The legacy of 'Bennifer'...

Benjamin Geza Affleck—Bolt was born in Berkeley, California on August 15th, 1972. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father was an actor and stage manager at the Theater company of Boston in the Mid-1960’s. His father worked alongside Dustin Hoffman, James Woods, Robert Duvall and Jon Voight before Ben became a teenager.

After Ben’s birth, his father took on a slew of odd-jobs, being an auto electrician, a carpenter, a bookie, a bartender and a janitor at Harvard University (Good Will Hunting). Unfortunately, Ben’s father had been a severe alcoholic which made Ben’s early life, ‘scary and trying’ according to him. When Ben was sixteen his father moved to Indio, CA. for a stint in rehab; years later, he sobered up and was able to reconnect with his adult sons.

Before this, Ben’s mother and father divorced and the family relocated to Massachusetts. They first lived in Falmouth, MA., and after his brother Casey was born, the family moved to Cambridge. Ben was brought up in a very ‘left-winged’ household surrounded by friends and family members who were involved in the arts. Ben’s mother had been friends with a casting director, thus Ben had acting jobs since the age of seven. At age eight is when Ben’s mother and her female friend introduced a ten year old Matt Damon to him and they were encouraged to spend time together.

The two became extremely close throughout high school and went on acting auditions together in New York. Ben had high SAT scores but was unfocused as a high school and university student. Thus, he went to several universities, two of those being; the university of Virginia and the university of Vermont. He also went to Los Angeles and took courses in middle eastern studies at Occidental College for a year and a half, but dropped out when a creative writing teacher ridiculed an early draft of the ‘Good Will Hunting’ screenplay.

The success of 1997’s ‘Good Will Hunting’, which Ben co-wrote and starred in, took him out of the category of journeyman actor to a notable celebrity. The screenplay originated in 1992 when Matt Damon wrote a forty page script for a playwriting class at Harvard University. He asked Ben to act out scenes with him for the class and when Damon moved to Ben’s L.A. apartment, they worked on the screenplay in earnest. 

They sold the script to CastleRock movie studios in 1994, when Ben was 22. Then, the script was purchased by Miramax films, who eventually ‘greenlit’ the movie getting made. The movie was a commercial success; and Ben and Matt were awarded both the Golden Globe and an Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’. This kick started both their acting careers.

Now, after this Ben starred in several forgettable roles like 1998’s ‘Armageddon’ and 2001’s ‘Pearl Harbor’ which was a commercial success, but in my opinion, Ben is a third rate hack of an actor and has neither the talent nor the access to depths of emotion that make someone a real thespian; I think his true calling was to be a game show host or model, but you can make up your own mind about this, ‘cause this post is making a different point. After the lackluster 2003 film ‘Daredevil’, he starred in the dopey flick ‘Gigli’… a year before, is when he met Jennifer Lopez.

Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on July 24^th, 1969 in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, New York City. Her mother Guadalupe Rodriquez and father David Lopez both have Puerto Rican origins. Dave worked the night shift at Guardian insurance company and eventually became a computer technician at the firm while Guadalupe was a homemaker.

At the age of five, Lopez began taking singing and dancing lessons while her parents stressed the importance of a strong work ethic and learning to speak english. Along with learning to speak english, somewhere along the line Jen got the message, just like every other non-white person, that what she should aspire to be is an anglophile. Now this wasn’t verbalized outright by her parents, but this was the message force-fed into her, and it would determine the course of her future dating life. To her detriment.

Lopez spent the entirety of her early academic career in Catholic schools, finishing up at Preston High where she excelled more athletically than academically. While attending her last year of high school, Lopez auditioned for a part in a low-budget filmed called ‘My little Girl’ where she was cast in the role of ‘Myra’. This is where she got the ‘acting bug’. When she told her parents of her dreams of being a star, they voiced their displeasure saying those dreams are ‘really stupid’ and no ‘spanish people do that’. Her and her parents differences led her to leave the house at seventeen.

Now, this is what publicists tell us, but what they don’t say is Jennifer’s mother was very domineering and controlling, to the point where her sisters also moved out of the house at young ages. The tumultuous household Jennifer’s mother created would lead her to be promiscuous throughout her later dating life.

Lopez moved to Manhattan and started working in various theater productions that toured extensively. In 1991, she became a background dancer for ‘New kids on the Block’ and then landed a role as a background dancer for the comedy series ‘In living color’. After this she also had a brief stint as a background dancer for Janet Jackson, but left the tour to pursue an acting career.

Now, again, this is what her publicists tell us, but the truth was, she’d had enough of being employed by our people and wanted to get closer to whitey; and the best way for her to do that seemed to be as an actress.

In 1997, Lopez starred in the movie biopic ‘Selena’; and unlike her future ‘rainbeau’ Ben Affleck, she had dancing and acting chops to pull off the role in a major way. This took Lopez out of the category of hack actress and dancer to full-fledged star. After this, she went on to sign a record deal with Sony. She also began acting almost exclusively in the company of white men with films like ‘U turn’ with Sean Penn and ‘Out of sight’ in 1996 with George Clooney.

