tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81786876586192269922024-02-08T10:23:19.177-06:00Let's Be Clear<b>Thoughts on Race, Culture & <i>"Living in the Light"</i></b>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.comBlogger458125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-18196408685251321652023-04-05T00:02:00.015-05:002023-07-29T00:47:59.169-05:00Wake-up calls are a REAL thing, Fam…we ain’t runnin’ SHIT!<p> <span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="color: #242424; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">While I’ve been trying to comment as much as I can on folks’ writing that matter a lot to me, I’ve not been</span><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="color: #242424; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><em class="ug" style="box-sizing: inherit;">writing</em></strong><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="color: #242424; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="color: #242424; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">— so much so that I have little, to</span><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="color: #242424; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><em class="ug" style="box-sizing: inherit;">NO </em></strong><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="color: #242424; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">$tat$! That’s okay with me though, cuz I don’t write here for the money. I</span><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="color: #242424; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><mark class="xm xn ao" style="background-color: #e8f3e8; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">do it because I wanna engage with other folk, as well as share shit.</mark><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="color: #242424; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="color: #242424; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">This short post is about the latter</span></p><div class="om on oo op oq l" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 68px;"><article class="meteredContent" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="l" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="l" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><section style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="kc mu pd pe pf" style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><div class="ab cm" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><div class="fw bg fx fy fz ga" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 24px; max-width: 680px; min-width: 0px; width: 680px;"><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph ti tj ph tk b tl tm tn to tp tq tr ts tt tu tv tw tx ty tz ua ub uc ud ue uf kc bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="629e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><mark class="xm xn ao" style="background-color: #e8f3e8; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;">On March 12, I had a seizure.</mark> Who knew??!! <strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em class="ug" style="box-sizing: inherit;">I</em></strong> surely damned didn’t (not for the first time, I was bamboozled, by the not knowing — <strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em class="ug" style="box-sizing: inherit;">let me tell you!)</em></strong>. And while that shit was, <strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em class="ug" style="box-sizing: inherit;">and still is</em></strong> fuck*n with my damned head, <mark class="xm xn ao" style="background-color: #e8f3e8; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;">I am </mark><mark class="xm xn ao" style="background-color: #e8f3e8; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;"><strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em class="ug" style="box-sizing: inherit;">SO, SO eternally grateful</em></strong></mark><mark class="xm xn ao" style="background-color: #e8f3e8; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;"> for the man with whom I chose to share my life for the last, 42 years.</mark></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph ti tj ph tk b tl tm tn to tp tq tr ts tt tu tv tw tx ty tz ua ub uc ud ue uf kc bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6cd0" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">He plays golf every Thursday in a golf league, created with a bunch of old, retired guys just like himself (<strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em class="ug" style="box-sizing: inherit;">bless their hearts</em></strong>, they’ve made little signs, shirts and hats with their league name and logo on them and everthing!) — most of them, Mexican born and bred in San Antonio, share the <strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em class="ug" style="box-sizing: inherit;">real, </em></strong>Cesar-Chavez history of the city. He, in turn, respectfully and joyfully shares that knowledge with us — like what high schools were the shit in sports when they grew up, or what used to be there, but’s no longer (gentrification and gerrymandering’s everywhere, Fam). But I think what’s brought them the closest, isn’t only their prior military shit, it’s become the fact that <mark class="xm xn ao" style="background-color: #e8f3e8; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;">one of his owns’ daughter was the partner of Brian Sicknick, an officer killed in the January 6th storming of the Capitol.</mark></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph ti tj ph tk b tl tm tn to tp tq tr ts tt tu tv tw tx ty tz ua ub uc ud ue uf kc bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="266e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">So every Thursday, he writes me a beautiful note on a section of a Bounty paper towel next to the Keurig he sets up with a cup and Cafe Bustelo loaded. I’ve saved them all (Keep an eye out for the <strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit;">“Paper Towel Diaries”©</strong>).</p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph ti tj ph tk b tl tm tn to tp tq tr ts tt tu tv tw tx ty tz ua ub uc ud ue uf kc bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ce34" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">And on the first Thursday after my seizure, this is what he wrote:</p><figure class="uk ul um un uo up uh ui paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="uh ui uj" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 612px;"><picture style="box-sizing: inherit;"><source sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 612px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1224/format:webp/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 1224w" style="box-sizing: inherit;" type="image/webp"></source><source data-testid="og" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 612px" srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1224/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg 1224w" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></source><img alt="" class="bg uq ur c" height="792" loading="eager" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1224/1*P0rg8RD69EgDznqa8PLa-g.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 612px;" width="612" /></picture></div><figcaption class="jf us ut uh ui uu uv be b bf z ew" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;">(My Darlin’s love for me)</figcaption></figure><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph ti tj ph tk b tl tm tn to tp tq tr ts tt tu tv tw tx ty tz ua ub uc ud ue uf kc bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0bbd" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">We fell in love 42 years ago, to Minnie’s <strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit;">“Lovin’’ You,” </strong>— it’s been the soundtrack of our lives for all of our lives. After the damned seizure, we were trying to figure out how our old asses could just keep livin’ life — on our own terms. I promised to take the anti-seizure medicine as prescribed (cuz he knows how much I fuck*n hate pills, until I do enough research along with my neuro f/u consult on that shit to <strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em class="ug" style="box-sizing: inherit;">really </em></strong>understand what the hell’s going on), and that Mofo bought some cameras — one aimed at my seat at the laptop in the dining room, and the other aimed at the bed cuz he knows I sleep late, so he can keep doing his golf shit (gets on my damned nerves sometimes when I’m sleepin’ late and hear his ass yellin’ at me at the top of his lungs,<strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> “Hey, you hear me??!” Yeah, Mofo, I do — I’m still fuck*n’ SLEEPIN’!!</strong></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph ti tj ph tk b tl tm tn to tp tq tr ts tt tu tv tw tx ty tz ua ub uc ud ue uf kc bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4ca1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Wake-up calls really are a thing, Fam — we ain’t runnin’ <strong class="tk js" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em class="ug" style="box-sizing: inherit;">SHIT!!</em></strong></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph ti tj ph tk b tl tm tn to tp tq tr ts tt tu tv tw tx ty tz ua ub uc ud ue uf kc bj" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4ca1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; font-family: source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JXcTg76jXZI" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p></div></div></div></div></section></div></div></article></div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-60230513691450031532023-02-18T23:59:00.000-06:002023-07-29T00:05:32.522-05:00WATCH: Sy Hersh on CN Live! — ‘American Sabotage’<p>Please listen, Fam...</p>
