Leonard
Albert Kravitz, a.k.a. 'Lenny' Kravitz, was born on May 26th,
1964 in Manhattan, New York City. His mother, Roxie Roker, was a well
known actress who played 'Helen Willis' in the 1970's sit-com 'The
Jeffersons'; and his father, Sy Kravitz, was an NBC television news
producer.
Lenny's parents noticed he began banging on pots and pans in the kitchen, playing them as drums at the age of 3. At five, he expressed how he wanted to be a musician. Years later, he began playing drums and soon picked up the guitar.
In 1974, the Kravitz family relocated to Los Angeles when Lenny's mother Roxie landed the role on The Jeffersons. At the behest of his mother, Lenny joined the California Boy's Choir for three years, and with them, he also sang with the Metropolitan Opera. Kravitz attended Beverly Hills High School, where he would meet a young 'Slash', who later would play guitar in the rock band 'Guns and Roses'; and in 1978, Kravitz was accepted into the school's well respected music program. Lenny's goal out of school, was to be a studio musician; and he also acted in TV commercials during this time.
After spending the better part of a decade playing small clubs and producing several demos, Lenny landed a recording deal with 'Virgin' records, and put out his first album, 'Let Love Rule' in 1989.
Now, fast forward to March 9th, 1993; Lenny puts out his magnum opus, the 'Are you gonna' go my way' album. This record represented Lenny at the peak of his powers. And this album, its single and its accompanying video, solidified Lenny's status as a bona-fide rock star. And I mean rock star in the pantheon of the all time greats like Jimi Hendrix, Little Richard and Chuck Berry; and that's not to say he's as talented as the aforementioned three master musicians. But what it also did was solidify Lenny's status as more of a 'white' rock star, like a Robert Plant or an Axl Rose (google these guys if you don't know who they are). And I especially remember the video for 'Are you gonna' go my way' the single. In its opening scenes, Lenny stands beneath a 'halo' of light(s) that descended onto his head; this was meant to simulate and reinforce the white christ mythos; or as spanish people call him, christo blanco. And the jesus christ post Lenny's striking in this vid, is meant to tether him and his music to more of a white audience. This and Lenny's bi-ethnic background, made him even more of a sex symbol to white women.
Now, let's fast forward again to November 24th, 2000; gone were Lenny's lovely locks, and his star power had somewhat diminished; but the general public still knows who he is. That is, the majority of people in america know who he is...and let me explain why I'm making this statement.
On the above date, Lenny was walking on Collins Avenue, in Florida's Miami Beach area. He was with his personal trainer after a workout they'd had at a neighborhood gym. Three cop cars screeched to a stop in front of Lenny; he thought maybe one of the cops, who was a fan, recognized him. Then one of the cops gets out of his car and yells at Lenny, “Hey John, come over here.”
Lenny told the cop his name wasn't John, but that didn't stop them from slamming him up against one of their patrol cars and slapping handcuffs on him. They told Lenny there'd been a bank robbery in the area, and he fit a description...ya' know the one, Black and male. These cops pinned Lenny's personal trainer, who was spanish, to a gate. Lenny's trainer tried telling them who he was, but the cops said they were looking for a Black man with an 'afro' and a beard...boy, doesn't that narrow a search down!
After the cops told Lenny a near-by Bank of america branch had been robbed, they summoned one of the bank's tellers to the curb where they had Kravitz cuffed. And Lenny at the time was just in sweats, and had no ID on him. This woman bank teller told the cops emphatically, that they had the wrong guy.
The Miami Beach police spokesman at the time, Bobby Hernandez, said he had no record of the Kravitz incident. Hernandez even said he was surprised to learn of the cuffing. "Usually, we don't handcuff unless we're provoked," says Hernandez, who was trying to find out more about the story. He did say, however, that the robbery suspect was still at large afterwards.
Lenny was shocked that something like this could still happen in america, and wrote about the incident in his song, 'Bank robber man', on his 2001 album, 'Lenny'.
Now, even with Lenny's bi-ethnic looks and star power, the cops treated him like he was just another nigg#r...Lenny's dreams of multi-cultural and multi-ethnic bliss were gone. He'd officially gotten his Black wake-up call.