Jennifer acted in a slew of other forgettable movies and in 2001 adopted the name ‘J.Lo’, which was supposedly given to her by fans. This coincided with her next album and film ‘The Wedding Planner’ with Matthew McConaughey; another anglophilic fantasy starring her and a white guy.

Now, in the year 2000, Lopez started dating Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs; and I know what people are thinking, you’re saying, see she wasn’t only with white guys; remember, Sean had the same ‘star power’ she did. This was a move to enhance her career. Wherever she and Puffy went, they were viewed as a ‘power-couple’ and the paparazzi went wild when they hit the red carpet.

It’s the reason in February of that year, her green Versace dress became such a hit at the Grammy’s. Besides her curves, which Black women had way before they were praised on J.Lo, (the bodacious buttocks, who can rock that like a sista?); so it was the combination of her and Puffy’s sense of style that really took this dress over the top; at least in the white press’ eyes. Alas, Puffy’s bone-headed obsession with clubs, and he and J.Lo’s subsequent arrest behind this, diffused their relationship. Now, this was the final sign to Lopez that she wouldn’t deal with anymore brothas. Thus, she married her rebound beau Chirs Judd.

In 2002, Lopez starred in another anglophilic fairy tale ‘Maid in Manhattan’ opposite Ralph Fiennes. And this is when she met her white knight in shining armor, Ben Affleck. Now, when the white boy seemed interested in a relationship, Lopez knew, this was what she’d waited for her whole life. And, it’s what she was conditioned to believe would solidify her status as not only a ‘white celebrity’, but ultimately, a white person.

In August of 2003, Jen and Ben starred in ‘Gigli’; this crap flick cost $54 million dollars to make (can you believe that?); but only took in $7 million worldwide at the box office. Officially giving the movie the staus of not only a ‘bomb’, but possibly, one of the worst movies of all time.

Now when this happened, what Jen couldn't see, like the picture to the right shows, is how Ben was already looking to move on to greener, or whiter pastures. She didn’t realize, just like she’d done with Puffy, Ben was thinking strictly about his career when they got together. That and having copious amounts of casual sex. And even though Ben came from a very ‘liberal’ house hold, he knew, that his being a white celebrity trumped whatever star power she brought to his career and/or life. 

In 2004 Ben and Jen broke up after a prolonged engagement, read, when Ben got 'cold feet'.

Lopez married another rebound beau, Marc Anthony, and in 2005, Ben married a white woman named Jennifer (Garner) and has been with her for nearly ten years. 

Now, I wrote this to illustrate the point that if whitey would treat a spanish celebrity this way, how much more are they gonna' use Black people for leisurely sex toys?

If you're a Black man or woman reading this, I'm saying it's high time we stop goin' out like J.Ho...I mean, J.Lo. This world's white fascists have Black people so full of self-loathing that we can barely date each other anymore, and it sickens me. And when I talk about 'dating', what I'm really referring to, is the Black Diaspora's ability or inability to form loving relationships currently.

Is the game really over for us? Are we too far gone to get our right minds back?

No, we're not! 

But we don't have a moment to spare in our pursuits of getting back to a place where we love ourselves enough to love each other again. 

So, in my estimation, there are three things we need to do to get ourselves back to this place. 

One, we HAVE TO GET RID OF OUR SELF-HATRED! It all starts and ends here folks. If we don't get past this step, none of the others are possible. To this end, I'm working on a meditative technique to recondition the subconscious, in what I'm calling 'casual consciousness'. Now when I say 'casual consciousness', what I mean is, this technique can be done with your eyes open, without having to visualize a peaceful setting or having to find a quiet room to meditate in...and more importantly, THIS CAN BE DONE IN MINUTES! It also doesn't require the reading of any 'self-hypnotic' scripts you'll find in a lot of books. And I'm happy to say...IT'S WORKING!

I'm yielding positive results with this technique, but I need to put it through more trials to get it as full-proof as I can. I'll definitely share this with the family after I do, so stay tuned!

Two, after we seriously start working to get rid of our self-hatred, we need to organize ourselves, group by group, community by community and state by state, until the majority of us, at least in terms of the american Black Diaspora, gets use to sharing resources with each other. Whatever they are! If you remember nothing else from reading my Blog, remember this...

THE WORLD'S REAL POWER IS UNITY! IT WILL ALWAYS TRUMP EVERY OTHER KIND OF EARTHLY POWER! MONEY INCLUDED!

Third, we must begin making serious preparations to segregate ourselves from these pale-skinned degenerates we know as white people. I understand this seems far-fetched. But this is the only way we'll ever have any true peace or prosperity. Our proximity to whitey will ultimately lead to our demise, especially if we continue to imbibe in this egregious self-hatred that's been bred into us. And this doesn't mean we have to go back to Africa, necessarily, it means we can go to one of the island nations where our people are in the majority, instead of the minority. This could include Jamaica, Haiti, the Virgin Islands, etc. To this end we should all check out the book pictured to the top right, 'Quitting America' by brotha Randall Robinson. It details how Robinson went back to the islands after being fed up with the united snakes, I mean states. Also, check out his book, 'The Debt', about reparations for the Black Diaspora, it's a classic. 