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DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-63843322093835659082023-02-16T00:18:00.001-06:002023-02-16T00:18:30.146-06:00Were it not for Isaac Woodard, there’d be no Brown v. Board --The beginning of the end of Separate but Equal in America<p class="pw-post-body-paragraph pj pk nz pl b pm pn df po pp pq dj pr ps pt pu pv pw px py pz qa qb qc qd qe iv bi" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="46bb" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times;"><strong class="pl ix" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span class="qf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">The Professor, @William Spivey,</span></strong> at <a href="http://Medium.com">Medium.com</a> wrote a helluva piece on Isaac Woodard <a class="ae kc" href="https://medium.com/black-history-month-365/isaac-woodard-remember-his-name-ae746f36bd92" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit;">here</a>, Fam. Please <strong class="pl ix" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span class="qf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">do</span></strong> read it! It’ll help you understand what came after that brutal beating.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph pj pk nz pl b pm pn df po pp pq dj pr ps pt pu pv pw px py pz qa qb qc qd qe iv bi" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="aecf" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times;">Watch this PBS movie about Mr. Woodard — <a class="ae kc" href="https://www.pbs.org/video/the-blinding-of-isaac-woodard-knf0hq/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank"><strong class="pl ix" style="box-sizing: inherit;">“The Blinding of Isaac Woodard</strong></a><strong class="pl ix" style="box-sizing: inherit;">,” — </strong>it expires 2/28, so hurry up! If you read this later than that, you can see it <a class="ae kc" href="https://www.youtube.com/live/iUz8Ua-9qrk?feature=share" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">here</a> on YouTube with an interesting discussion as well:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p>
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</span><div><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="color: #292929; font-family: times; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">My mother’s best friend — Miss Dora — worked for the Waring family as a “domestic” for a large part of her life and mine. As a matter of fact, I think she still works for them off and on, on occasion. I remember </span><strong class="pl ix" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span class="qf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">finally</span></strong><span style="color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">watching </span><strong class="pl ix" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">“The Help,”</strong><span style="color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> and after Viola Davis saying she’d not liked playing the part of Abilene, I was more than a little warm about that shit — just cuz I saw and grew up with Black women who did this work, that were heretofore a soft place to land for many of our families — both Black and white (hell, Ms. Dora put four kids through HBCUs on that shit!).</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">Here’s an interesting further discussion…(interesting how throwing around that whole r</span><strong class="pl ix" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span class="qf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">acial reckoning</span></strong><span style="color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> bullshit, but not meaning a damned thing about it, produces not a damned thing, no?)</span></span></div><div><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph pj pk nz pl b pm pn df po pp pq dj pr ps pt pu pv pw px py pz qa qb qc qd qe iv bi" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="977f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p></div>
<span style="font-family: times;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dVwpb9bfmkw" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></span><div><span style="color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span style="font-family: times;">Thurgood was the Ben Crump of his day — I’m so damned happy he was!</span></span></div><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-86330343381308320442023-01-14T22:14:00.002-06:002023-01-14T22:17:12.000-06:00John Mark Dougan speaks to Andrey Kior from MariupolIf we continue to listen to the propaganda of the presstitute media, we, in the West — will continue to suck in, and then parrot the untruths they spew. Here, we get another side of the story:<div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Drc1WGLbUE" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </div><div>Our government is FULLY supporting a Nazi regime in Ukraine, Family. And while Jews here condemn Kanye West and Kyrie Irving as the worst of the worst anti-Semites — they avert their eyes and support, the worst anti-Semites in their history and their present. Hypocrites all! </div><div><br /></div><div>Western media keeps braying, “There are no Nazis in Ukraine!” They say it’s impossible because Zelensky is a Jew — miss me with that bullshit! There’s so much evidence to the contrary, if one really wants to know. So why don’t they want to know the truth? Because if they faced it, they’d have to admit the gazillions of dollars and weapons the U.S. government and its allies have, and continue to funnel into Ukraine — is in support of everything they claim to stand against. They’d have to admit all their performative bullshit against the Neo-nazis here in this country is just that — bullshit. </div><div><br /></div><div>And given <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/us-government-turned-away-thousands-jewish-refugees-fearing-they-were-nazi-spies-180957324/" target="_blank">how the U.S. treated Jews seeking asylum after World War II</a>, I really don’t see why they’re perpetrating this fraud. What I think I <b><i>do </i></b>see, is why the Jews in our government go along with this shit. All I can think is, <b>“Revenge is a dish best served, cold.”</b> Too conspiratorial? Maybe. But you need to explain to me why they’re thumpin’ these <i>non-powerful</i> Black guys, all while powerful America’s supporting folk who killed their ancestors and their progeny.
</div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-13820054055031935902023-01-11T20:26:00.001-06:002023-01-11T22:06:20.150-06:00Dr. King still relevant -- proving we haven’t learned shit<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6sT9Hjh0cHM" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>
Prescient, is all I can say about this man whose voice thundered over the propaganda machine that was, and still is our presstitute media. That’s why they murdered him.
<blockquote><b>“When we think scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men."</b></blockquote>
He sure didn’t lie there! Even though he was talking about Vietnam, it still applies up to, and including today. Look at how those “misguided men,” leaning on “scientific power” lied this country into Iraq, Afghanistan and now Ukraine. </div><div><br /></div><div>I see no signs of them, or things changing unless we the people make it so.</div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-57494200808095651122023-01-07T21:47:00.037-06:002023-01-13T22:08:16.507-06:00I just witnessed the worst piece of political theatre I’ve ever seen in my damned life! And that’s after Obama! Speaks volumes of the bullshittery, No?Maybe I’m just an old-head but, Chi-i-i-le, I’m sitting here listening to this, <b>“We-didn’t-want-your-ass-for-15-ballots" Kevin McCarthy</b> — giving his damned acceptance speech as Speaker of the House of Representatives. I’m just shakin’ my damned head, Fam.<div><br /></div><div>Some folk have no shame. Does he not realize that we <b><i>ALL</i></b> watched (well, us old, retired folk with nothing else to do, at least) — this dog-n-pony show going on? What was it for? To get to this? To get to you??!!</div><div><br /></div><div>
What a f*ckin’ <i><b>performance</b></i>. From Hakeem Jeffries’ wanna-come-off-like-Obama, self-serving nod to Pelosi (under the guise of his, <i><b>“Here I am for 2028, folks!</b></i>), to Kevin’s, George Washington crossing the Delaware, Abe Lincoln diatribe and then rounding it up with the family — nothin’ but <i><b>performance.</b></i></div><div><br /></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-1It5Z7dfMY" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_Qci2wAk__A" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
<div><br /></div><div>We’re pawns, Fam — pawns in both their performative games of power. All that rote, patriotic bullshit is just that — bullshit. Unless and until we use what little power we have left to get rid of these performers, there’ll be more little Kevins, or Obamas, whichever comes first (and it’ll be either/or — since there’s only TWO parties).</div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-5746314305015334432022-12-27T20:28:00.034-06:002023-01-11T20:54:41.133-06:00Greg Abbott can’t feel his legs — nor apparently, his heart<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CTrxQ9A6KjE" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> <div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wish I could say I’m surprised HIS second chance mattered, but others’ do not — but I can’t. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He talks about being faced with being literally “at death’s door.” He talks about the lessons he learned to apply to all of his life — <b>“the lessons of perseverance and never, ever, giving up.” </b>He also talks a good game about how <b>“our lives aren’t defined by our challenges, but how we respond to those challenges.”</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Greg, all of that shit sounds real good when you’re running for office and trying to bullshit “we the people,” (you did get some of them — hook, line and sinker though). Apparently, you seem to think only white folk have those feelings, those desires; that the immigrants at the border don’t feel those same feelings. Has it ever occurred to you that, that is the damned reason they <i><b>KEEP COMING??</b></i> That their <b>“perseverance and never, ever giving up”</b> is what drives them, just like you???</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And while you and your wife <i><b>adopted</b></i> your daughter, Audrey, who you say brought you so much joy when they handed her to you first, and since — have you ever thought about the women who felt <b><i>that same joy </i></b>the minute they actually, physically gave birth to their children, after having carried and delivered them into de facto captivity? How about <i><b>their</b></i> daddies, who never got to feel that same joy you felt — <i><b>at all</b></i>. Lucky, Audrey is all you got to say about that, I guess.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Tio Greg,” as one of your nieces called you in one of your<i><b> patronizing-as-hayell</b></i>, election ads in Texas — you ain’t shit. You sent <i><b>three busloads of HUMAN BEINGS</b></i> into the freezing cold of Washington, DC, with neither warm clothes, nor prior notice — in a dick-measuring contest??!! <b>You.ain’t.shit!</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I don’t believe in white Jesus, but I do believe in karma. And that second chance you got that your supposedly-Christian ass keeps ignoring and refusing to pay forward — <i><b>will </b></i>catch up to you and not in a good way. I just hope I’m alive to see it.