This also reminded me of the Black wake up call that Henry Louis Gates Jr. got a few years back. You know, the Black Harvard professor who was arrested for trying to get into his own house, when his door was jammed. The white neighbors he loved so much, were the first ones to call the cops on him. And even though Henry tried showing the cops his ID, to prove that the house he entered was his, they still lead him away in cuffs. Even though he wore nothing but slacks, collared shirts and penny loafers...and again, had a Harvard pedigree.
I'm bringing these incidents up to make a point about why our young brothas are wearing 'saggin' jeans.
Now, if Black people, who are 'morally upstanding', and fit the profile of 'certified pre-owned negros', are being treated this way, and our young Black men see this, then what would inspire them to emulate these pseudo-Black men?
I remember the Black politician Ras J. Baraka, who's now Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, saying that saggin' jeans make our young men look 'retarded'.
Now, after incidences like the shooting deaths of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Amadou Diallo...and ya' know I could keep goin'; and one of the mother of all travesties foisted on Black americans, Hurricane Katrina...and more recently, the shooting deaths of a Southern Carolina bible study group perpetrated by Dylann Roof, I ask who looks more retarded, our young Black men who are wearing saggin' jeans, or the Black adults who continue emulating their oppressors by wearing tight, european-styled three piece suits, dresses, shoes, and the like?
And mind you, our African ancestors never wore tight, restrictive clothing; europeans introduced us to these kinds of fashions. So whether our children know it or not, they're emulating their ancestry more than Black adults are. Meaning, our young men, are more in their right minds than we are.
Now, for the record, I confess that I don't like the way saggin' jeans look on our young men; and personally, as a middle-aged Black man, I wouldn't be caught dead in them. But, that doesn't mean I don't see why our young people, especially our young Black men are doing this. What they're saying to us, and the world is, why should we emulate the very people in this white fascist (american) social order, who want us dead?
And like I said in the first post of this series, while we're calling them idiots for how they dress, they're showing us how smart they really are. 'Cause defying the american status quo that's hell-bent on killing you and yours, is STRAIGHT UP INTELLIGENCE!
The other reason I'm writing this post, is recently, I saw a documentary on the 90's R&B group, 'Kid and Play'. Ya' know, the two young men who starred in the 'House Party' movies...and I remember the baggy attire they were fond of wearing later in their careers. I also distinctly remember Chris 'Kid' Reid saying that after his mother was killed in a car accident, he went to live with his father. Now, where they moved was a white section of Staten Island, New York; and Chris says that neighborhood was probably, “the most racist place on God's green earth.”
Chris detailed how he got chased from school, from fishing in his local pond, and almost every other place in that borough, by gangs of white bullies. And being that his father was experiencing this as well, he moved them to an all Black neighborhood in Queens, New York. And when Chris speaks of that neighborhood, he literally said, “Whew...thank you, there was no more running for a while.”
And I tell you, until that moment, I realized I'd never once heard a Black person say they were glad they moved from a white neighborhood, to an all Black one.
I'd always heard the opposite.
And this solidified to me, the types and the magnitudes of Black self-hatred, myself, and every Black person I know, has been indoctrinated into.
So ultimately, what I'm saying is this, Black elders have got to stop damning our youth in favor of whitey and their (destructive) culture. I remember one day when I lived in New York, I was in Times Square and I passed a group of Black Isrealites. Now, you would think these brothas would be pro-Black to the core...well, they were, except in the case of young Black men. I remember the leader of this particular group saying he was glad a young Black man was shot down 'cause he was a rapper. I forgot the rapper's name, but there were some other middle-aged Black men who listening to this imbecilic Black Isrealite, while they clapped gleefully at the mention of this rapper being shot dead. And I'm thinking, how stupid are these middle-aged men, when white cops treat them the same way they treat our youth.
ANYONE REMEMBER RODNEY KING?
Now, some may say the LAPD didn't kill Rodney the night they surrounded him and beat him within an inch of his life; but they certainly finished the job after he put his book out. And I might write about that incident in a later post.
