The cult of Black and white Cinematic Symbolism (Part 27)...

 The cult of Black and white Cinematic Symbolism (Part 27)…How Louisiana’s "Dads On Duty" are dismissing myths of the absentee Black father, superstitions surrounding "triple sixes", debunking "The Batman", and what the movies "Swan Song", "A Journal for Jordan", and the 'Pixar' flick "Soul" ALL have in common.

“The white race is absolutely disagreeable to get along with in peace. No other people on the face of the earth have been able to get along with white people since white people have been on our planet.”

-Dr. Khalid Muhammad

Pregnant Black men, when will you deliver?

-Headline from a collegiate newspaper

"...walk in the light of the moon, but I never been a 'Batman'. African call it 'Black Man'."

-X Clan, from the song, "Funkin' Lesson"

To the consistent (and patient) readers of this Blog: Firstly family, for the intrepid few who cared enough to check back on this space even in the midst of my serious dereliction of duties where blog postings (here) are concerned, I say, once again, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, and THANK YOU! I also need to say, I hope your holidays were joyous and filled with resplendent feasts of ambrosial foods and familial fun. 

Now fam, according to the tenets of freemasonry, the number “22” represents the “Master Builder” energy, and with this energy, Freemasons say anything is possible. So, with this idea in mind, and seeing as how I’m coming up on this blog’s “10” year anniversary, I’m dedicating myself to building my own space where I’ll not only share my published written posts, but I’ll be sharing my new video publishings which don’t necessarily jive with the policies of Google platforms like Blogspot and YouTube. Also, in regards to this post, I wanna’ let everyone know how I’m a bit back-logged with ideas since I haven’t posted in a minute. So topics here may be a bit varied and not-so-timely. Meaning, I’m gonna' ask for your kind indulgences yet again, while I play catch-up. Now, with this bit of info. outta’ the way--let’s get into the first part o’ this post… 

Dads on Duty

Last September,, after more than 20 incidents of violence lead to the arrest of several students at Southwood High School in Shreveport, Louisiana, Michael LaFitte Jr., decided to not only investigate what was going on, but he, and some other brothas, were determined to take measures to stop the problem.  

Shortly thereafter, the “Dads On Duty” (pictured left) patrols began at Southwood High. Now originally, Michael, along with five other Black fathers, formed a “crisis intervention” team comprised of concerned patriarchs who decided to lend their time to the school in order to make sure OUR kids were safe. Putting it in Mike’s own words, he said: “We thought we could be a collective unit to show them there are strong men who are on the campus.”

Now fam, lemme just say, hearing about this coterie, makes my heart sing for several reasons—and one in particular has to do with a quote which appears beneath the pictured header of this post. You see, a Black gay male friend of my ex’s, who wrote for his college newspaper, showed me one of the articles he published—the headline of which read: “Pregnant Black males, when will you deliver?” I remember feeling chagrined at reading this, mostly ‘cause, I didn’t have any stats or alternate information to disprove the article's implications. Decades later, I now realize, Black men have not only delivered in some of the harshest sociopolitical environments known to mankind, but the story of “Dads On Duty” proves how much misinformation is allowed to go unchallenged about the topic of Black fatherhood and Black manhood.

You see, I remember how my preadolescent mind was traumatized by watching the 1970's TV series, “Roots”, where I saw my people murdered and tortured, while enslaved Black men stood around and did nothing. Additionally, I recall decades like the 1980’s, where the image of Black men had been all but torn to shreds via dastardly flicks like “The Color Purple”, where I saw the insanely cruel “Mister” played by Donald Glover, ravage “Celie" with ungodly amounts of abuse. Mind you, this was in the midst of dealing with the deadly troika of “Reganomics, crack, and AIDS”, which sought to decimate the under-funded and overcrowded cities of Black America.

Fast forward to now—after finding out “Roots” was complete fiction, evidence of this being, Alex Haley was sued by Harold Courlander, a white author, who proved the book and TV show was based on his novel titled, “The African”, and finding out the CIA imported crack cocaine into Black neighborhoods, and finding out AIDS was created by white scientists in government labs, and researching government stats which say Black men make the “best” fathers, the Dads On Duty story shows how erroneous my ex’s newspaper journalist friend was about “heterosexual” Black men. Mind you, for those who don’t believe my statement about the stats which prove Black men being the best fathers, I’ll leave a link at the end of this post showing this study.

Back to the Dads On Duty story—now, even though this cadre of brothas started out with only five members, they’ve now grown to 40. Topping this off, the fathers, most of whom also work full-time jobs, also attend the school's extracurricular activities and sporting events. “We’re dads,” said one member, “We decided the best people who can take care of our kids, are who? Are us.”