</div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-31766506771980608882022-12-12T22:27:00.028-06:002023-01-11T22:39:46.696-06:00Amber Ruffin nails the ICWA fight -- and Deb Haaland speaks, for herself and her people<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K4BkHmUHR1k" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> <div>Family, while the Supremes marinate on the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), I want to share how this young, Sister is s-o-o-o-o f*ckin’ on point about what this is really about. Please listen, enjoy and understand why Brackeen v. Haaland is white supremacy’s latest attempt at killing the “Indian,” and most importantly — why.</div><div><br /></div><div>This past May, four days after I watched my beautiful sister-in-law dying, I took a break from the family mourning and went back to the hotel room, clicking through the channels looking for something to take my mind off what I was feeling. Luckily, I witnessed Deb Haaland on CSPAN, telling of another trauma long ignored, not only in this country, but wherever else white savages reigned (yeah I called y’alls ass the SAVAGES for a change!, cuz that’s what the hell you were and many of you STILL ARE). And painful as it was to hear, I felt so damned PROUD of this Warrior Woman — speaking truth to power and STANDING UP for her people (unlike you, Barry). Do listen Family, as she shows what a REAL leader looks like:</div><div> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HskPPop5ygQ" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </div><div>And yes, I am more than well aware of the fact that, Native Americans also enslaved Africans. All I have to say about that is, when you’re taught to punch down — you do.</div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-21728606209443810442022-10-11T22:14:00.087-05:002023-01-13T23:02:48.375-06:00Think Cultural appropriation’s bad? Try Cultural misappropriation and see how the hell you feel! How “Come by ya” became “Kumbaya,” and other white fuckeryThis, is a serious nit I need to pick, more with my Black Fam than white folk (since stealing and distorting our culture often, and even with our help, is the norm — especially these days). But <b>you<i></i></b> guys? You <b>non-boulé<i></i></b> folk who’ve not been compromised? <i>SOME<b></b></i> of you should know, or at least learn better. And the rest of y’all <i>boulé<b></b></i> folk — cut this shit out!<div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>“Come By Ya”<i></i></b> (in the Gullah patois of my birth) is in <i>NO WAY<b></b></i> a feel-good, folk “camp song” born of some African language (well it wasn’t until white folk chose to steal and rework it that way, that is) — nor is it this <b>JOKE<i></i></b> of a touchy-feely, white misappropriation they like to throw around, based on their own white fuckery.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>“Come By Ya”<i></i></b> was a<i> F*CKIN’ LAMENT<b></b></i> of the enslaved Black folk of the Georgia and South Carolina Sea Islands. It was a <b>pained<i></i></b> entreaty, a cry for help — <b>TO.WHITE.JESUS</b> (with whom they’d been deeply indoctrinated) — for spiritual, physical and emotional rescue, from the <b>HORRORS<i></i></b> inflicted upon them by those same Bible-thumpin’, so-called Christian, white folk, who’d brought them to <b>Him<i></i></b> in the first place!
<blockquote><b>I’m here to tell you Fam — indoctrination soaked in naked terror really works!</b></blockquote><p> I was born and raised in Charleston, SC 66 seasons ago. My family are Gullah people born & raised on Edisto Island, a Sea Island not far from the city proper. My maternal grandmother and grandfather were born in 1908 and 1913 respectively. And from her Black Methodist church, to his Black Baptist church, I learned this old, Negro spiritual at both their knees, led by the oldest member of the congregation — <b><i>my entire, damned life!</i></b></p><p>The last time I heard and sang it, was at my younger, first cousin, Rhonda’s funeral in January 2018. Held at my grandfather’s church on the Island (at which Mother Emanuel’s new pastor, Rev. Eric C.S. Manning spoke), it was appropriately, the Benediction selection because at that moment, we were all “singin’, cryin’ and needin’ rescue and relief from the pain her death wrought. I remember thinking to myself, “These damed folk, with no damned knowledge of how we, the descendants of formerly enslaved people lived and believed, had <b><i>bastardized</i></b> something that for us, meant a soothing — a <i><b>Balm in Gilead</b></i>.”</p><p>I’ve long since stopped believing in white Jesus but, I’ll <b>NEVER<i></i></b> stop loving those spirituals that, over my lifetime, have always made me feel whole and connected to my people.</p>
As usual though, white folk keep trying to take credit for “discovering it” (like that lost-assed Christopher Columbus) or in fact, writing it. From the Library of Congress (please do click on the player and listen to the 1926 song, sung by Henry Wylie of Darien, GA of McIntosh County) and as you read, notice where this white guy claims he got this from):</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>Kumbaya: History of an Old Song</u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i></i></b>
I am so sick and damned tired of white folk’s first, appropriation, then misappropriation of something that means the world to me. And worse, <i><b>I’m equally sick and tired of supposedly “educated” Black folk using “Kumbaya” in the same way!</b></i> Our stories and voices have long been stolen and used to fit the white gaze, so much so that even <b><i>Black folk</i></b> don’t have a damned clue of the origins of the words they speak, let alone their meanings and their history— even though we should! But, as Zora taught, <b>“All my skinfolk ain’t my kinfolk.” </b></div><div><br /></div><div>
Since the days of slavery, White supremacy hates the not-knowing (which is why the MAGA folk always blow their tops when they hear someone speaking a language they don’t know). And while it’s mostly true the slavers erased our languages and forbade us to speak them, they were sh*t out of luck when it came to my Gullah/Geechee people of the Sea Islands of SC and GA. And because they were SOL, we had Harriett Tubman, Denmark Vesey and The Stono Rebellion just to name a few. But they’re hip to it now and, as usual, under the guise of “helping” (that whole “White Savior” thing) <a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/news/charleston-schools-consider-gullah-language-barrier/article_9103c2b0-ab5a-11e6-8e04-0f1c18e0a6b7.html" target="_blank">they’ve got a plan</a> to make sure it never happens again. Hell, even <a href="https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/1/3078/files/2012/06/Keith-Padgett.pdf" target="_blank">Yale’s</a> got their fingers in the Gullah honeypot!</div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-70988354602766507942022-07-10T21:43:00.109-05:002023-01-09T22:23:20.525-06:00May was a month of death and dying for me and frankly — my head is just fucked up right now…<div><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zm zn yq rw b zo zp ve zq zr zs vh zt zu zv zw zx zy zz aba abb abc abd abe abf abg ok bx" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5ca7" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times;">First, I watched as my beautiful, sister-in-law lost her battle with metastatic kidney cancer in Upstate New York after she left the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where her older sister lived and she'd been being treated for almost a year. She was 70, and died on Mother's Day, a day after her baby brother's (my husband's) 68th birthday.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zm zn yq rw b zo zp ve zq zr zs vh zt zu zv zw zx zy zz aba abb abc abd abe abf abg ok bx" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5ca7" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>From April 28, when we arrived at her Upstate, NY home from Texas (the family’d decided we’d all take turns being there cuz she couldn’t really do anything for herself and her husband was undone), we were relieving her twin brother who’d been there for a week.<br /></span><br /><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, Times New Roman, Times, serif" style="color: #292929;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">I've never been </span></span><i style="color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><b>in the house</b></i><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, Times New Roman, Times, serif" style="color: #292929;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> with someone dying. That shit f*ked me the hell up, Fam. But something I think we Black folk are conditioned to do -- is </span></span><i style="color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><b>love folk up as they "go through it."</b></i><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, Times New Roman, Times, serif" style="color: #292929;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> I massaged her legs and when her older sister, Joyce, asked her if she wanted us to say the rosary with her -- she said, "Yes, please."</span></span></span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zm zn yq rw b zo zp ve zq zr zs vh zt zu zv zw zx zy zz aba abb abc abd abe abf abg ok bx" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3f05" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, Times New Roman, Times, serif" style="color: #292929;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.048px;">And damned if that Jesuit-indoctrinated, Oblate Sisters of Providence shit didn't come right back to me! I said the rosary with Joy & Caroline (her daughter), despite what I think about Catholic indoctrination -- cuz that's what I'm sure Jan would've wanted.</span></span><span face="source-serif-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif" style="background-color: rgba(26, 137, 23, 0.1); letter-spacing: -0.003em;">.</span></span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zm zn yq rw b zo zp ve zq zr zs vh zt zu zv zw zx zy zz aba abb abc abd abe abf abg ok bx" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4020" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times;">When I realized that on May 21 — <strong class="rw ob" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span class="abh" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">a white, 18 year-old , killed 10 Black folk buyin’ damned groceries and injured three in the May 14 Buffalo mass shooting</span></strong>just four hours away from where we’d been, I lost my f*ckin’ mind.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zm zn yq rw b zo zp ve zq zr zs vh zt zu zv zw zx zy zz aba abb abc abd abe abf abg ok bx" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7268" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times;"><strong class="rw ob" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span class="abh" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Then,</span></strong> on May 24, by the time we got home, 19 Latino children and two teachers were massacred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde <strong class="rw ob" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span class="abh" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">by another white, 18 year-old</span></strong> for a total of 30 people dead in nearly as many days as had the month of May! Fam, I'm really undone.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zm zn yq rw b zo zp ve zq zr zs vh zt zu zv zw zx zy zz aba abb abc abd abe abf abg ok bx" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="46d1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times;">I’m always there it seems, or in close proximity to this sh*t. <a class="ax nv" href="https://lets-be-clear.blogspot.com/2015/04/aint-damned-thing-holy-going-on-in-holy.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">I was living in Charleston when Michael Slager killed Walter Scott</a> <strong class="rw ob" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span class="abh" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">and</span></strong> when the Emanuel 9 were murdered by Dylan Roof; I was in Minnesota after George Floyd was murdered, not far away from Kenosha, WI when Jacob Blake was murdered. I was living in South Texas when the El Paso massacre happened. It’s startin’ to creep me the hell out, Fam!