself...with a bit of compassion.

Ma'at Hotep,

MontUHURU Mimia

The cult of the white rimmed 'smart' phone...

The other day I was waiting in an airport lounge whilst I thumbed through a fresh copy of Randall Robinson's book, 'Quitting America: The departure of a Black man from his native land'. (If ya' don't know who this brotha is, google him, and I'll let you know how the book was after I've finished it)

It was only myself and another passenger at the departure gate, which is always preferable. 

I relished the area's quietude while I glanced at the two rows of uniformed and well cushioned navy blue seats surrounding me; and for a second I closed my eyes to take in the assorted scents of fresh brewing coffees from a nearby Starbucks, a concession stand's rotisserie roasting hot dogs and their buttered popcorn that instantly took me to thoughts of my favorite movie theater. I was in a good space.  

After reading a couple of chapters of my book, I caught the sight of a brotha who had just took a seat to the right of me. 

And as is mandatory in waiting areas, he began gazing into his iphone and then took out his complementary ipad.   

Now, the brotha was sitting about two seats away from me, so I could essentially see what he was doing on his ipad. 

He began thumbing through 'reality TV show' selections on Netflix. I saw him scroll past several selections with a finger swipe; and when he came to the show 'Love and Hip-Hop', he saw a display of the Black women on the show. He turned up his nose and kept swiping until he came to the 'Walking Dead' selections. 

He clicked on one of these and began watching. 

What struck me funny, was I don't think the brotha necessarily disliked the show 'Love and Hip-Hop', which I couldn't blame anyone for anyhow, but it seemed he was more repulsed by the display of Black women on its ad. 

Then I began looking over at adjacent lounges, and another thing struck me as odd; that was the ubiquity of white-rimmed cell phones and tablets that seemingly everyone had.   

I remember once, someone told me how seeing a thumb-nailed picture of a white hand on a chalk board writing the word 'education' had nothing to do with reinforcing any kind of white supremacist message.

They essentially said I was seeing 'too much' into things. 

But let me tell you why a white-rimmed cellphone has the same effect as the aforementioned thumb-nailed picture I commented on. 

If you're a Black person reading this, there's two things you need to know about the 'color' white: 

1. The color white really isn't a color; it represents the absence of color. 

And if you notice, the majority of organic substances that come from this earth have color on or in them, while the majority of things that are 'white' tend to be synthetic and harmful to the body (reference white sugar, white rice, white bread...and if you look under a microscope at cancer cells, they are pure white).

2. The color white, especially for us, is a trigger. Meaning, it's meant to initiate a mental knee-jerk reaction. 

That's why I say, one of the greatest instruments of white supremacy is not necessarily its resources of institutionalized bigotry...it's this white bottle of milk pictured to the right. 

This bottle almost single-handedly has every Black person believing in the tenets of white supremacy; probably for the rest of their lives. 

You're probably thinking...ah, come on, you can't be serious!

But when you're an infant, suckling on and gazing into this white bottle of milk, what connotations are you now associating to the color white? Wholesome, nourishing...and necessary to life.

I remember someone saying to me, "...well, a mother's milk is white, right?"

I replied, "Yeah, but when you're breast fed by a Black mother, what color are you looking at?"

So when I see my people gazing into white-rimmed cellphones all the time; I understand what game is sublimely being run on them. 

I remember one sista had a Black colored cellphone, and she had it wrapped in a white cellphone 'skin'. 

And as Black people, we know or should know, that we're conditioned to hate ourselves more than any other ethnic group on the planet; so we have to take pains to recognize these little white supremacist slights-of-hand when we see them.

I wrote a similar post to this about all the white cars I see on the road and car ads selling them. I'll leave a link for that post at the end of this one. 

This just reinforces the fact that our people need to be extremely vigilant when it comes to doing the meditative work to recondition ourselves out of the self-hating sickness the american status quo and educational system has forced on us. 

Black man and woman, let's open our eyes to the overt and sublime attacks being lobbed at us to make us hate ourselves; and let's be proactive in killing this mental klansman in our psyche off for good.

'Cause whether you realize it or not, we're under constant attack by these pale-skinned types 24/7...and they don't sleep when it comes to their agenda.

Sutekh,

MontUHURU Mimia

P.S.

Here's the link for my Blog post 'the cult of the white car' which talks in more detail about the insidiousness of how this color is used on us; you can see it here.

The triumph(s) of Terrance Howard...