So before we go pointing fingers at our young men for their styles of dress, or any negative behavior they might exhibit, we need to point the fingers back at ourselves and ask what resources have we truly left for them to survive and thrive with? Why is it that our young people still have to go to all sorts of non-Black people to get a job? Why are we not at least doing more to provide them with a better education at the grade, middle and high school levels, that doesn't teach them to hate themselves?
So before we begin chastising our young men about their style of dress, let's go down to our local police precincts and chastise those badge wearing inbreds for shooting down our children.
It's high time the Black Diaspora got back into our right minds, so we can unite and strategize for what whitey's got in store for us.
We need to understand that with white birth rates falling below replacement levels, white fascists are constantly on their grind to find the next round of weaponry they're gonna aim at us. Now, whether it's biological, financial, physical or psychological, we know they can't stop, won't stop, until they rid this world of us completely.
So to every Black man, woman, child, senior, etc.; let's put ALL our differences aside, so we can have a chance at surviving what whitey's got in store for us.
'Cause ya' know...it ain't gonna' be nothin' nice.
KEM WESIR!
MontUHURU Mimia
P.S.
You can check out the first part of this Blog series by clicking here.
P.P.S.
Here's the Lenny Kravitz video for his single, 'Are you gonna' go my way'. Notice after the white halo descends onto Lenny, at 14 seconds into this video, we see a young Black man with a bar code on his T-shirt. This signifies how white fascists are intent on associating themselves with, and exploiting the culture(s) of young Black men, to make their white mainstream culture look 'cooler'. And this is ultimately what white fascists were doing with Lenny in this video...especially in terms of the white christ story. Also, check out how at 31 seconds in, you'll see a prominent scene of a Black woman dancing with a white guy; this happens again at 1:01 seconds into this vid. This is the typical divide and conquer tactic that will be employed by white fascists into perpetuity. They always gotta' keep Black men and women separated, as per the 'Willie Lynch letter'.
Also, notice how this vid says it clocks in at 3:34 at first; but when you play it, how it switches the entire vid's run time to 3:33. Now, there just happens to be 33 degrees of white supremacist freemasonry...but there's also a higher degree designated for white freemasons exclusively, this is called the '33 and a third' degree. Coincidence? Hmmm...
Lenny's parents noticed he began banging on pots and pans in the kitchen, playing them as drums at the age of 3. At five, he expressed how he wanted to be a musician. Years later, he began playing drums and soon picked up the guitar.
In 1974, the Kravitz family relocated to Los Angeles when Lenny's mother Roxie landed the role on The Jeffersons. At the behest of his mother, Lenny joined the California Boy's Choir for three years, and with them, he also sang with the Metropolitan Opera. Kravitz attended Beverly Hills High School, where he would meet a young 'Slash', who later would play guitar in the rock band 'Guns and Roses'; and in 1978, Kravitz was accepted into the school's well respected music program. Lenny's goal out of school, was to be a studio musician; and he also acted in TV commercials during this time.
After spending the better part of a decade playing small clubs and producing several demos, Lenny landed a recording deal with 'Virgin' records, and put out his first album, 'Let Love Rule' in 1989.
Now, fast forward to March 9th, 1993; Lenny puts out his magnum opus, the 'Are you gonna' go my way' album. This record represented Lenny at the peak of his powers. And this album, its single and its accompanying video, solidified Lenny's status as a bona-fide rock star. And I mean rock star in the pantheon of the all time greats like Jimi Hendrix, Little Richard and Chuck Berry; and that's not to say he's as talented as the aforementioned three master musicians. But what it also did was solidify Lenny's status as more of a 'white' rock star, like a Robert Plant or an Axl Rose (google these guys if you don't know who they are). And I especially remember the video for 'Are you gonna' go my way' the single. In its opening scenes, Lenny stands beneath a 'halo' of light(s) that descended onto his head; this was meant to simulate and reinforce the white christ mythos; or as spanish people call him, christo blanco. And the jesus christ post Lenny's striking in this vid, is meant to tether him and his music to more of a white audience. This and Lenny's bi-ethnic background, made him even more of a sex symbol to white women.