</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph zm zn yq rw b zo zp ve zq zr zs vh zt zu zv zw zx zy zz aba abb abc abd abe abf abg ok bx" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a045" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: times;">Either that, or I need to get busy…</span></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-41009155186279148632022-05-26T20:47:00.005-05:002022-05-26T20:47:57.167-05:00White Supremacy and the Second AmendmentThe Intercept's, Jeremy Schahill lays out white supremacy's hypocrisy on guns:<div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PV17J_JOkMk" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-66432434369732102442022-04-08T17:11:00.007-05:002022-04-08T22:51:31.008-05:00Confirmed!!! In a nod to one of OUR old Negro Spirituals -- She "let the work that she's done, speak for her"...<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="360" scrolling="no" src="https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/video/embed/83962720" style="border: none;" width="540"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Amen! And Amen again!!!</div><div><br /></div><div>Like Judge Thurgood Marshall before her, we have an American Descendant of Slavery (ADOS) <i><b>who's not ashamed of that fact</b></i> -- <b>SITTING ON THE HIGHEST COURT IN THE LAND!</b> And no,<a href="https://www.biography.com/law-figure/clarence-thomas" target="_blank"> Clarence Thomas</a> doesn't share in those honorifics because though he <b><i>is</i></b> ADOS from Pinpoint, GA -- he's apparently ashamed of that, given his disrespect for Black women like Anita Hill, his rigidly conservative views and rulings on cases that come before him involving not only us, but other people of color. {SMDH}</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll be adding SCOTUSBlog to my list of blogs to follow just so I can keep up with what Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is doing. And, good or bad -- I will have thoughts!</div><div><br /></div><div>Congratulations my dear, Sister, you deserve it!</div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-43090413672922716852022-03-01T20:12:00.000-06:002022-03-01T20:12:22.402-06:00"Why is Ukraine the West's Fault?" Featuring John MearsheimerFamily, please listen as Professor Mearsheimer lays out the whys and wherefores regarding what's happening in Ukraine today for a clear picture of how we got to this point and suggestions on how we help end it:<div><br /></div><div> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JrMiSQAGOS4" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-8065323877703008812022-02-19T02:53:00.000-06:002022-02-19T02:53:04.201-06:00Because the truth matters…<span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">My last post was about Derrick Bell. But I had to share this testimony, <span class="ii hk" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;"><span class="je" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">out-of-the-mouth</span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;"> of one of his most powerful students, </span><a class="au jf" href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/07/how-critical-race-theory-mastermind-kimberle-crenshaw-is-weathering-the-culture-wars" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;" target="_blank">Kimberlé Crenshaw</a><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;">.</span></span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6mGohbqdcT8" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; font-family: times; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;">This sister knows </span><span class="ii hk" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; font-family: times; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;"><span class="je" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">exactly</span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; font-family: times; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;"> what Critical Race Theory is (and plenty more about </span><span class="je" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; font-family: times; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;"><b>intersectionality</b></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; font-family: times; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;"><b>,</b> for which </span><span class="ii hk" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; font-family: times; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;">white women</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; font-family: times; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;"> ought to be grateful — since they benefitted wa-a-y the hell more than we did from it).</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(41, 41, 41); color: #292929; letter-spacing: -0.05999999865889549px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">If you don’t understand what C.R.T. is <i><b>AFTER THIS CONVERSATION?? </b></i>You don’t wanna know. But if you do, and after you let it sink in — ask yourself: "To date, has Derrick Bell’s conclusion that 'Racism is permanent,' been right?" And if it has been — what now?</span></div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-35826135385837361172022-02-12T17:34:00.002-06:002022-02-12T18:03:14.149-06:00White supremacy’s attacks on “Critical Race Theory” just keep on proving “Critical Race Theory”<div class="dr ds dt du dv l" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 40px;"><div class="o ct" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><div class="di dq dw dx dy dz ea eb ec ed ee" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 32px; max-width: 692px; min-width: 0px; width: 692px;"><article class="meteredContent" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="l" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="l" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div style="box-sizing: inherit;"><section aria-label="post body section" class="go gp gq gr gs" style="box-sizing: inherit; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;"><section class="post body paragraphs wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic hf id ie if hj ig ih ii hn ij ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e2c6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><b>"Reis Ipsa Loquitor” — the thing speaks for itself.</b></p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv hw hx hy hz ia ib ic hf id ie if hj ig ih ii hn ij ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e2c6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">Last September, New Yorker writer, Jelani Cobb wrote —</span><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><a class="au io" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/20/the-man-behind-critical-race-theory?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Magazine_Daily_Subs_091321&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bea0c1924c17c6adf15ea26&cndid=17753256&hasha=19a7ad43cf6d8f59420a8c4a559fdfb4&hashb=6ab539a6f94173a9e1868d1f8763c04cc5a0794f&hashc=f0cce62727cea0b43bd98e6ff521653e39540750606ad44c90167375c85ae7f6&esrc=&utm_term=TNY_Magazine_Daily_Subs" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;" target="_blank"><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Man Behind Critical Race Theory</span></a><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">. </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">It was an </span><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">excellent</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> piece on Professor Derrick Bell and what Critical Race Theory (C.R.T.) </span><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">actually is. </span></span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">Given the advent of this </span><a class="au io" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/hbcus-bomb-threats-students?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;" target="_blank"><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">already-tumultuous Black History Month</span></span></a><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> — I’m glad I saved it.</span></p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ef86" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Let’s explore it a little so we can, <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">at least</span></span> agree what it is, versus what the <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">hayell </span></span>is making so-called white folk in these divided states of America lose their damned minds today over teaching <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">true</span></span> history.</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c105" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Cobb begins by introducing Derrick Bell, “a young attorney with the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in New York City,” who <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">thought</span></span> he was fighting a case <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">for</span></span> integration in a Harmony, MS public school system.</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e153" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Turns out, that’s neither what the school, nor the formerly enslaved, Black community in which it stood, wanted. They wanted to be left the hell alone to educate their young, within, <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">and by</span></span> — the culture in which they’d been raised.</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6a6d" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">In a revealing, “don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good kind of way,” Bell’s subsequent victory in Hudson v. Leake County School Board was his first inclination that maybe, just maybe — he’d made a big mistake.</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="194b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Why? Because, as Cobb wrote, <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">“<span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">such rulings sparked white flight from the public schools and the creation of private “segregation academies,” which meant that Black students still attended institutions that were effectively separate.”</span></span></p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="938e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I must interject here, that in 1974, I graduated Valedictorian, while my brother skipped a grade saying, “You ain’t leaving me here by my <span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">damned</span> self!” — graduating Salutatorian <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">with me</span></span>, from<span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>M. Rutledge Rivers High School in Charleston, SC<span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> — </span>which <span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">was</span><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>previously one of those private, “segregation academies.”</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="93bc" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">As such, I can attest to Bell’s misgivings — because white flight <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">did</span></span> happen, particularly after we became the second Black family to move into what I call our ”Movin’ On Up” neighborhood around the corner from the school. And, as Bell predicted — we ended up <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">still</span></span> attending an institution that was effectively separate (much to my heart’s delight as it turned out, cuz I’m certain had it not worked out that way, I would’ve never met, through my English teacher, Mrs. Alfreda Jenkins — the likes of <a class="au io" href="https://youtu.be/puOIdh944vk" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank">Paul Robeson</a>, James Baldwin, <a class="au io" href="https://poets.org/poem/i-too" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank">Langston Hughes</a>, <a class="au io" href="https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=aaplw&ei=UTF-8&p=james+weldon+johnson+biography#id=1&vid=9559233ae6874248ac90a44cd0b1de5b&action=click" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank">James Weldon Johnson</a>, Maya Angelou, <a class="au io" href="https://www.chipublib.org/lorraine-hansberry-biography/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank">Lorraine Hansberry</a>, <a class="au io" href="https://www.biography.com/activist/web-du-bois#:~:text=William%20Edward%20Burghardt%20Du%20Bois%2C%20better%20known%20as,in%20his%20academic%20studies%20by%20his%20white%20teachers." rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank">W. E. B. Du Bois</a> and many other greats).