Terrance Dashon Howard was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 11, 1969. His parents Tyrone Howard and Anita Williams moved young Terrance to Cleveland, Ohio where he was raised.

Terrance comes from a long line of stage actors and actresses; his great grandmother and several uncles were known in local theater circles, and I think this had more than a small influence on a young Terrance. 

Unfortunately, the artistic temperament of his household, couldn't shield him from the bigotry of prejudiced whites and the american social order. 

One christmas evening, at the tender age of two, Terrance's live would be changed forever.

21 year old Tyrone Howard took his three sons and his pregnant wife to see santa claus at a local department store called 'Higbee's' in Cleveland, Ohio's Public Square. 

Also there, was a 36 year old white guy named Jack Fitzpatrick who was shopping with his pregnant wife. 

Now, there are differing accounts of what happened between these two men, but from what I've researched and surmised, this is what took place: Tyrone had left his wife and children in 'santa's waiting line' while he looked for a certain product; when he couldn't find it, he returned to his family. 

Mind you, Terrance's father Tyrone is a Black man with a very light-skinned complexion, and in a lot of circles he could pass for white. So when he returned to his family, and his wife especially, who was darker-skinned, Jack the inbred asked Tyrone, "...why'd you let some ni@gers cut you in line?"

After an argument ensued, several witnesses say Jack pinned Tyrone up against a wall, kicked him in the groin and started chocking him. 

Tyrone retaliated by grabbing some sort of sharp instrument and stabbing Jack several times in the neck and thighs. Later, Jack perished from his wounds.

Initially, Tyrone fled the scene to avoid the cops who were called; but after a change of heart, Tyrone turned himself in and was incarcerated shortly afterwards.

It's said that the life of Terrance and his family was turned upside down as they had to leave their middle/working class home to reside in a tenement in a rough part of town. 

All thanks to the bigotry of inbred Jack.

This incident was broadcast in Cleveland's local paper as the 'Santa Line Slaying'. 

This was also the reason Terrance's home became completely unstable after his father was jailed; so much so, that Terrance emancipated himself from his parents at the age of sixteen. At eighteen, he moved to New York City to pursue an acting career. 

Originally, Terrance had aspirations to be a science teacher and was attending the Pratt Institute to pursue that course of study; but once he accompanied his brother to an audition for the 'Cosby Show' and got a part, his life was forever changed once more.

Now, when I originally set out to write this post, I was gonna' call it 'The real triumph of Terrance Howard'; but after doing a bit of research on this man, I saw I couldn't limit his triumphs to just one. 

And it's no secret that Terrance is one the Black Diaspora's finest actors. Along with thespians like Don Cheadle and Jeffery Wright; Terrance's seeming ease at conveying pathos and depth of emotion is nearly unparalleled. And his difficult childhood is what gives him such access to the gravitas and range of sentiments he displays so well; so essentially, he took something negative, and made it positive. 

This is Terrance's personal triumph; now I'd like to talk about his professional one. 

The movie 'Hustle and flow' was an indie film released in theaters in 2005. It was written and directed by Craig Brewer and produced by John Singleton of 'Boys in the hood' fame. 

I couldn't imagine anyone out there hasn't seen this film, but for those who haven't, Terrence plays the protagonist 'Djay', a small town pimp who basically becomes dissatisfied with his life and tries his hand at getting into the music industry. 

I remember my conversation with a middle-aged co-worker who said she saw the movie and wasn't very impressed with it, even though it had garnered so much praise. I gotta' admit, I didn't think the movie itself was so hot either, even though Terrance was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars. 

And then, what made the film so exceptional hit me. 

But before telling you what aspect of the film made it great, let's explore the person behind this film's script. 

Criag Brewer said this film was dedicated to Sun records founder Sam Phillips. 

And good 'ole Sam was quoted as saying, "...if I could get a white boy who sings like a ni@ger, I could make a million dollars." 

Shortly thereafter, he began working with a young elvis presley. 

Now, this film is set in Memphis, Tennessee, and I remember one of it's white characters saying, in reference to the rise of southern Hip-Hop, "...this music is coming home..."

Like the american south was ever a home for the Black Diaspora; for centuries, up to and including today, the temperment of the american south has its Black citizens feeling like they're behind enemy lines. But just like elvis, this is another attempt at white guys saying they had something to do with the creative ingenuity of Black culture. The next step is to basically claim it as their own (reference Rock and Roll).

