I don’t identify with being called an African. I hold know ill feelings toward the embrace of such a rich and meaningful title, but I just don’t ‘feel’ it. To truly be African and know first hand how it feels, smells, and taste on a spiritual level and in my soul I’m sure would be an amazing thing, but that isn’t my reality. Why should I feel lost or empty for it? I don’t and never have. I embrace my misfortune of being an American in the skin I’m in and use it to empower the person I am and to treasure the strength of those who bleed to allow me to walk in any room with my head up.

I have yet to see Africa shed a tear for my condition, though I’ve heard some touching stories where there are some Africans that call us “The Taken Ones” that shall come home one day, but I can’t see that right now. When I meet Africans I enjoy the dialogue and seeing the different strenghts and struggles they have, because there is a kinship there. I appreciate them and their representation of their African culture, but I love what I am as well. Not what was or what’s to come, but what I am right now and hope to show more young men and women how to do that for themselves. It isn’t about integrating with “The Man”, but being able to look in the mirror and say all that I am and all that I get I deserve…the good or bad is on you.

I am growing everyday and live to accept all people for who they are. I respect people love and passions for what they believe and try not to judge them for the things that enforce positivity and their truth. I don’t see the Black man in America as some lost vessel floating adrift awaiting the hands of Motherland to pull him to safety/sanity. I see the Black man in America as symbol of the brilliance of resilience waiting to be claimed. There is a power in our condition that when put to task is and has meant freedom for people all over the world. We are truly are bearers of the scars that many others where saved from.

That is a very powerful concept to embrace. My forefathers where beaten to death (physically, mentally, spiritually), so that people all over the world could breath a little easier. Take it or leave it…It is a truth that I hold to heart. Black men can be promoted as the dirt of the earth, but from the dirt is soil and their is life. I choose to claim that possibility of life. Cultivating that soil and placing it in the proper conditions hopefully will one day bare the fruits of our collective labor.

If you can’t love you right now, then how can you treasure the past or truly value your future. Black in America is not a curse and it is not a gift…it is just a reality. Not loving who you are is a curse. Loving who you are is a gift…

I Hate Niggas…Of All Colors…Even Myself?

I love Chris Rock’s Bring The Pain “bit” on Niggas, because it speaks to the deepest most guttural truth many people have. Though I don’t like the relation ‘nigga’ is paired with Black. Or it’s predecessor ‘nigger’. I’m not offended in the sense where these words give me personal pause, because I’ve resolved that within myself through education, self-reflection, and a lot of love/encouragement for great people that raised and taught me into a man.I speaking more to global sociocultural aspects which more often then not govern the framework we have to educate people out of.

There is a piece of self-hatred that I believe Black people by and large have to deal with and self hatred for others as well seeing that we are all one race of people. This is my personal experience. You don’t want to admit hating yourself, because it is painful, but what about your Mother or Father…still too painful? Okay your brother or sister…still too much? Okay your friends and neighbors…getting easier to project your cultural displeasure and denouncements now??

Well we can journey the six degrees of hatred outside of ourselves, but it will still lead back to within us as individuals. You can deal with the a problem without dealing with the pathology and you can’t deal with the pathology outside in, but from the inside out…

I hate niggas…a clean convicted controversial, yet casual comment. Casual in the since that as long as we keep it about “those niggas over there” and not the nigga staring us back in the mirror first it is fun and easy to talk about.

I’m not saying we are all niggas or trying to defend a state of seeming shiftlessness, but I am saying that this fervent hatred and emotion when going on about how much we hate niggas is more often fueled by something a lot closer to home that we fail to deal with. That family member struggling with addiction, the scares of slavery still open wounds, the bitter taste of poverty that never fully leaves your tongue, the racialized indignities suffered purely of skin color or more commonly perhaps your economic standing. 

There is a maze of attrition with respects to our humanity toward one another that is as baffling as it is unaddressed. There is so much good (still) to our humanity. One of the best parts is our ability to not just make it through the maze as we can see many animals do, but also have the ability to analyze our shortcomings in getting to a point of solvency. With that we are not only able to improve on our previous efforts but construct mechanisms to measure that improvement and even encourage it. That should be the goal! Lets not just hate niggas, but lets create conditions where there are standards and supports in place to assure there is no need to rest in “niggerdom”. The more resources poured in the more agency given. The more knowledge poured in the more ignorance drowned out. 

