The cult of Black and white cinematic symbolism (Part 5)...Martin Scorcese, 'Goodfellas' and the notorious 'n-word'...

James Lipton (pictured left), was born on September 19^th, 1926, and is an american writer, lyricist, actor and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. He's also the executive producer, writer and host of the Bravo cable TV series, 'Inside the Actor's Studio' (ITAS), which debuted in 1994.

Now, I've always viewed James as a person who's exceptionally smart, talented and deep-thinking, but all that changed on March 13^th, 2007, when I saw him interview the comedian Chris Rock on ITAS.

About half way through the broadcast, James confessed to Chris that his least favorite word in the english language is the 'n-word'. Then he went on to say: “I learned to loathe (the n-word) in Detroit's inner-city, where it occasionally raised its head like a cobra. I understand what makes it unacceptable for whites, but I confess, that I still don't understand what makes it fully acceptable for Blacks.”

To which Chris replied: “Now I got this job?”

What James was really asking, or saying to Chris is, how do Black people rationalize using this word amongst themselves?

And he was also asking, don't you people understand the connotations of the word, and its history, and the fact that so many of your people died trying to defend their dignity after being called that by white americans?

More than this, James and every other white, or non-Black person making this point is really asking: why are Black people the only ones who use ethnic slurs as endearments? Are your people really that stupid?

I've also heard myriad cases where white people use the n-word as a bigoted insult, and when someone calls them on it, they respond by saying, “Well, Black people call themselves that.” Like no one can see they're just being inbred bigots.

Now, for the uninitiated readers of this post who aren't Black Nationalists, let me give you a bit of a primer on the etymology of the word 'nigg#r'.

The Medu Netcher is the world's oldest documented language. And it's the original language of the African Diaspora. The Medu Netcher is also what appears on the walls of the ancient pyramids, and it's what the greeks call 'hieroglyphics'.

Now in this language, the word 'NEGUS', means KING. This was a title given to rulers of ancient Africa. This is also where whites get the terms 'Regus/Regis' from, as used in the words 'REGIStrar' or 'REGIStration'. Coincidentally, there's a corporation near where I live calling itself 'Regus'. And every time I pass it's locale and logo, I crack a smile and shake my head (take note of the king's crown above the 'g' in the word 'Regus').

Also, the ancient African Netcher 'GEB', who's said to have created the original 'egg' that produced human kind, went by another name or title, and that name/title was 'NEGUUR'.

in addition, the word 'NAGAS', was the name of an ancient Black tribe that ruled asia. And this name itself translates into the word 'divine'. And 'NIGER' is the African country who's name is derived from the titles NEGUS, NEGUUR and NAGAS.

Now, when the white bastards came into Niger and took our people into slavery, once they had us in bondage and wanted us to perform a task, they'd say: “Come over here you NIGER.” And eventually, they turned the word 'NIGER' into the notorious 'n-word'.

Moving on...

Martin Scorsese is an american director, who was born in Queens, New York City, on November 17th, 1942. And pretty much everyone inside and out of cinematic industry circles has seen at least one of his films. His movies include: Taxi Driver (1976), The Departed (2006), Kundun (1997) and The Color of Money (1986), to name a few. But the movie I wanna' focus on here, is his film 'Goodfellas', which was released on September 19th, 1990.

Now, for those who've never seen this flick, it's a dramatization of the real life story of the gangster 'Henry Hill' (If you don't know who he is, google him).

And let me just state for the record, that I can't stand Martin Scorsese's films. Martin is a walking embodiment of the paradoxical personality type that continually has me shaking my head, and that type is non-Black persons who love Black culture but hate Black people.

And you can see this in almost every one of his flicks. If a Black person shows up in his film and Black music is playing in the background, the 'n-word' is usually mentioned shortly thereafter.

Now, this paradigm is not only played out in his movie 'Goodfellas', but there's another interesting occurrence happening throughout this particular film; and that is, that white men in this flick are using ethnic slurs as endearments throughout the movie. But I'd be willing to bet money that no white, or non-Black person, ever realized this...or if they do, they'd never ask themselves the same question they ask the Black Diaspora all the time, which is why these men would use those derogatory words towards each other.

Now, right off the bat, I can hear people saying, you can't compare what these white men are doing in a movie, to what Black people are doing in real life. And my rebuttal to that is two-fold...

First, let me remind everyone reading this, that the movie 'Goodfellas' is based on REAL LIFE EVENTS. Meaning this movie was based on actual facts. Henry Hill was consulted on not only how these mobsters conducted their criminal enterprises, but how they dressed, dated and spoke.

Second, let me relate to you a real life experience I had conversing with an italian man. One day at work, I was casually talking to a white guy who identified himself as italian, and we were chatting about clubs in our city. He then told me that he didn't go to a particular club 'cause it was too 'guido'. Now, for those who don't know, the words 'guido' and 'guinea' are synonymously insulting to italians, it's like using the n-word towards a Black person.