“After the fights, there was a heavy police presence at the school, and the kids told me they didn’t like that,” Dr. Kim H. Pendelton, who’s the principal of Southwood High said. She also added, “The ‘Dads’ are from the community. They care and are committed to being present.”  

So, you’re probably asking yourself, how are the kids responding to this? Welp, one student says, “I immediately felt a form of safety. We (students) stopped fighting (and) everybody started going to class.”

Now, due to the Dads On Duty’s success story, they plan to expand to other counties in their district, and eventually, they want to offer their services nationwide. “We’d like this to be like the ‘PTA’,” says Michael LaFitte Jr., “something that’s in every school, in every county.” Fam, a “gofundme” page was started for the Dads On Duty, so they could continue patrolling the school grounds and expanding their services to other counties and states—and I’ll leave a link for this at the end of the post.

Superstitions surrounding "triple sixes"

About a decade ago, I walked up to a deli’s cashier to pay for a meal, and once the person behind the register rang me up, I distinctly remember her saying, “That’s strange, your change came up to $6.66.” To which I replied, “Looks like this day’s getting better and better.” After we shared a laugh, I left—and immediately afterwards, a wave of gratitude swelled in my chest as I thanked God for being outcast from the social mainstream. Now, you may be thinkin’, what’s this gotta’ do with anything? Well fam, I’ll explain this in a ‘sec…

Now, another time this happened to me, I walked up to a counter and the person next to me who just got rang up by a cashier wound up having their change amount to $6.66 as well.  Mind you, I understood the reason this happened was because of my presence at the counter—but the person got so freaked out they immediately bought something else to get rid of the number. I just shook my head and smiled. So, right now you may be thinkin’, bruh, how do you know those triple 6’s came up ‘cause of you? It coulda’ just been a weird coincidence. Well, here’s how I know fam…

These kinds of numerical synchronicities only happen to people who are doing spiritual work. Now, I don’t mean regular prayer—I mean ritual/divination/employing spiritual systems-level work. Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with regular prayer, but in my experience, it doesn’t bring consistent results. Thus, I think it’s imperative for any Black person who considers themselves “conscious”, to find a spiritual system to practice, ‘cause it's the truest way to “apply” and capitalize on the information you acquire in the Black Conscious Community (BCC). How so? Well, lemme break this down…

The overwhelming majority of information you’ll obtain in the BCC will be used to shut down ignorant white folks who’ve been misinformed about our people’s history. Now, beyond these debates, more than likely, what you’ll be endeavoring to do is acquire resources for yourself and/or your community—and nothing does this better than spiritual systems. Mind you, in my experience, there’s no one spiritual system which is better than the other, so whether it’s Yoruba, Ifa, Santeria, Vudun, Voodoo, Hoodoo, etc. you should find the system which works best for you and use it to its full potential.

So fam, I must confess, the reason I chose this topic is ‘cause recently, I was at yet another restaurant, and my change once again came up to $6.66, as you can see by this receipt (right)-and you can click on the pic to enlarge it. Thus, this immediately bought a smile to my face ‘cause I knew the day this happened was gonna’ be a good one. Now, lemme answer the earlier question of why I feel so blessed to live outside the social mainstream--it's 'cause, had I been the typical sports-watching, bible reading, and beer-drinking American male, I would've never educated myself on the spiritual sciences, thus, not only would I have missed out on their benefits, but I’d of been too spooked out by seeing triples sixes to even consider any kind of spiritual techniques beyond regular prayer. ‘Cause of course, white fascism teaches us this is the number of the “devil”. This said, lemme give y'all a primer on what these numbers really mean…

Carbon is the sixth element on the periodic table—and what are the elements of a carbon atom? 6 protons, 6 electrons, and 6 neutrons—thus 666. Also, all living things contain Carbon in some form, so this number really relates to man and his/our existence on earth. Now, in spiritual terms, what I’ve found is these numbers can also act as a sort of an “energy gauge”— and lemme break down what this means. When I first started practicing my “divinations”, the first things I noticed were the numerical synchronicities I’ve discussed here. Difference was, at first, I was seeing triple 2’s and 3’s. Mind you, as I built up more energy and continued my practices, I started seeing 4’s and 6’s. Meaning, I was starting to measure my spiritual energies with the numbers I was seeing. So, when I wasn’t practicing as much, I would see 2’s, but when I practiced consistently, I’d see 6’s (and lately 7’s). So this let me know when I was (and wasn't) on my spiritual game, so to speak. My goal now is to see 7’s consistently, before I get to 8’s and 9’s—and when I get there, I’ll definitely share this wit' you family.