Now, if we're serious about changing the state of our lives, collectively as Black people, these are the things we'll do; if not, then the inevitable slaughter that's bound to befall us at the hands of whitey awaits. 

It's up to us to finally make a choice.

Remember also, we're not only all we have, WE'RE ALL WE NEED!

So let's do the right thing family...ASAP!

Later...

MontUHURU Mimia

Absurd celebrations of the alpha white male (Part 1)…Tom Cruise, The Last Samurai, and asian amnesia…

In 2006, Japan’s Memorial Day Association declared October 6th ‘Tom Cruise Day’; supposedly ‘cause he’s been the highest profiled american actor who’s made the most trips to the island nation.

Another reason he’s so beloved in Japan is because of the film ‘The Last Samurai’, which has been playing on a continuous loop for the past week on the american movie classics network (AMC). 

For those of you who’ve never seen this flick before; albeit I couldn’t imagine there’s a soul in america who hasn’t, I’ll give you a rough synopsis of the movie’s plot: Cruise plays Captain Nat Algren; he’s a military advisor who’s hired to defeat a group of Samurai warriors so he and his cohorts can make way for the latest phase of western ‘manifest destiny’; read: genocidal occupation. After losing the battle and being captured by the Samurai, he becomes enamored with their culture and joins them. At the final battle all the Samurai warriors lose their lives defending their homeland/culture except Tom; thus, making him…the white guy, the LAST SAMURAI.*yawn*

Don’t get me wrong, this movie has several redeeming qualities. A well-written script, lovely cinematography, and some of the best choreographed fight sequences in film, period. (Namely, the ninja attack on Katsumoto’s village) Problem is, how do hollywood and the japanese people reconcile calling some white guy the last samurai? And moreover, why do the japanese feel Tom deserves his own ‘day’?

Let’s take a little stroll back down memory lane, shall we?…After the December 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, japanese americans were thrown into ‘internment/concentration camps’ in the good ‘ole U.S. of A. Let me put this another way, some 113,000 japanese people in this country, who had nothing to do with this bombing, were rounded up and incarcerated unjustly. But they’re giving an ‘american’ actor his own day in japan? Talk about a selective memory. 

Let’s take one more stroll down this lane…in 1945, the japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were decimated by american atom bombs. Mind you, america is the ONLY country in the world to use nuclear weapons in any war—bar none—twice! Tom Cruise day in japan!? *shaking my head*

Is it me, or are people of color MUCH TOO forgiving of western whites? Everyday I see instances where Black and brown people extol the virtues of the 'scrupulous' and 'morally-high grounded' caucasian; and all I can do is shake my head. And we ALL do it; Africans of the diaspora, latinos, and all varieties of asians have these same bouts of historical amnesia. 

Recently, I was on YouTube, and this person who identified themselves as ‘native american’ went on a rant that slandered Black people while talking about how ethical whites are. What?! Now, I don’t know if he was in fact a ‘native american’, but he seemed to press the issue and gave out info. on which tribe he was descended from, so I took him at his word. After I heard his bogus arguments, I asked him how he could talk about the virtuous nature of whites after what they did to his people, IN THIS COUNTRY! He responded by saying his people don’t pay any federal taxes and native american owned casinos were making them rich. I responded by saying, okay, you don’t pay any federal taxes…bravo! But you’re ‘native’ to this country, right? So why are you and yours paying ANY TAXES? As a ‘native’ person, you should be exempted from this nonsense. Then I said, it’s cool that your casinos are making you rich…but are at least HALF OF YOUR PEOPLE RICH BEHIND OWNING CASINOS? Are you personally rich? What he should or doesn’t know is, a large percentage of his people are STILL living on reservations. I remember seeing a news documentary about a native woman living on a reservation in Arizona; she didn’t even have running water in her home. This was in 2013! When the first whites washed up on these shores sick and starving, the 'native' americans fed them and nursed them back to health; and what did these virtuous whites do? They KILLED THESE NATIVES! That says to me, you’ve got to be one prideless idiot to praise the people that nearly wiped you and yours out. Also, it's documented that Black people occupied this country before and during the time 'native' americans were the majority population of this country. So 'native american indians' don't have a monopoly on this term...at least where Black people are concerned.

So I’ve said all that to say this; if you’re a person of color who’s in a heated debate about how white people are so much more scrupulous than Black or brown people, hopefully, your melanated mind will slap you in the back of the head and re-mind you of how dastardly these people, white people, have proven themselves to be time and time again. 

Let’s get our right minds back and stop being amnesiacs!!

Ma’at Hotep (Peace and justice)