In another instance, another white male co-worker told me how the area he lived in was predominately italian, and said when he was growing up, the neighborhood had a famous gang of italian hoods called the 'south-side guineas'. Mind you, these italian men gave themselves that name. The point I'm trying to make is, white men using ethnic slurs as endearments is no theory, this happens in real life.

Now, I can also hear certified pre-owned negroes thinking, well, if white men do something negative, it doesn't mean we have to do it too. And I wholeheartedly agree, here's the problem though, the white fascist social order of america tells Black people that we're the only ones who do this. And this reinforces reasons why we should hate ourselves and everyone who looks like us for being Black.

With that said, here's the reason why I don't use the 'n-word' around white and non-Black people...

Using a white person's logic, hearing italian men using ethnic slurs among themselves and in front of me personally, gives me the license to go up to an italian man and say, “Yo, what's up guido.”

But being a 'thinking' Black man, I wouldn't do that, 'cause I know it would start a fight, and rightfully so, 'cause I'M NOT ONE OF HIS OWN KIND!!

AND THIS IS A CONCEPT WHITE PEOPLE CAN NOT GRASP WHEN IT COMES TO BLACK PEOPLE!!!

Here's why...

A couple of weeks back, a co-working friend of mine asked me if I'd like to attend a football game with him 'cause he had a spare ticket. Now, I'm not a sports fan of any kind, and this guy knows that, but I'd never been to any kind of football game before, and I always tell myself that I should be open-minded, so I said yes.

Fortunately, it was a relatively warm day when we attended this game, but for the most part, what's par for the course are these fans enduring the elements to watch these teams. So these people subject themselves to rain, snow, blustery winds and the bone-chilling cold of winter. Mind you, they do this before the game as well, as many of these fans hold 'tailgating' parties in the parking lots. As far as crowd demographics go, the overwhelming majority of the crowd was comprised of white men, but I expected that; but what I didn't expect was the experience I got when I went to the restroom.

Now, my friends tickets cost about $100 dollars a piece, and I know that my city's football stadium generates hundreds of millions of dollars per season, so when I went into the restroom(s) and saw the outright squalid conditions of them, I was beyond shocked. First off, there were NO partitions for any of the men's urinals...and I apologize if the word urinal offends some people, but that's what they are. Beyond this, I saw men standing shoulder to shoulder relieving themselves in what looked like some kind of metal pig's trough. Men were literally relieving themselves in what looked like a raised ditch. So I waited for an empty stall to use, and you can imagine what the stall looked like.

After I left the restroom, I was still mortified, but I understood why these restrooms were in such a state of dereliction. There's a lot of psychology going on in the design, or the decrepit state the men's restrooms were being left in. First off, the men standing shoulder to shoulder while they relieved themselves and the restroom's lack of partitions, is directly related to the white fascist agenda to promote homosexuality amongst 'straight' men. At all costs white fascists want to lessen the population of the world, that's why they're always obsessing on the topic of 'overpopulation'.

Now, you might say, why would they want to spread this message amongst an overwhelmingly white male crowd, especially when white birth rates are falling below replacement levels? It's because these white men will not only affect and infect each other with this 'pro-homosexual' message, but they represent the demographic that control the corporations helping to spread this message to the greater american public, and ultimately the world. Remember, these white male sports fans represent the mid-level execs and clerical co-workers who'll beam the 'promosexual' message out to these populations. So it's best that they're made to feel comfortable with the mores of homosexuality.

Second, the dilapidated state of the restroom tells these men subconsciously, that they shouldn't want to rise above their present station as workers for white fascists. The white elite want these people working for them, not with them. This is also validated by the fact that these fans spend so much money on tickets, yet the majority of the time, they watch these games in the freezing cold.

And even if whites were to get this message on some sort of small collective level, they're not gonna' go against a white fascist social order that's mostly benefiting them...even when they're suffering this social order's abuses.

The point I'm trying to make is, white people, on the whole, are NOT DEEP-THINKERS! And that's because this white fascist social order doesn't force them to be.

So I wouldn't use the 'n-word' around these people 'cause with their minds being kept in superficial stupors, they can't grasp the fact that the language I use around my own kind, is language that they shouldn't use around me. Even though, in the case of ethnic slurs, they do the same thing they accuse us of doing exclusively.

So if you're a Black man or woman reading this, and some white or non-Black person wants to know why we use the n-word amongst ourselves, remember how the movie 'Goodfellas' shows us how white people do the same thing, before you curse them out.

Not only will you feel better after telling this white person that they probably grew up in a trailer park eating fried bologna sandwiches and having sex with their siblings, but it will keep you from thinking the worst about your people, and ultimately yourself.

Later...

MontUHURU Mimia

The legend of Dr. Phil Emeagwali and the creation of the internet...

Dr. Phil Emeagwali was born on August 23^rd, 1954 in Nigeria, Africa. He was the oldest of nine children and his father, who worked as a nurse's aide, earned a modest salary. Because of this, a young Dr. Phil was forced to leave school at the age of fourteen.