I hate that which provokes niggas to be niggas more than I hate niggas.

Look Inward and Bring The Pain indeed… It isn’t about being self righteous, but right within yourself ~

Onajé Malik Lott

Quick acknowledgement that I could have used The Last Poets’ “Niggas Are Scarred Of Revelution” as a reference point as I believe that is where Chris borrows this bit from, but Chris is more close to the gut/raw than the brain/introspection.

The Last Poets - Niggas Are Scared Of Revelution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpo11TxSdVg

You have your ass/drawers out hanging with all guys…But you thuggin’??

The older I get the less tolerance I have for this nonsense…Before it was like like baggy pants…cool, then it morphed into this weirdly homoerotic practice of groups of dudes no shirt or shirts tucked in cheap boxers with their pants to their knees damn near…”Dis $hit Ain’t Gangsta” *Michael Blackson voice*. Maybe “Gayngsta”

Baggy pants is an immature look that you grow out of with understanding. Walking around with your pants at your knees…that’s some fruit booty suspect stuff…

Ladies make sure the word is spread that this is unacceptable. Women are the only one’s that can change this once and for all. If sagging pants equal “I’m not into women, because women don’t accept this look” more, then boys will grow into that higher standard faster than being arrested for it (total nonsense) or having older men that didn’t raise them chastise them…

Please Stop!

Is It The Shoes?!? Adidas Shackles…Slaves were quite the athletes though…right?

People are way too eager to be offended. Is it a terrible idea? Sure! Is it a tad insensitive? To those who are sensitive…Sure! Is it racist? Absolutely not! We (Black/Afro-American people specifically, but not limited) have to stop mislabeling everything that makes us uncomfortable or upset as being racist. Racism is form of psychosis where one human believes they are superior to another human based on cultural, geographic, and/or genetic differences dictated by ancestral origins of some kind.

These sneakers are a lame idea that would have came and went with very little notice if not made into something provocative, because it riled up the negro plight to extinguish the pangs and pains of slavery once and for all through social media, news broadcast, angry letters/emails and unspoken scathing remarks that may never reach the true orchestrators of the offense.

Let’s be clear. Racism is still alive and kicking. Slavery is still a scar on the psyche if not on the bodies of Black people in America. It is a real immutable issue that as a community WE deal with (or don’t deal with) every day. This truth is the exact cause from my cynicism toward a damn sneaker with plastic chains and shackles being acknowledged and associated at any level with what is really an issue.

If the silly shit keeps getting associated with the real eventually the real is logged in the objective and compassionate logical spaces of the majority mindset as silly shit…that simple…“Crying Wolf”

In a way I like the idea of these shoes making it to market and seeing who the consumers are. This would be much more telling and beneficial. If we see a rash of young men and women in the Black community wearing these sneakers it will be very evident of our collective failures to reach and cover our children in education of their self worth. There would be no guessing needed on who is lost…it would be right on their feet…just like sagging pants, gang affiliation sans education, and all other accessories of low standards.

I’m Black so that is the only voice I can speak from, so I encourage any and all of “US” to stay away from the petty pricks that come with people being predisposed to the profane and preoccupied with profit. That isn’t “Our” issue and shouldn’t be “Our” cause to fight. Our cause and fight starts in our homes, neighborhoods, and schools. If the strength of our efforts to empower our children and even ourselves to build and maintain pride in our contributions/existence in the world we live in can be so easily bruised by poor product design…then maybe that is another indicator that our efforts are sorely lacking.

So yippee Adidas discontinued the manufacturing, but in their minor losses what really have we gained? It would have been much more indicative of where the holes are that need to be plugged to see who, how and why these shackle sneaks were purchased than having them disposed of by people who had no interest in buying them…

Social Media Activism seems to be effective in expressing strong opinions no matter the facts or the fact that the root of the “issue” goes unresolved. I applaud those who speak out. I just wish it was more accurate before going viral. I guess expecting anything truly healthy to come from viral outbreaks of information is somewhat counter-intuitive. The shackles “We” need to be concerned with do not have Adidas’ logo on them and they are free of charge but may cost you some self worth. What about those shackles?