'Cause everybody knows, or at least should know, that the birthplace of Hip-Hop is and was in the South Bronx of New York City. 

But, Craig is acting just like every other neo-liberal, white supremacist, fair-skinned guy infatuated with Black culture (reference Quentin Tarantino). 

Side note: Hustle and flow takes place in Memphis, Tennessee and Quentin Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. Coincidence? 

Anyway, the reason I'm calling Craig a white supremacist, is he scripted one of the most stereotypical scripts I've seen in years. He talks about how Hip-Hop music is coming home to the american south, but his main Black character is a pimp...surely, if you have so much reverence for the culture, you could have scripted a different vocation for its main character. 

But no matter how 'down' with Black culture white people are, their true feelings will come to the surface about how they always feel superior to us. 

Now in order to get the accolades for this film, and a boost into real celebrity circles, Terrance had to play some sort of low life, (reference Denzel Washington's 'Training Day' and Halle Berry in 'Monster's Ball'); but what made this film so exceptional, in spite of it's third rate, bigoted script, is Terrance's powerhouse performance, and the humanity he brought to this lowly character. 

Terrance almost singlehandedly pulled an extraordinary performance out of a script and a film that had no business being 'green lit' in the first place. 

I remember the scene where Terrance is sitting in a church listening to music while tears streamed down his face; it was a testament not only to his acting prowess, but his ability to call up the gut-wrenching feelings involved with music being 'Djay's' salvation; and it spoke to the day that Terrance's father was plucked out of his life indefinitely. 

Terrance's ability to transmit this kind of primal energy radiates off the screen; and it had little or nothing to do with Craig's bigoted, mediocre script. 

A lesser actor couldn't of pulled off this kind of vocational coup.

I'm glad to see Terrance get his shot at real acting stardom; of course, again, he had to do something self-debasing to do it (reference also Chris Rock's joke about ni@gers and Black people), but it's a rare man who can up-end this ritual and keep an almost regal aire about himself in the process.

So I say kudos, Hotep and Sutekh to the Netcher/Neter/Negus/God Terrance Howard; keep it Black and strong bruh!

Later...

MontUHURU Mimia

The cult of Kwasi Enin...

Kwasi Enin is a student who attended William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach, New York. 

He's become a sort of scholastic celebrity seeing as he's been accepted to every 'ivy league' school in this country at the tender age of seventeen. 

Those american 'ivy league' schools are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania and Yale; respectively.

Enin scored 2,250 on his SAT's putting him in the 99th percentile of american students; and he's a first-generation american who's parents immigrated from Ghana. 

First thing I'd like to say is the whole of the Black diaspora should be nothing but proud and complimentary of Kwasi's accomplishments; and he should stand as a grand example for his peers to follow. 

But here's one thing the white american media won't tell you...there's hundreds of Kwasi 'Enin-eds' that you don't hear about on the TV news. 

Google 15 year old Kelvin Doe; who's the youngest person in history to be invited to Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (M.I.T.'s) 'Visiting Practitioners Program'. Kelvin is a young Black inventor who's an engineering whiz, being that he takes discarded trash and turns it into batteries, transmitters and generators. Kelvin lives in Sierra Leone, Africa and is completely self taught, and he's created his own radio station where he broadcasts news and plays music under the moniker DJ Focus.

Or google Bertin Nahum who's a brotha with a Master of Science degree in robotics. In 2010 Bertin created 'Rosa', a robot helping doctors perform brain surgeries; and he's a native of Benin, West Africa.

I could go on, but you get the point...

And I also want to say that my comments surrounding Kwasi's accomplishments are in no way trying to persuade any of you to neglect your studies, especially if you are a young Black man or woman reading this, PLEASE GET YOUR DEGREE(S)! You as a Black person are going to need that piece of paper to gain better access to your vocation, whatever it may be. Especially since so many pale-skinned degenerates are doing their level best to keep you out of their universities.

Now, even with Kwasi's accomplishments, whitey's saying his acceptance into nearly every 'ivy league' school was some kinda' 'affirmative action' fluke.

They seem to forget about the centuries of 'white male affirmative action' initiatives that were and are so pervasive in this country and countries throughout the western power block. Remember, for centuries in this country, you couldn't work in this government unless you were a white man; even white women had to fight for the right to vote! And the last statement is in no way endorsing the white feminist movement which was not only funded by white men, but it's another means of keeping Black men and women apart. I'll discuss this in a future post.  