So, after reveling in this glorious bit of social and spiritual good news, let’s move past the portrait of perfected patriarchy reflected in the "Dads On Duty", and the sacred spirituality of the triple sixes, so we can find our way to the main part o' this post. Hence, let's prepare to go ALL THE WAY IN y'all…

-MontUHURU Mimia

Debunking "The Batman"

I was a teen when 1989’s “Batman” movie came out starring Michael Keaton as Batman, and Jack Nicholson as the “Joker”. The buzz surrounding this flick was huge and it was pretty much destined to be a blockbuster before it arrived in theaters—mind you, it was campy and corny as hell, but Warner Brothers’ promotions for this film were literally everywhere. Now, there had been Superman movies out before this, but those films were pandering more to pre and post-adolescents, so there was little to no dramatic flair in those flicks-meaning, they didn’t have the kind of potential cinematic impact of the Batman films.

The success of this Batman movie spawned the sequels, “Batman Returns” (1992), “Batman Forever” (1995)—I actually went to see this in theaters, and the best thing about the movie was Seal’s song, “Kiss from a Rose”, which played at the end, and the last of these kitsch-filled films was “Batman and Robin” which came out in 1997. Now, these flicks represented the clichéd, cookie-cutter, Hollywierd film stock of the late 90’s, but when the director Chris Nolan, who was known for mind-bending, sci-fi flicks like “Memento” and “Inception”, took on the task of rebooting the Batman franchise, film fans were eagerly anticipating the direction (pun intended) Chris would take these films in. The first of Chris’ Batman film trilogy would be “Batman Begins” in 2005. This film put a profoundly dramatic twist on the previous Batman film properties, and then, Chris followed this up with “The Dark Knight” in 2008—and this movie is revered as an outright classic. This film pretty much set the bar for every comic-book superhero movie coming after it. Rounding out this trilogy was the movie, “The Dark Knight Rises”, in 2012.

Fast forward to 2022. A new Batman film will hit theaters just in time for the summer, which promises to take an even grittier and more dramatic turn on Batman’s mythology than the Chris Nolan films. “The Batman” is slated for release on March 4^th of this year. Now, looking back on these flicks had me asking the question: why does whitey find Batman so intriguing? I mean, it seems whitebois have taken a particular liking to this superhero, even more than Superman, who’s got god-like, supernatural powers. Welp fam, it really comes down to “3” traits of this superhero which whitey can live through vicariously—and they are as follows…

Trait#1. I’m thinking everyone reading this knows about Batman’s mythological beginnings, but if not, here’s a brief synopsis of what prompted a young Bruce Wayne to become Batman. Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered at gunpoint when he was a preteen and it was this incident which scarred his psyche and put him on a path to become Gotham City’s vigilante hero of sorts. Now, the reason white fascists wrote this into Batman’s past was to seemingly erase the fact of Bruce Wayne being born into wealth. Meaning, Bruce’s childhood trauma helps white Batman fans to disregard his (white) privileges. Thus, this mirrors white people’s reluctance to admit how their skin color gives them advantages which act as “affirmative action”, “welfare”, and “economic stimulus packages” keeping them in power individually and collectively.

Trait#2. Bruce Wayne doesn’t have any super powers (besides his wealth), so this implies how his fighting prowess and the technical ingenuity he uses to wield the gadgets on his “utility belt” come by way of his exceptional work ethic. Now, in real life, this is supposed to imply how white people, and white men especially, are in positions of power because they work harder than anyone else. Which is a bold-faced lie, and if you don’t believe me, re-read “Trait#1”.

Trait#3. Bruce Wayne/Batman is portrayed as the strongest man in “Gotham City”. Now, not only do white people believe in the stereotype of Black men living primarily in American “cities” (even though the majority of Black men live in America's south), but Black men are thought to be the most physically powerful men in these cities. So, Batman is supposed to be the symbol of the white man dominating Black men in these areas due to his increased strength and ingenuity. In this way Batman is also supposed to remind us of white men in law enforcement. If you ever look at a policeman’s uniform, the majority of its color scheme is Black, not blue--like Batman's costume. This is also reminiscent of what Denzel Washington says while portraying a crooked cop in the movie, “Training Day”, when he yells, “I run policy here-you (Black people) just live here.”