</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3cc9" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Please read Millicent Brown’s not so -- <a class="au io" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Bridges" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank"><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Ruby Bridges</span></span></a> story of integrating our, very own <a class="au io" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2020/09/firsts-school-segregation-south-carolina/616492/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank"><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">“segregation academ</span></a><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">y”</span> that was Rivers High School on September 3, 1963 . I was seven years old, sittin’ on that linoleum floor, at 94 Reid St., watching it happen on our little, Black & White, Zenith TV.</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2f18" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">According to Cobb:</p></section><blockquote class="ry rz sa" style="box-shadow: rgb(41, 41, 41) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;"><p class="hs ht ip hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic sb is ie if sc it ih ii sd iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="175a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">Bell spent the second half of his career as an academic and, over time, he came to recognize that other decisions in landmark civil-rights cases were of limited practical impact.</span> <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">He drew an unsettling conclusion: </span>racism is so deeply rooted in the makeup of American society that it has been able to reassert itself after each successive wave of reform aimed at eliminating it. Racism, he began to argue, is permanent.</span> <span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">(emphasis mine)</span></p></blockquote><section class="post body paragraphs wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="04d6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">As unsettling as that conclusion was for Bell, think of the <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">over</span>-abundance</span> of evidence that points to it being <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">exactly</span></span> true for us — even until today. Exhibit A would be that link up there, about the bomb threats to HBCUs made during the “advent of this already-tumultuous Black History Month.”</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6bea" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><a class="au io" href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/16thstreetbaptist.htm" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank">Bomb a church in Birmingham</a>, killing four little Black girls, check. Threaten to bomb several schools that teach young, Black folk, including young girls, check (these Mofos are <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">obsessed</span></span> with bombing “colored folk” — at home <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">and</span></span> abroad, ain’t they??). {SMDH}</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="85c9" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Think about it, Fam — we fought for the right to educate, as well as celebrate, our lived experiences in, and contributions to, this country thanks to Carter G. Woodson’s <a class="au io" href="https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/carter-woodson-black-history-month/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank"><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Negro History Week</span></a><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">. </span>And through a<span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> successive wave of reform</span></span>, it became Black History Month. However, because as Bell asserted, “<span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">racism is so deeply rooted in the makeup of American society, it has been able to reassert itself”</span> yet again with all of this crazed, vitriol against Critical Race Theory (C.R.T.) these folks have been spewing, just to make sure our stories can’t <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">legally</span></span> be taught in schools. Pretty much cancels out Black History Month, no?</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c125" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Even though, as Cobb continues:</p></section><blockquote class="ry rz sa" style="box-shadow: rgb(41, 41, 41) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;"><p class="hs ht ip hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic sb is ie if sc it ih ii sd iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="eaf0" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">After more than a quarter of a century, there is an </span><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">extensive academic field of literature</span></span><span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;"> cataloguing C.R.T.’s insights into the contradictions of </span><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">anti-discrimination law</span><span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;"> and the complexities of </span><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">legal advocacy</span><span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;"> for social justice. (emphasis mine)…</span></p></blockquote><section class="post body paragraphs wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a974" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">So-called “white folk” (more on that later) keep on lying that it’s being taught to their children in schools, K-12, to shame them and make them feel “uncomfortable.” Am I the only one that recognized the words <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">“anti-discrimination LAW”</span> and <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">“LEGAL ADVOCACY” in C.R.T.’s </span>insights? <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">C.R.T. is teaching about LEGAL SYSTEMS of discrimination in <span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">LAW SCHOOLS!</span></span></p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="60b4" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">But these fools want to paint our simply teaching and sharing our <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">true</span></span> history and contributions to America as C.R.T.’s assault against their children (somebody learned some new words somewhere.). Is Bell’s conclusion that <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">“racism is permanent”</span> on point? You tell me.</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6259" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Cobb reminds us further:</p></section><blockquote class="ry rz sa" style="box-shadow: rgb(41, 41, 41) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;"><p class="hs ht ip hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic sb is ie if sc it ih ii sd iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="87b5" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">For the past several months, however, conservatives have been waging war on a wide-ranging set of claims that they wrongly ascribe to critical race theory, while barely mentioning the body of scholarship behind it or even Bell’s name. As <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Christopher F. Rufo, an activist who launched the recent crusade</span>, said on Twitter, <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">the goal from the start was to distort the idea into an absurdist touchstone. “We have successfully frozen their brand — ‘critical race theory’ — into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category,” he wrote. Accordingly, C.R.T. has been defined as Black-supremacist racism, false history, and the terrible apotheosis of wokeness.</span> <span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">(emphasis mine)</span></p></blockquote><section class="post body paragraphs wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9ecc" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Ask yourself, Fam, have you <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">EVER</span></span> heard any of these fools either in Congress, or at school board meetings, mention Derrick Bell’s <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">name</span></span> in their racist psycho-babble? Save your breath, that’d be a <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Hayell No!</span></span> And that’s because they don’t know it, or <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">care</span></span> to know it. Nor do they care to know that C.R.T. is a <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">university-level academic discipline based on the idea that<span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> racism is embedded in U.S. legal and other structures. </span></span>All they care about is continuing to dumb-down themselves and their poor children in the name of their waning white supremacy. It’s times like these that I keep hearing my departed Grandmama asking white Jesus to please, “take the wheel.”</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c95a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">James Baldwin spoke<span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> wa-a-ay</span></span> more succinctly and eloquently than I ever could, about why so-called white folk are losing their damned minds today over race.</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2b60" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">In his seminal, <a class="au io" href="https://bannekerinstitute.fas.harvard.edu/files/bannekerinstitute/files/on_being_white.and_other_lies_baldwin_0.pdf" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit;" target="_blank"><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">“On Being White and Other Lies,”</span></a><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>he eviscerates whiteness and lays bare the weakness in white leadership under which we continue to labor — for our lives.</p></section><blockquote class="ry rz sa" style="box-shadow: rgb(41, 41, 41) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;"><p class="hs ht ip hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic sb is ie if sc it ih ii sd iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2705" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">“No one was white before he/she came to America.</span> It took generations, and a vast amount of coercion, before this became a white country.</p><p class="hs ht ip hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic sb is ie if sc it ih ii sd iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="aaf2" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">It is probable that it is the Jewish community or more accurately, perhaps, its remnants — that in America has paid the highest and most extraordinary price for becoming white. <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">For the Jews came here from countries where they were not white, and they came here, in part, because they were not white; and incontestably in the eyes of the Black American (and not only in those eyes) American Jews have opted to become white, and this is how they operate. </span>(emphasis mine)</p></blockquote><section class="post body paragraphs wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2a86" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">A side-note here, this is how the EGOT, Whoopie Goldberg, recently got got. <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Because the Jews became white and operated as such, Black folk see them as white people.</span></span> Goldberg said the Holocaust wasn't about race — because, after paying the price of the ticket (becoming white),<span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> they operated as white people here in America.