Now, let's fast forward again to November 24th, 2000; gone were Lenny's lovely locks, and his star power had somewhat diminished; but the general public still knows who he is. That is, the majority of people in america know who he is...and let me explain why I'm making this statement.
On the above date, Lenny was walking on Collins Avenue, in Florida's Miami Beach area. He was with his personal trainer after a workout they'd had at a neighborhood gym. Three cop cars screeched to a stop in front of Lenny; he thought maybe one of the cops, who was a fan, recognized him. Then one of the cops gets out of his car and yells at Lenny, “Hey John, come over here.”
Lenny told the cop his name wasn't John, but that didn't stop them from slamming him up against one of their patrol cars and slapping handcuffs on him. They told Lenny there'd been a bank robbery in the area, and he fit a description...ya' know the one, Black and male. These cops pinned Lenny's personal trainer, who was spanish, to a gate. Lenny's trainer tried telling them who he was, but the cops said they were looking for a Black man with an 'afro' and a beard...boy, doesn't that narrow a search down!
After the cops told Lenny a near-by Bank of america branch had been robbed, they summoned one of the bank's tellers to the curb where they had Kravitz cuffed. And Lenny at the time was just in sweats, and had no ID on him. This woman bank teller told the cops emphatically, that they had the wrong guy.
The Miami Beach police spokesman at the time, Bobby Hernandez, said he had no record of the Kravitz incident. Hernandez even said he was surprised to learn of the cuffing. "Usually, we don't handcuff unless we're provoked," says Hernandez, who was trying to find out more about the story. He did say, however, that the robbery suspect was still at large afterwards.
Lenny was shocked that something like this could still happen in america, and wrote about the incident in his song, 'Bank robber man', on his 2001 album, 'Lenny'.
Now, even with Lenny's bi-ethnic looks and star power, the cops treated him like he was just another nigg#r...Lenny's dreams of multi-cultural and multi-ethnic bliss were gone. He'd officially gotten his Black wake-up call.
This also reminded me of the Black wake up call that Henry Louis Gates Jr. got a few years back. You know, the Black Harvard professor who was arrested for trying to get into his own house, when his door was jammed. The white neighbors he loved so much, were the first ones to call the cops on him. And even though Henry tried showing the cops his ID, to prove that the house he entered was his, they still lead him away in cuffs. Even though he wore nothing but slacks, collared shirts and penny loafers...and again, had a Harvard pedigree.
I'm bringing these incidents up to make a point about why our young brothas are wearing 'saggin' jeans.
Now, if Black people, who are 'morally upstanding', and fit the profile of 'certified pre-owned negros', are being treated this way, and our young Black men see this, then what would inspire them to emulate these pseudo-Black men?
I remember the Black politician Ras J. Baraka, who's now Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, saying that saggin' jeans make our young men look 'retarded'.
Now, after incidences like the shooting deaths of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Amadou Diallo...and ya' know I could keep goin'; and one of the mother of all travesties foisted on Black americans, Hurricane Katrina...and more recently, the shooting deaths of a Southern Carolina bible study group perpetrated by Dylann Roof, I ask who looks more retarded, our young Black men who are wearing saggin' jeans, or the Black adults who continue emulating their oppressors by wearing tight, european-styled three piece suits, dresses, shoes, and the like?
And mind you, our African ancestors never wore tight, restrictive clothing; europeans introduced us to these kinds of fashions. So whether our children know it or not, they're emulating their ancestry more than Black adults are. Meaning, our young men, are more in their right minds than we are.
Now, for the record, I confess that I don't like the way saggin' jeans look on our young men; and personally, as a middle-aged Black man, I wouldn't be caught dead in them. But, that doesn't mean I don't see why our young people, especially our young Black men are doing this. What they're saying to us, and the world is, why should we emulate the very people in this white fascist (american) social order, who want us dead?
And like I said in the first post of this series, while we're calling them idiots for how they dress, they're showing us how smart they really are. 'Cause defying the american status quo that's hell-bent on killing you and yours, is STRAIGHT UP INTELLIGENCE!
