A little update (kind of): I didn't give this sister all she deserved when I posted this video. That had more to do with me, than with her so, I thought I'd correct it.
From the 7:15 - 9:56 clicks: I appreciated her explicitly owning her "asleep at the wheel," non-critical thinking regarding our
As with those who tend to measure a person's value based on appearances alone, she'd stereotyped him as her "dream plaintiff...!" by the 11:36 click. But just like those, who blithely and repeatedly see fit to admonish "Pookie" - because he, makes them and their important work look bad (in total disregard for the validity of anything Pookie has to say) - she shifted to, "Wait! Did you say, did you just, did you just say you're a felon? A drug felon" starting at 11:50. Her recitation of all the usual, learned-from-supremacy, lawerly dog whistles, made it crystal clear that there was no "Just As I Am" (one of my grandmother's favorite hymns, and the title of one of my favorite books) going on in her heretofore, pseudo-privileged understanding of how justice is supposed to work. And by the 12:15 click, she admitted she'd done, what many, if not most, of the privileged (pseudo- and not) among us do - "stopped listening," followed by excuses as justification.
Even after in frustration, the young brother let loose from the 12:44 - 13:30, she'd pretty much written him off, continuing to do her "important work." Until that is, two unrelated-but-related things occurred: 1) Beginning at the 14:00 click, the brother brought his grown-up self back - with a peace offering and an apology - for his behavior (Imagine that!). He owned his frustration-led attack on her, while at the same time, acknowledging what she had been doing, trying to make "Just Us" mean "Justice," and 2) the story - at the 14:40 click.
And at the 15:06 click, a "Vulcan Mind Meld" happened. My sister reached - and spoke - some truths with the kind of 'nads people like the Changeling, Cosby, etc. can only dream about. Not only did she own her shit, she acknowledged how the "Pookie Conspiracy" (of which she had been an active part) continues to not only disenfranchise millions, but - as Leon Kuhn's photo above suggests - continues to provide a limitless amount of capital enrichment for the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy.And the rest of what she says, is some "real" history (though for the last couple of months or so, I've been questioning how much WE, as a people, have "abandoned" and "veered off" from MLK's dream as she says at the 43:14 click - but that's a whole 'nother, once-I-work-it-out-in-my-head post).
I am so damned proud of my sister's "awakening!" But let's be clear - unless many more like her, dare to own their inner "Pookie Conspiracy" - AND - acknowledge the reality of what's happening "on the ground," there will be no recognizable, substantive change in "Just Us."
Until then...
4 comments:
Checking in to see if you have anything on Gil Scott-Heron (R.I.P)
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS3QOtbW4m0
There is irony with his death, especially because of AIDS (most likely, he was HIV+).
No Sister, his death was but another of a series of events that have had my mind tied up - in memories of who we ONCE were - as a people - and the reality of who we've BECOME today. Some sad, weighty shit that's stopped me cold here lately. Thanks for the link though - I think I'll post it. Maybe it'll help me get back on this damned keyboard! :-)
Irony? How so?
There is so much irony in the conspiracies (not to dismiss such theories by calling them conspiracies, mind you) that AIDS as well as CRACK was invented by the U.S. Government to infiltrate, control, and destroy the black community. At least those were theories (conspiracies) I heard in the mid-80s. To have Gil Scott-Heron die of HIV+ complications, him being the black revolutionist of his day is the sad irony. I first heard of him in the late 70s when I was dating a light skinned brother, who in hindsight I feel went overboard with the revolutionary stuff because of skin color guilt (his best friend was and it was a big deal among them all). He talked the talk but I knew he was an inch from becoming a corporate sell-out. His mother had great plans for him to become an attorney. Needless to say, that never happened. He was born between a football star (his older brother) and a successful local political (his younger brother) and died at 30. I still don’t know from what. Probably drugs, car crash, or something else sinister. We fell out in 1988 when I had enough of him and his feinding, then I moved away, and next thing I knew 15 years later that it was only two years after we fell out that he had died.
I am sure if we poke around Scott-Heron’s life we will find that he was horrible to women. Yet, there was still some fight in him and brothers like him, or was there. Was it all talk? The poor thing ended up like some many brothers and sisters do, I am thinking specifically of Zora Neale Hurston. Begging on friends and former friends doorstep for a place to crash a few nights. Eventually it becomes obvious that the game was rigged before anyone started playing. It is that knowledge that makes defeatists defeatists. Lately, I have been trying to forget about “reality,” which translates in “there is no use” and get back to a place.
Kitty...Okay, gotcha. I was attending a small HBCU in AL when Gil Scott-Heron came out with "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" - like you, turned on to it by a different kind of light-skinned brother who fiended for the corporate sell-out role.
"Was it all talk? The poor thing ended up like some many brothers and sisters do, I am thinking specifically of Zora Neale Hurston. Begging on friends and former friends doorstep for a place to crash a few nights. Eventually it becomes obvious that the game was rigged before anyone started playing."
I don't think it was all talk - back then - and yes, the game has always been rigged, certainly before we started playing! Though they ended up begging on their respective death beds - later, they left an unquestionable legacy - for those of us who would listen and heed. You can call 'em "theories," or you can call 'em "conspiracies" - or both. All I know is, there's ample data available about what white folk did then - and continue to do now for - "them dollar bills y'all." Since the mofos never saw us as human beings in the first damned place, destruction of the Black community was but collateral damage in the whole crack epidemic scheme:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Ross_(drug_trafficker)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb
http://youtu.be/d6dHqP9wc3k
"Lately, I have been trying to forget about “reality,” which translates in “there is no use” and get back to a place."
You and me both Sister...
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