So fam, you should keep these thoughts in mind should you decide to go see this flick. Cause like Dr. Phil Valentine said, “…you’re not supposed to look at it (movies) for entertainment, you’re supposed to be deconstructing where they are taking the mass ‘ass’…” Meaning, if you’re a brotha or sista going to see this film, without this thought in mind, you’ll be susceptible to the sublime messaging this movie will program you with. Mind you, the reason theaters encourage you to eat while looking at a movie in a darkened auditorium is this induces a conscious relaxation where the mind goes into “alpha” state. When this happens, the subconscious mind is more susceptible to programming. Don’t take my word for this family, there’s a whole course of study called “Neurocinematics” which goes more deeply into this. Google it sometimes. Now, let's get into the next part o' this post which asks... 

What do the movies "Swan Song", "A Journal for Jordan", and the 'Pixar' flick "Soul" ALL have in common?

The 2021 movie, “A Journal for Jordan”, was released on December 25^th of last year, and is based on a true story. Basically, this flick’s narrative is about a sista named Dana Canedy who was married and had a child with her husband, a 1^st Sargent in the military named Charles Monroe King. Charles is killed in battle after a roadside bomb detonates beneath his Humvee in Iraq. Before his death, King wrote a journal to his infant son, Jordan—and from this Dana, who’s a journalist, wrote the book, “A Journal for Jordan: A story of Love and Honor”, on which this movie is based.

Apple TV’s movie, “Swan Song”, was released on December 17^th, of last year, and this flick not only stars Mahershala Ali, but he produced the film as well. So, the narrative of this film is as follows: set in the near future, Ali portrays a husband and father who’s diagnosed with a terminal illness, but he’s given a solution—which involves replacing himself with a clone, so his family won’t be left without a patriarch.

Pixar’s “Soul”, is an animated movie released on December 25^th, of 2020, and long story short, this flick’s about a brotha named Joe Gardner who’s a pianist and music teacher who learns of auditions for his dream job, which is playing for a jazz legend, Dorothea Williams. After he gets the gig, he dies behind falling down a manhole, and he fights to get back his life back so he can fulfill his dream of playing this once-in-a-lifetime gig.  

Now, these flicks have more than one trait in common, so I’m gonna’ break down “3” they all share—and they are…

Trait#1. All these brothas are gainfully employed and upwardly-mobile. Now, this is the one redeeming quality these Black men have in these films, whether they be real or fictional. This is also why whitey sees them as a threat.

Trait#2. Notice how these morally upstanding and upwardly-mobile brothas wind up dead regardless of their choices to be husbands, fathers, and productive members of society. This sends a message to movie-going Black men which says we shouldn’t expect to live long, prosperous lives—and in the event we do achieve in this society, whatever gains we’ve made will be snatched away from us prematurely.

Trait#3. Did you notice how these flicks came out just in time for Christmas fam? This was so Black families could be indoctrinated into the programming these trashy flicks want us to follow.

Fortunately, these flicks failed at the box office—which I’m ecstatic about. Seems like Black Americans are getting a lot more savvy when it comes to understanding and recognizing white fascist narratives when we seem ‘em. Hopefully, we can parlay this “consciousness” into separating ourselves from white and non-Black folk, ‘cause I think we’re finally starting to realize we CAN NOT PEACEFULLY COEXIST WITH (w)HITE and NON-BLACK PEOPLE. Especially when we have the most genetic power to breed their degenerate asses outta’ existence—which, in whitey’s case, is happening RIGHT NOW!

And like Samuel L. Jackson said in Spike Lee’s classic film, “Do the Right Thing”: “That’s the double truth, Ruth.”

Later…

MontUHURU Mimia

Family, you can donate to the “Dads On Duty” initiative HERE

Also, if you wanna' see proof of the "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention" (CDC) saying Black men make the best fathers, you can see it HERE

*Addendum: 2/7/22: Family, here’s another instance of a “universal” sign showing me my information's accurate. While writing this post, I came across this video of a collector who has various statues of “DC Comic" superheros in his house. Now, I want you to notice how this whiteboi has more reverence for Batman than he does Superman. This, as he explains, is because Superman has too much of a “benevolent” streak for his taste, whereas Batman has a vengeful fury the whiteboi can more easily relate to. You should also note how he’s got a picture of Batman behind his Superman and how he’s got “3” Batmans above Superman as well. Coincidentally, I wrote "3” traits which expound on why Batman is more beloved by whitey--which again, reinforce reasons for the beliefs I espouse in this post.

Finally fam, here’s the trailer for the next installment in the BLACK MAN, I mean, “The Batman” franchise.