</span> So, in her allyship, she uttered the words no Jew would entertain as true (though Whoopie and countless other Black Americans see how they operate as white folk) — the Holocaust was a “man’s inhumanity to man” thing, versus a race thing. And I agree with her, because even though <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">the NAZIS </span></span>deemed them as an inferior “race” — <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">when they got here, they operated as white folk. </span></span>Either it’s religious persecution or racial persecution, y’all gotta pick, or probably not, given “white” America’s fealty to them Benjamins (yeah I said it!).</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2a6b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Since I’d hate to waste <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">nary a day </span></span>of our only, 28-day celebration of Black History Month, I’d like to share a little Bryan Stevenson on Critical Race Theory — and some other powerful things:</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2a6b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-RQVQsRjKso" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2a6b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">As you listen, notice the same, damned “bomb threats” bullshit at the 2:48 time hack. I'm tell</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">in’ y’all — </span><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">THEY ARE OBSESSED!</span></span></p></section><section class="post body paragraphs wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b185" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">At the 4:12 time hack, we hear Brian Stevenson say: <span style="font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">“We just had the 20th anniversary of 9/11…We believe in memorializtion in this country.”</span></p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="73d9" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">To which Pogue replies: <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">“But that’s different… It’s easier for Americans to memorialize something that was done <span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">to</span> us, than it is to memorialize something we did to others.”</span> (Mighty f*ckin Mitch McConnell of you there Pogue!)</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5584" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Mr. Pogue, and I give you that respect, grudgingly — therein lies the rub, <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">We</span></span>(Black people of the United States) <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">are Americans.</span></span> These atrocities were/are committed against/done to “Americans”.</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f58c" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Cobb continues:</p></section><blockquote class="ry rz sa" style="box-shadow: rgb(41, 41, 41) 3px 0px 0px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -20px; padding-left: 23px;"><p class="hs ht ip hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic sb is ie if sc it ih ii sd iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0108" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">People who looked at the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and others and concluded that <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">they were not anomalies but evidence that the system was functioning as it was designed to, were articulating the conclusion that Bell had drawn decades earlier.</span></span></p><p class="hs ht ip hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic sb is ie if sc it ih ii sd iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9c39" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">Bell, who died in 2011, at the age of eighty, would have been less focussed on the fact that white politicians responded to that reckoning by curtailing discussions of race in public schools than that they did so in conjunction with a larger effort to shore up the political structures that disadvantage African Americans. Another irony is that C.R.T. has become a fixation of conservatives despite the fact that some of its sharpest critiques were directed at the ultimate failings of liberalism, beginning with Bell’s own early involvement with one of its most heralded achievements.“The gap between words and reality in the American project — that is what critical race theory is, where it lies,” Perry told me. The gap persists and, consequently, Bell’s perspective retains its relevance. Even after his death, it has been far easier to disagree with him than to prove him wrong.</span></span></p><p class="hs ht ip hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic sb is ie if sc it ih ii sd iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="fba5" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="gv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: normal;">Vinay Harpalani told me, “Someone asked him once, ‘What do you say about critical race theory?’ ” Bell first replied, “I don’t know what that is,” but then offered, </span><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">“To me, it means telling the truth, even in the face of criticism.”</span></p></blockquote><section class="post body paragraphs wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="dc15" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">And isn’t that <span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">ALL</span></span> it is, Fam? Just<span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ip" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> isn’t</span></span> it?? White folk don’t want their children to learn what f*kin’ racists, white suptemacists, muderers, they’re ancestors have always been. Too late to be ashamed now Mofos — your children SEE YOU!</p><p aria-label="post body paragraph" class="hs ht gv hu b hv iq hx hy hz ir ib ic hf is ie if hj it ih ii hn iu ik il im go ff" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="cf83" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: charter, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">What’s really going on today in these divided states of America is Derrick Bell’s, “Critical Race Theory” writ large -- which <span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">I reiterate here: “R</span><span class="hu in" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">acism is so deeply rooted in the makeup of American society that it has been able to reassert itself after each successive wave of reform aimed at eliminating it. Racism is permanent</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">.”</span></p></section></section></div></div></div></div></article></div></div></div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-47889270311448724422021-08-10T01:23:00.001-05:002021-08-10T01:26:14.625-05:00Rest in Power, Brother Glen Ford -- thanks for always "afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted!"<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1101076393&color=ff5500" width="100%"></iframe><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-918579032" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Global Research News Hour">Global Research News Hour</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-918579032/glen-ford-memorial-august-6-2021" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Glen Ford Memorial August 6 2021">Glen Ford Memorial August 6 2021</a></div>
DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-24938768235466579532021-06-24T15:26:00.000-05:002021-06-24T15:26:20.994-05:00Ken Burns with Mr. James Baldwin on "Liberty"
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="290" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/f953e86e-e774-4084-abf7-423de23886c2" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="480"></iframe> <div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/24/ken-burns-is-an-optimist-hes-very-worried-about-america/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F34019cc%2F60d4a8be9d2fda8060e5ca70%2F5972745e9bbc0f1cdce4a413%2F53%2F70%2F60d4a8be9d2fda8060e5ca70">Opinion: Ken Burns is an optimist. But he’s very worried about America.</a></div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-1898655396502106052021-06-15T14:44:00.005-05:002021-06-16T13:33:13.136-05:00ABC never-aired this 1979 Baldwin profile. Producer was told -- No one would be interested in a “queer, Black has-been”<iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="310" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/561405000" width="600"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/561405000">Never Aired: Profile on James Baldwin ABC’s 20/20, 1979</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user124086590">A Closer Look</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote p=""><div style="text-align: left;">"Baldwin speaks frankly about outing himself to the general public with his 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room and about what it means to live as a Black man in a nation that has always favored its white citizens:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i></i></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>"The American sense of reality is dictated by what Americans are trying to avoid. And if you’re trying to avoid reality, how can you face it?"</i> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">Nearly 35 years before Black Lives Matter’s formation, he tackles the issue of white fragility by telling Chase, <b>“Look, I don’t mean it to you personally. I don’t even know you. I have nothing against you. I don’t know you personally, but I know you historically. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t swear to the freedom of all mankind and put me in chains.” </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The finished piece is a superb, 60 Minutes-style profile that covers a lot of ground, and yet, 20/20 chose not to air it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">After the show ran Chase’s interview with Michael Jackson, producer Lovett inquired as to the delay and<b> </b>was told that no one would be interested in a “queer, Black has-been”:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-style: italic;">I was stunned, I was absolutely stunned, because in my mind James Baldwin was no has-been. He was a classic American writer, translated into every language in the world, and would live on forever, and indeed he has. His courage and his eloquence continue to inspire us today." </b>(All emphasis mine)</blockquote></div></blockquote>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-46298716366972438292020-10-29T18:21:00.001-05:002020-10-29T18:21:14.738-05:00Breaking Brown's, Yvette Carnell -- expressing the thoughts and feelings of many Black voters...<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qLgyfAAn_0g" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-57119335287860808162020-10-06T16:06:00.001-05:002020-10-06T16:14:12.477-05:00The October Surprise? -- "Reality TV" wins, yet again...This administration continues to play e’erybody — and the MSM (fuck*n presstitute media) along with his base, have NO damned problem joining in the game, Fam. But just listen as Denzel shares Brother Malcom’s thoughts on this bullshit:<div><br /></div><div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DV7yx2y3TtY" width="560"></iframe> <div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JPngrKWTULk/X3y487pnTrI/AAAAAAAAC74/WkmGTSWw-BMyBu_f9Trmpu5DyHnBoqO9wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/Come%2Bon%2Bnow%2521.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JPngrKWTULk/X3y487pnTrI/AAAAAAAAC74/WkmGTSWw-BMyBu_f9Trmpu5DyHnBoqO9wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Come%2Bon%2Bnow%2521.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>Come on now, Family (my sister-in-law gave me this shirt on my last visit to Minnesota cuz she knows me so well)!! This was a damned, publicity stunt (from the drive-by, waving to his base followers, to the<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em"> 3-day release) — </em></strong><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">a</em>nd they were<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em"> all </em></strong>in on it. The little, Navy doctor, Conley at Walter Reed missed the damned memo, that’s why he had to go out and walk back that first bullshit he said! And our presstitute media’s been giving homeboy all the<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em"> free</em></strong> press he needs for his damned re-election (Democrats are so f*ckin’ <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">stupid</em></strong>). {SMMFH}</div><div><p class="graf graf--p" name="9d19">Unless and until I see some of them supposedly, ”exposed” folk are sick, near-death-sufferin’ and/or dyin’ — I’m not buyin’ ANY OF THIS BULLSHIT!