This and the fact that Kwasi's high scores trump a lot of their own sticks in their craw, 'cause they're suppose to be superior in every way...at least that's what the american social order is telling them.

Mr. Charley and his advocates are saying that white or fair-skinned asians couldn't of got into any of these schools with Kwasi's SAT scores; as if high scoring was so inconsequential and negligible that these kinds of things are just a matter of course for the average white and asian person.

Man, that pisses me off!

Maybe this is a far fetched analogy, but when Obama was sworn in, I heard a myriad of white people talk about how easy it was to become president; I actually told one of them: “Well if it's so easy, why didn't you do it?”

And let's not forget, fair-skinned asians and white people were given billions of dollars in reparations for their holocausts; namely, asians being rounded up and put into concentration camps in this country behind the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the jewish holocaust. Remember, jews are white people who subscribe to judaism...and judaism is a religion, not an ethnicity; meaning, NO ONE'S BORN JEWISH! My point here being, if anyone's deserving of monetary reparations in this country, it's Black people!

Give us back our reparations, and see if we don't do better!

Anyway, it's still kinda' miraculous seeing how the american mainstream is turning Kwasi into a celebrated young brotha...or is it?

I remember growing up, how the only Black men I saw on TV were either criminally insane drug sellers, drug abusers, bafoons or some bastard combination of all three.

Every night on the local news I saw how Black men were demonized in the media and how they were indiscriminately shot down like dogs by thrill-kill police officers.

These images were what I was made to think of myself, or this was set before me as a predisposition for me and my kind. Now, we have examples like Kwasi in the local news, we've sure come a long way...or have we?

Okay, here's the straight dope on why the white mainstream media is in love with Kwasi Enin, and why he's being lauded for his academic achievements...

KWASI IS THE POSTER CHILD FOR MAKING BLACK MEN MORE PALATABLE TO WHITE WOMEN!

Let me explain...remember, I told you how a Black man anywhere is a threat to white men (or people) everywhere; therefore, the white elite don't sleep when it comes to their agenda to keep Black men and women apart. And at all costs, pure-bred, or pure-bred looking Black men and women have to be kept from pro-creating with each other...Enter Kwasi Enin.

This is the NEW and improved version of the demonized Black male sociopath the white mainstream media have been feeding us the image of.

White fascists in this country have done such a job painting Black men as these predators on human life, that NO WOMAN WANTED TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH US...at least for more than a night; but of course, if you were/are a Black man with a million dollars, your story's a little different.

However, if you were/are a working class Black man...you were deemed 'untouchable' by any woman who fancied herself 'upperscale'.

So in order to reverse this, they had to eventually put out an image of a 'chlorine-cleaned', highly sanitized, sensitive and astute Black man like Kwasi.

Again, this is being done so white women especially, will see the pairing of themselves and Black men as more of a natural occurrence, and less of a tabooed curse. (Reference the TV show, 'Swirlr')

Mind you, 'Swirl' is the new vernacular to describe Black men and women dating and mating with white men and women; white elites needed to make this idea 'cooler' and more mainstreamed, so this is the term THEY came up with, with a lot of support from anglophilic Blacks.

Remember, these pale-skinned degenerates WILL NEVER DO THE RIGHT THING WHEN IT COMES TO BLACK PEOPLE. AND WHEN THEY DO, UNDERSTAND THE GAME THAT'S BEING RUN ON YOU!

This is the reason I stress how imperative it is for our diaspora to get rid of the hatred we have for ourselves and our people.

You see how hard whitey goes when it comes to keeping us apart, we're under constant attack from these icy blue-eyed devils. 

Beyond this, I see how Black men and women almost literally throw themselves at white men and women! 

We're shamelessly desperate when it comes to any romantic dealings we have with these people; I shake my head constantly when I see this, it's as if our eyes are saying...please, I'll do anything!

But what we don't seem to get is 99.9% of us who indulge in these behaviors get nothing but f@cked!

We've got a long way to go 'til we undo the indoctrinated self-hatred this degenerate has conditioned us into...but we must work NOW to cure ourselves of this self-hating sickness. 

Or, like I've said in my previous posts, pure-bred Black people will be good as gone; and we'll sit back and wonder what happened to our beautifully dominant skin color and blood line, while we watch ourselves turn into what our enemies are...recessive-traited degenerates.

So let's get to work!

Sutekh,

MontUHURU Mimia