Even though Phil wasn't attending a formal school, his father saw his talent for mathematics. His father nurtured his abilities with spontaneous tests that forced Phil to come up with answers quickly, developing his abilities to think on his feet. Eventually, his father tasked him with answering a hundred math questions an hour; which to his father's delight, Phil succeeded at.

The young Dr. Phil journeyed to the public library, which became his alternate school. He spent his days consumed in books not only appropriate for his age, but collegiate-level tomes on subjects ranging from math, chemistry, physics and english. After this, he applied to take the 'General Certificate of Education' exam, which was a high school equivalency test given through the University of London. He passed it easily.

He applied to colleges in europe and the u.s., and at 17, received a scholarship from america's Oregan State University. He began his studies there in 1974 and received a Bachelor's Degree in mathematics in 1977. He then moved to washington d.c., and received a Master's Degree in Environmental Engineering from George Washington University in 1981. He attained a second Master's Degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Maryland in 1986. During the same time, he attained yet another Master's Degree from George Washington University in Ocean, Coastal and Marine Engineering; and this he did while working as a civil engineer in Maryland and Wyoming. In 1987, Dr. Phil was accepted into the University of Michigan's Civil Engineering Doctoral program and received a doctoral fellowship.

Now, in the governmental and academic worlds, there were 20 'Grand Challenges' that confronted the areas of science and engineering. One of these was 'petroleum reservoir stimulation'. Oil companies faced the problem of locating oil reservoirs, without displacing the pockets of petroleum into unreachable areas by drilling too deeply or too often. The main means of locating these reservoirs was using 'supercomputers' which cost upwards of 30 million dollars. Dr. Phil having grown up in Nigeria, which boasts some of the world's biggest oil reserves, decided to take up this challenge in his doctoral dissertation.

Dr. Phil's exposure to nature in his native Nigeria, helped him see the problem from a different perspective. He remembered an old African proverb which stated, 'a large number of chickens, coordinated in strength and efficiency, could do a better job than a small number of oxen'. With this mind-set, instead of using one of the oil industry's conventional 'supercomputers', which housed 8 microprocessors, he'd find one that housed 64,000. The grand quandary was how to gain access to this many computers and how to connect them. His answer would lead him to a massive computer called the 'connection machine'.

This monstrous computer was made by a company called, 'Thinking Machines'. Problem was, it was so gargantuan, that no one thought it was able to be programmed. Dr. Phil found this machine at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He got approval to use it and went about the task of setting the parameters for his experiment. Dr. Phil was delighted when the computer, with his new programming, began processing 3.1 billion calculations a second. To top that off, the program was not only able to locate oil reservoirs, it was able to tell how much oil was in the reservoir, the oil's flow of speed and the direction the oil was traveling in. Furthermore, this technology provided the template for connecting computers around the world to provide a scalable network through which to provide and share information. Sound familiar? In other words, DR. PHIL'S PROGRAM, MARKED THE FIRST CREATION OF WHAT YOU'RE USING RIGHT NOW TO READ THIS POST...WHICH IS THE WORLD WIDE WEB, A.K.A., THE INTERNET!!

AND THAT'S RIGHT...DR. PHIL CREATED IT!!

If this weren't enough, along with his phenomenal achievement, Dr. Phil succeeded in building the world's fastest computer. And, in 1989 he won the Gordon-Bell Prize, which is like the Nobel Prize in computation, for this feat.

Dr. Phil has also lent his genius to weather forecasting in regards to greenhouse gases and global warming. His basing computer methods on nature, like the working swarms of chickens and bees in honeycombs, still gives him the revolutionary insight that has every meteorologist heeding his methods. Dr. Phil gave his nature-based technologies the name of 'hyperball' computing. And this will undoubtedly continue to create innovations for generations to come.

Now, I remember one day, I was in a subway looking at a billboard that told the tale of a Black man being responsible for the creation of the 'ice cream scooper'. I don't know if this is true or not, but white supremacists put that crap billboard up to keep the Black Diaspora mired in shame thinking this was the only kind of thing our feeble minds could come up with creating.

What that sign was designed to do, was reinforce the reasons why I should hate Black people; based on the fact that we're less intelligent than whites, who I and everyone of my peers, was taught created everything worth creating. And seconds after, this billboard was suppose to make me hate myself for being Black. That's the game of white supremacy.

So, if you're a Black man or woman reading this, anytime you're made to feel like the only thing your people contributed to this world was slavery and Martin Luther King, remember Dr. Phil Emeagwali; and be inspired to know that the only thing whitey created was the patent office...everything else they stole from us.

SO LET ME SAY SUTEKH! (BLACK POWER)TO THE GOD/NETCHER/NEGUS/NAGA DR. PHIL EMEAGWALI!!!

Ma'at Hotep!

MontUHURU Mimia

P.S.

Family...just wanted to let you know, I have a job conference I need to attend that requires me to travel. So if over the course of the next weeks, my posts are less consistent, this is why.

Also, in keeping with the theme of great Black inventors, if you'd like to know about brotha Henry T. Sampson and his invention of the 'Gamma Electric Cell', you can read about it here.