</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="71b9">He staged it all, and because of that, more regular folk will die — and neither he, nor his motley crew will give a shit.</p></div></div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-76904418745779226022020-09-08T23:02:00.002-05:002020-09-08T23:12:53.272-05:00George Floyd Memorial a gut-wrenching confirmation of America's continuing Black genocide<div>My husband and I took a road trip to my oldest sister-in-law's house in Minnesota with our youngest son and his lady the last week of August.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thinking about how <b><i>badly</i></b> I'd been needing to get away from it all, I shelved my traveling-during-COVID paranoia and agreed to the drive up for a surprise, early birthday party for my nephew on Saturday, 8/22. Instead of getting away from it all -- I drove right into it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Arriving on Friday evening, we unwound at a laid back, socially distanced, driveway-hang-out that night at my oldest niece's house with her little family of three, her younger sister, their mom and my other sister-in-law who'd flown in from New York for the party. Unlike the 100-degree temperatures we'd been suffering in Texas, the weather was<b><i> GREAT</i> </b>as we sat under the stars talking, laughing, drinking and catching up (<b><i>not</i></b> via Zoom for a change). Because we were a part of the surprise, my nephew wasn't invited <i>but</i>, we'd been texting back-and-forth <i><b>all </b></i>evening about what he'd been doing in the community since George Floyd's murder (unbeknownst to him, I <b>W<i>AS</i> </b>in Minnesota).</div><div><br /></div><div>Then, oddly, I got <i><b>this </b></i>text from him at 7:25 pm (which I read to everybody else). He said, <b><i>"Listening to Ranky Tanky and thinking of you. Love you guys and miss you all so much. Wish I had my family here with me. Fuck Covid!"</i> Then he uploaded Ranky Tanky's, <a href="https://youtu.be/EG3B7JjeKhs">"That's Alright"</a></b> (Long story for later about our bond over Ranky Tanky! Suffice it to say, he respects my Gullah heritage.). We thought our surprise was blown! I texted him back saying, <b>"I feel exactly the same, Nephew. Promise we'll make that happen one day soon!" </b> </div><div><br /></div><div>On Saturday, per his wife's invitatiion, we had a mask-wearing, tables 6 feet apart, outside in the yard shindig that was fuck*n <b style="font-style: italic;">wonderful!!! </b>Minnesota being a swing state, we had some <i><b>serious</b></i> political and racial conversations under the tent. I <b><i>so</i></b> appreciated that!</div><div><br /></div><div>On Sunday, we spent a beautiful day at my youngest niece's house on a pontoon boat on the lake all day and finally, I felt all the tension I'd brought with me just drain away.</div><div><br /></div><div>On Monday though, we went to the George Floyd Memorial -- and it felt like someone was squeezing my heart as we walked through the closed-off part of the neighborhood from the Cup Foods. This is what I saw first:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OXAWgYi6zCo/X1aGkc42nDI/AAAAAAAAC5k/pwvcGBqwVFo3yRsBl5s5_O9Ru7i397QqQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/George%2BFloyd%2B1.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="500" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OXAWgYi6zCo/X1aGkc42nDI/AAAAAAAAC5k/pwvcGBqwVFo3yRsBl5s5_O9Ru7i397QqQCLcBGAsYHQ/w375-h500/George%2BFloyd%2B1.JPG" width="375" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div>When we reached the end of the trail of names and I looked back, the stark visualization of the nationwide numbers of Black deaths felt like somebody had kicked me in the gut. My son put his arms around me and said, "Mom, it happened again." He told me about the Jacob Blake video in Kenosha, not far across the state line from where we were. I'd slept so hard and peacefully the night before, I hadn't heard yet because I'd neither watched TV, nor been online. He wanted to show it to me but -- <i><b>I. JUST. COULDN'T.</b></i></div><div><br /></div><div>Instead, I walked down to here, the <a href="https://kstp.com/news/say-their-names-cemetery-in-minneapolis-memorializes-black-americans-killed-by-police/5752963/">"Say Their Names" Cemetery</a>:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dnDXsYOpS7k/X1cDFaWRSCI/AAAAAAAAC6I/EH3LByMu4iM4aLoze3KSYFICi_0v7TbpACLcBGAsYHQ/s656/Resized_20200824_161407.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="656" data-original-width="389" height="625" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dnDXsYOpS7k/X1cDFaWRSCI/AAAAAAAAC6I/EH3LByMu4iM4aLoze3KSYFICi_0v7TbpACLcBGAsYHQ/w373-h625/Resized_20200824_161407.jpg" width="373" /></a></div><br /><div>Standing in that makeshift cemetery with all those "headstones" listing the names again (but <i><b>this</b></i> time, along with their dates of birth and death, with their actual ages over the dash) -- I thought about Jacob Blake, his children in the car watching him get shot, and how <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/09/04/racism-is-a-relation-between-white-people/" target="_blank">George Floyd's very public death had neither stopped nor slowed the reign of terror</a> in our communities by these sometimes-scared, oftentimes intentional, <i><b>always</b></i>-jumpy jackbooted thugs. I just started to shake my head and cry. </div><div><br /></div><div>I knew they'd quickly be "dirtying" him up, saying the cop was "in fear for his life," putting the cops involved on pretty much a paid vacation "pending investigation,"<i><b> despite</b></i> the video. I <i><b>also</b> </i>knew they'd blame him for his own murder. And they've done it all, as usual.</div><div><br /></div><div>My nieces, along with their young children (one, a nine year-old girl and the other, an eight year-old boy), followed close behind me. I heard the nine year-old ask her mom incredulously, "Did <i><b>all</b></i> these people get killed by the police??" Her mom said yes. "And they <i><b>ALL </b></i>had Black skin??" she asked. Again, her mom said yes. As the kids went from headstone to headstone they stopped at the one for <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aiyana-stanley-jones-joseph-weekley-trial_n_5824684" target="_blank">Aiyana Jones</a>. The nine year-old said to her eight year old cousin, <b>"Sal, she was <i>only</i> seven years old!" </b> My knees buckled and I bent over. Sal's mom came up from behind me, tears streaming down her face and asked, "Are you alright Aunt Debi?" All I could do was shake my head no as we cried together. </div><div><br /></div><div>Adding insult to injury on Tuesday night, here comes 17 year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, open-carrying <i><b>against Wisconsin law</b></i> when the protests broke out -- killing two people an injuring one. I was enraged as I saw cops pretty much give him the Dylan Roof treatment as he walked toward them with his long gun slung over his shoulder and his hands up (I was living in Charleston when Roof murdered the Emanuel 9 on my oldest son's birthday in 2015). Only thing missing was an offer to get him a damned burger.</div><div><br /></div><div>So much for trying to get away from it all. </div><div><br /></div><div>We cannot allow this to continue, Family. We've got to keep raising these issues by whatever means necessary and available. Jacob Blake's sister said it way better and more succinctly than I ever could, here:</div><div><br /></div><div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vGZncHP5V0A" width="560"></iframe></div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-36520246305728742862020-07-24T20:11:00.004-05:002020-07-24T20:49:12.607-05:007/24 -- always a day of mourning, celebration and anticipation...I woke up this morning, rolling over and looking out my bedroom window where, for the last three years, I've seen a cardinal flying from its nest in the trees behind my back yard to my neighbors bird feeder next door. I didn't see the cardinal this morning which, to many, is a sign of a spirit watching over you.<div><br /></div><div>It's been 24 years since my mother died in Charleston on my niece's 18th birthday -- a week before my 46th birthday. It seemed to explain the fitful, sweat-drenched, menopausal sleep I had last night.</div><div><br /></div><div>I told the husband about it this morning and he said,<b><i>"Maybe it was your Mom saying, 'You got this, Deb,' you don't need me anymore."</i></b> I think he was right, at least partially.</div><div><br /></div><div>She was <b>"Woman"</b> in my life. Sometimes gettin' the hell on my last nerve, sometimes bein' the person whom I looked up to most as friend, ally and not-takin-any-shit-from-white folk role model. I remember her coming to Immaculate Conception (ICS) to pick me and my brother up to go march in Charleston's, <a href="https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/charleston_hospital_workers_mo/introduction">1969 Hospital Workers strike</a>, led by her friend and fellow Dreamer's Social Club member, Miss Mary Moultrie. I was 13.</div><div><br /></div><div>These women met monthly, pooled their "dues," had a great time playing cards, eating and talking about family and friends and had an even <i><b>better</b></i> time annually, as they used that pooled cash to travel America. Miss Dora, my family's next-door neighbor, is the only one left to my knowledge.</div><div><br /></div><div>I remember her fighting her way up from short-order cook on the Navy Base to running all the cafeterias on that base. I also remember her (respectability politics aside), <b><i>demanding</i></b> that we do better, be better than who she was. As I look back on my life at 63, I did better -- but I could never <b><i><u>be</u></i></b> better than the woman she was.</div><div><br /></div><div>I miss you so much, Mama -- you'd be proud of these young, Black folk today!</div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-25526618190457351162020-07-04T14:40:00.000-05:002020-07-04T14:40:14.190-05:00Mr. Frederick Douglass said...<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6210978275912960892" itemprop="" style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 15.399999618530273px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 550px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=162" style="color: #123b68; text-decoration: none;"><strong><br />"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"</strong></a><strong> </strong>(in its entirety)</div><br />...Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too, great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory....<br /><br /><b>...Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?</b><br /><br />Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."<br /><br />But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. <strong>The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine.</strong> You may rejoice, I must mourn. <strong>To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony.</strong> Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can today take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!<br /><br />"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! We wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."<br /><br />Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" <strong>To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world.</strong> My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. <strong>America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.</strong> Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America! <strong>I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.</strong><br /><br /><strong>But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, "It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, an denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued.</strong> What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? <strong>The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave.</strong> When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!