The other reason I'm writing this post, is recently, I saw a documentary on the 90's R&B group, 'Kid and Play'. Ya' know, the two young men who starred in the 'House Party' movies...and I remember the baggy attire they were fond of wearing later in their careers. I also distinctly remember Chris 'Kid' Reid saying that after his mother was killed in a car accident, he went to live with his father. Now, where they moved was a white section of Staten Island, New York; and Chris says that neighborhood was probably, “the most racist place on God's green earth.”
Chris detailed how he got chased from school, from fishing in his local pond, and almost every other place in that borough, by gangs of white bullies. And being that his father was experiencing this as well, he moved them to an all Black neighborhood in Queens, New York. And when Chris speaks of that neighborhood, he literally said, “Whew...thank you, there was no more running for a while.”
And I tell you, until that moment, I realized I'd never once heard a Black person say they were glad they moved from a white neighborhood, to an all Black one.
I'd always heard the opposite.
And this solidified to me, the types and the magnitudes of Black self-hatred, myself, and every Black person I know, has been indoctrinated into.
So ultimately, what I'm saying is this, Black elders have got to stop damning our youth in favor of whitey and their (destructive) culture. I remember one day when I lived in New York, I was in Times Square and I passed a group of Black Isrealites. Now, you would think these brothas would be pro-Black to the core...well, they were, except in the case of young Black men. I remember the leader of this particular group saying he was glad a young Black man was shot down 'cause he was a rapper. I forgot the rapper's name, but there were some other middle-aged Black men who listening to this imbecilic Black Isrealite, while they clapped gleefully at the mention of this rapper being shot dead. And I'm thinking, how stupid are these middle-aged men, when white cops treat them the same way they treat our youth.
ANYONE REMEMBER RODNEY KING?
Now, some may say the LAPD didn't kill Rodney the night they surrounded him and beat him within an inch of his life; but they certainly finished the job after he put his book out. And I might write about that incident in a later post.
So before we go pointing fingers at our young men for their styles of dress, or any negative behavior they might exhibit, we need to point the fingers back at ourselves and ask what resources have we truly left for them to survive and thrive with? Why is it that our young people still have to go to all sorts of non-Black people to get a job? Why are we not at least doing more to provide them with a better education at the grade, middle and high school levels, that doesn't teach them to hate themselves?
So before we begin chastising our young men about their style of dress, let's go down to our local police precincts and chastise those badge wearing inbreds for shooting down our children.
It's high time the Black Diaspora got back into our right minds, so we can unite and strategize for what whitey's got in store for us.
We need to understand that with white birth rates falling below replacement levels, white fascists are constantly on their grind to find the next round of weaponry they're gonna aim at us. Now, whether it's biological, financial, physical or psychological, we know they can't stop, won't stop, until they rid this world of us completely.
So to every Black man, woman, child, senior, etc.; let's put ALL our differences aside, so we can have a chance at surviving what whitey's got in store for us.
'Cause ya' know...it ain't gonna' be nothin' nice.
KEM WESIR!
MontUHURU Mimia
P.S.
You can check out the first part of this Blog series by clicking here.
P.P.S.
Here's the Lenny Kravitz video for his single, 'Are you gonna' go my way'. Notice after the white halo descends onto Lenny, at 14 seconds into this video, we see a young Black man with a bar code on his T-shirt. This signifies how white fascists are intent on associating themselves with, and exploiting the culture(s) of young Black men, to make their white mainstream culture look 'cooler'. And this is ultimately what white fascists were doing with Lenny in this video...especially in terms of the white christ story. Also, check out how at 31 seconds in, you'll see a prominent scene of a Black woman dancing with a white guy; this happens again at 1:01 seconds into this vid. This is the typical divide and conquer tactic that will be employed by white fascists into perpetuity. They always gotta' keep Black men and women separated, as per the 'Willie Lynch letter'.
Also, notice how this vid says it clocks in at 3:34 at first; but when you play it, how it switches the entire vid's run time to 3:33. Now, there just happens to be 33 degrees of white supremacist freemasonry...but there's also a higher degree designated for white freemasons exclusively, this is called the '33 and a third' degree. Coincidence? Hmmm...
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