<br /><br />For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. <strong>Is it not astonishing that,</strong> while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, <strong>while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men,</strong> digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, <strong>confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!</strong><br /><br />Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? That he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? <strong>How should I look today, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? </strong>speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. <strong>To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.</strong><br /><br /><strong>What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.</strong><br /><br />What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. <strong>That which is inhuman, cannot be divine!</strong> Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.<br /><br /><strong>At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! Had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.</strong><br /><br />What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. <strong>To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.</strong><br /><br />Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, <strong>lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival....</strong><br /><br />...Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city.<strong> Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together.</strong> From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. — Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.<br /><br />The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. <strong>The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light.</strong> The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. Ethiopia, shall stretch out her hand unto God. In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:<br /><br /><strong>God speed the year of jubilee</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>The wide world o'er!</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>When from their galling chains set free,</strong><br /><b><br /></b></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6210978275912960892" itemprop="" style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 15.399999618530273px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 550px;"><b>Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,</b></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6210978275912960892" itemprop="" style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 15.399999618530273px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 550px;"><strong><br /></strong><strong>And wear the yoke of tyranny</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>Like brutes no more.</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>That year will come, and freedom's reign,</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>To man his plundered rights again</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>Restore.</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong>God speed the day when human blood<br /><br />Shall cease to flow!<br /><br />In every clime be understood,<br /><br />The claims of human brotherhood,<br /><br />And each return for evil, good,<br /><br />Not blow for blow;<br /><br />That day will come all feuds to end,<br /><br />And change into a faithful friend<br /><br />Each foe.<br /><br /><strong>God speed the hour, the glorious hour,</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>When none on earth</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>Shall exercise a lordly power,</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>Nor in a tyrant's presence cower;</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>But to all manhood's stature tower,</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>By equal birth!</strong><br /><br />That hour will come, to each, to all,<br /><br />And from his Prison-house, to thrall<br /><br />Go forth.<br /><br /><strong>Until that year, day, hour, arrive,</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>With head, and heart, and hand I'll strive,</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>To break the rod, and rend the gyve,</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>The spoiler of his prey deprive -</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>So witness Heaven!</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>And never from my chosen post,</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>Whate'er the peril or the cost,</strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong>Be driven.</strong><br /><br />Mr. Frederick Douglass<br />July 5, 1852<br />Rochester New York<br /><br />(All emphasis mine)</div>DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-41441921896209153972020-06-19T01:13:00.000-05:002020-06-19T11:34:15.800-05:00Juneteenth is a Black, American Descendants of Slaves (ADOS) Celebration--it is NOT International, nor is it a "People of Color" Celebration!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello Family. It took white folk <b><i>actually seeing</i></b> their, "Protect and Serve" mofos murdering a Black man b<b><i>efore their eyes </i></b>for there to be massive marches and "Black Lives Matter" testimonials from them, as well as the Black gatekeepers we've been fighting all our lives in these alleged, United States of America (yeah, I see you Obama Family). I don't trust any of you.<br />
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My big, bear-huggin', <i><b>love </b></i>of a nephew, (the son of my <a href="https://www.blogger.com/%3Ciframe%20width=%22560%22%20height=%22315%22%20src=%22https://www.youtube.com/embed/CoCrIvyMyWI%22%20frameborder=%220%22%20allow=%22accelerometer;%20autoplay;%20encrypted-media;%20gyroscope;%20picture-in-picture%22%20allowfullscreen%3E%3C/iframe%3E">society-identified, "white"</a> husband's sister who lives in Minnesota) took the above pictures for me as he helped clean up the neighborhood after Black folk there said, "E-f*ckin'-nough!'<br />
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In his text accompanying the last pic, he said, <b>"I like this picture (but you probably won't see it on the news...Black woman and young child working to clean up the neighborhood...but it's way more sexy to show black men burning the place down").</b><br />
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I agreed, and the truth of it pissed me the hell off. But I digress. <br />
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Nobody that I know today, can talk about our ADOS claim to reparations better than Yvette Carnell and Antonio Moore. While I've got my own deep thoughts and receipts about which I'll write later on today, I think listening to these two, dynamic younguns, is way more important right about now:<br />
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Listen and get it -- if you dare. If you don't, leave the Straw-man arguments at home...<br />
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<br />DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178687658619226992.post-56195891719889593372020-06-18T22:53:00.000-05:002020-06-18T22:53:57.786-05:00June 17 will NEVER be the same again for me…My firstborn son turned 39 on June 17 and, given the egregious number of Black men and women who’ll never see another birthday due to the machinations of the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy — I’m glad he was able to.<br />
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As I do every year, I woke up and called him to sing “Happy Birthday.” And as has happened every year since June 17, 2015 — I was kicked in the chest by the realization that my annual, joyful-love celebration of his birth, would forever be linked with the painful deaths of the nine people Dylan Roof murdered in my home town at Mother Emanuel. I was there.<blockquote><b><i>Joyful love and immense pain have always coexisted in the lives of Black folk since our unwilling, in-the-boat “immigration” to these alleged, United States of America (Sullivan’s Island is our Ellis Island).</i></b></blockquote><br />
I heard about the murders that June 17 night on the evening news and almost simultaneously, a call to assemble downtown the next day via text, email and social media immediately went out from my friend, the late Black Lives Matter Charleston activist, Muhiyidin D’baha. We all responded. Arriving at the church and met with the yellow, “Police line do not cross” tape designating a crime scene, my heart just broke — so much so, I’ve not been able to write about it until now.<br />
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I remember a CNN reporter sticking a microphone in my face, asking me what I thought about the violence that had been visited upon Mother Emanuel. I told him, “White violence has long been visited upon the neighborhood surrounding the church via gentrification — these deaths are just the culmination of all the efforts to bleach the neighborhood, ridding it of all the Black folk whose lives were inextricably linked to it” (needless to say, that quote was never used). Say their damned names today!:<br />
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Cynthia Hurd<br />
Susie Jackson<br />
Ethel Lance<br />
DePayne Middleton Doctor<br />
Clementa Pinckney<br />
Tywanza Sanders<br />
Daniel L. Simmons, Sr.<br />
Sharonda Singleton<br />
Myra Thompson<br />
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After I’d moved back home in 2014 because I was homesick after nearly 30 years of moving around with the Navy, the husband and I bought a house in North Charleston because we couldn’t afford to buy downtown where I was born (<a href="https://youtu.be/T8Abhj17kYU">confirming Mr. James Baldwin’s, “Urban renewal is Negro removal”</a>).<br />
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Less than a year after that, Muhiyidin and I began collaborating on Black liberation after <a href="https://lets-be-clear.blogspot.com/2015/04/aint-damned-thing-holy-going-on-in-holy.html">the murder of Walter Scott</a>. Remembering our Rivers Avenue, Starbucks meetings where we discussed a Citizen’s Review Board (CRB) for the North Charleston police department (because I’d fought and won that battle before in Key West — and no, Starbucks never f*cked with us whenever we met, and no, the CRB never happened while I was still there), I knew this new generation of Black folk had decided they would NOT be shouldering that <a href="https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111mor.html">“Black Man’s Burden”</a> for another damned day. And let me just say — I was then, and continue to be, so damned proud of them!!<br />
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October 16, 2015 was our Rivers High School class reunion. It was at once beautiful and painful, because I had a conversation with Tyrone, the father of Tywanza Sanders. After hugging and holding for what seemed like forever, I leaned back and watched the tears roll down his face as we talked about what had happened at Mother Emanuel four months earlier. I was split wide open, Family. I asked his permission to write about what we’d talked about but he said he couldn’t give it right then for a variety of reasons — I understood.<br />
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On Tuesday, February 6, 2018 (I moved back to the “belly of the beast” in 2017 when my first grandchild was born), my cousin, a videographer at one of the local TV stations in Charleston, called me — she wanted me to know that my friend, Muhiyidin, had been shot in New Orleans and had died. He was just 32 (at the time, my oldest son was 36 and my youngest son was 33). He was, and forever will be to me — a passionate and often f*ckin’ exasperating, <a href="https://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/reflecting-on-the-life-and-work-of-muhiyidin-dbaha/Content?oid=15279796">WARRIOR for Black folk</a>. As I scrolled through our text messages in my phone, and re-read our shared emails — I cried like a damned baby.<br />
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I’m tired, Fam — so damned tired of white folks’ fear of retribution leading to the continuation of Black death. Our young folk have the answers and I support them 100% — you should too…DebChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02018798227792356966noreply@blogger.com0