eloquent irrelevance...

Photo

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:42:14 -0500

~Where did he get his little top hat, tho?

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:32:46 -0500

~Where did he get his little top hat, tho?

~Son,… do not sleep on Jaunty

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:31:36 -0500

~Son,… do not sleep on Jaunty

"Stokely told his audiences that one of the most important aspects of the struggle for Black Power..."

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:40:07 -0500

“

Stokely told his audiences that one of the most important aspects of the struggle for Black Power was the right to define. Black people have been the victims of white America’s definitions. White people defined black people as inferior, as Negroes and niggers, as second-class citizens. By reacting to white America’s definitions, the blacks allowed themselves to be put in a bag which white America controlled. But now black people must demand the right to define themselves. White America has defined black as evil, Carmichael explains. “I have a little syllogism for that. According to America, everything black is evil; I am black, therefore, I am evil.”

“There is something wrong with that,” he goes on to explain, “because I am black and I am good.” He never fails to score heavily with his audience when he says that.

His favorite example of this always elicited a hysterical response, from both black and white audiences. “Here’s a perfect example of the power to define in action. During the civil rights movement, black leaders would say: ‘We want to integrate.’ And then white people would come along and define what integration means. They’d say: ‘You want to integrate? That means that you want to marry my daughter.’ What the Negro leaders had actually meant was that they wanted more jobs, better schools, housing, and an end to police brutality, and things like that. What we must do is define our own terms. We must not react to white definitions.

”

- Eldridge Cleaver on Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)

Taken from the book “Eldridge Cleaver: Target Zero” (pages 99-100)

if anything happens to us, she will come for you with the wrath...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:37:38 -0500

if anything happens to us, she will come for you with the wrath of God

~~ (1/5 pilots) LUTHER This is a black hole. It consumes...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:37:17 -0500

_{~~ (1/5 pilots) LUTHER}

_{This is a black hole. It consumes matter, sucks it in and crushes it beyond existence. When I first heard that, I thought, that’s evil at its most pure. Something that drags you in, crushes you, makes you nothing.}

Alice & Luther || Do you feel me now? by SkateGirl888

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:37:04 -0500

Alice & Luther || Do you feel me now? by SkateGirl888

~These two,…

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:41:06 -0500

~These two,…

travisellisor: Batman & Catwoman by Chris Bachalo and Tim...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:40:39 -0500

travisellisor:

Batman & Catwoman by Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend

~These two,…

hell-yeah-valiant-comics: Shadowman #9 variant cover art by...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:27:06 -0500

hell-yeah-valiant-comics:

Shadowman #9 variant cover art by Andrew Robinson

~I dig this cover, but yall gon have to chill with these obscure references to Mr. Twist unless you plan on bringing him back… and you should bring him back. Soon. Now. RIGHT now.

~These two,…

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:23:51 -0500

~These two,…

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:14:21 -0500

~These two,…

"I’m faced daily with choosing violence or a demeanor that saves every other life but my own."

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:05:27 -0500

“

I’m faced daily with choosing

violence

or a demeanor that saves

every other life but my own.

”

- Essex Hemphill, “Cordon Negro” (via thegentlemanjigger)

"“When I was approached to write a piece to contribute on this series explaining what it means to be..."

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:01:49 -0500

“

“When I was approached to write a piece to contribute on this series explaining what it means to be Black, I tried to come up with something that we could all relate to as a community, something that affected us all. I quickly came up with something that touches every black American’s existence but is also something that I don’t think is covered as often as it should be. I went a little left from what OD wanted I think, in that I spoke about a negative aspect of what I think blackness is and how it needs to be changed. Hopefully, it is enlightening and thought provoking nonetheless.

I think to be black is to always be trying to satisfy someone else’s desires for how you live your own life. In other words, being black represents a loss of individuality; a loss of control, for better or for worse. I heard that ?uestlove once said that the hardest thing for a black man to be is normal. In other words, if a black man’s lifestyle isn’t in line with an image others have of him, he’s considered to be abnormal. One way that this may be expressed is through an “abnormal” black man’s white friends remarking that he’s “not really black” or another black person remarking that a black man’s Radiohead, Nirvana, and Zero 7 mp3s are “white boy music.” This pressure from multiple sides to fit into a narrow set of likes, dislikes, desires, and tastes is something that both black men and women are forced into from the time that they’re first able to speak. I think that the internalization of white supremacy in American culture is something that a lot of black people are aware of in our community. Yet, this hasn’t prevented us from placing pressure on ourselves to conform and to stay within the archetype hoisted upon blacks.

Last month on Twitter, a conversation started about spanking children. I remarked that while I would employ spanking as a disciplinary tactic with my future children, it would only be used in extreme cases as a last resort, and that too often, spanking was used by parents who were already in anger about something that had nothing to do with the child or the offense that child committed. In response, a former classmate tweeted me a hashtag of the name of the high school I graduated from. We both attended high school in the same suburb but mine was considered the more affluent and white of the two. Now, I know he was only joking and didn’t mean anything by it but still, to me it’s a good example of some of the stereotypes black people cling onto and try to pigeonhole ourselves into that we probably shouldn’t. In reality, what was so wrong, or so “white”, about what I said? That spanking should only be used as a last resort when all else has failed and that using it while angry over other things is wrong and should be avoided. That’s “white” thinking? It’s “black” to spank first, over any mistake a child makes, and if you happen to be angry over something else and may be just taking a little steam off on someone who can’t do anything about it, oh well? I think when you take thoughts like these out to their logical conclusions and make people think about what they’re really saying, the absurdity and problem of it comes full surface. It seems that for the most part, these forced attributes and actions are in the negative context of what black people don’t and can’t do, stifling our individuality and creativity. With entire segments of the population on the outside of our community pushing a narrow-minded narrative of what a black person really is, why do they need our help to accomplish this?

In a post-Obama election world where a nostalgia for blacks mindful of their place manifests itself in the form of popular entertainment vehicles such as The Help and Mad Men or bills passed through Tea Party-controlled state legislatures nationwide designed to suppress the minority vote or resegregate schools, the effort to group blacks together as a monolith is alive and well amongst non-black groups. Of the 684,330 people stopped under the New York City Police Department’s stop and frisk program, 59 percent were black while only 9 percent were white. Black people cannot sit on the couch and be entertained or walk down the street without being reminded by non-blacks that regardless of the lives they lead or the skills they possess, it is expected that they take a backseat in matters of workplace status, citizenship, and that they most likely engage in criminal activity. With so many obstacles to the pursuit of a life where one can be themselves and not just one of “them” already placed in front of blacks without our choosing, shouldn’t the inside of our community be a rest haven away from it?

To stifle individuality, to encourage group think and conformity, is to stunt intellectual growth. Granted, due to the aforementioned legislative and legal challenges in the previous paragraph, some movement as a unit is needed to fight off injustice. However, the smaller instances I’ve described can work to hurt us and impede people from reaching their full potential. If a small black child shows an interest in the sky and asks for telescope, encourage it, feed their curiosity. With the right breaks, he or she can become the media‘s go to expert when it comes to matters of science like Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson or Derek Pitts. Rock music is black music, let your child pick up a guitar and they may become the next Slash or Jimi Hendrix or Prince. While a desire to instill black pride is understandable and admirable, it can also work to confine black people to places where we’ve always been instead of push us out into places where we need to go. Part of being black is not being allowed to be an individual by anyone, whether it be a racist asshole on Fox News or your cousin down the street. Our individuality is an important part of our lives. We only get to live once. And we shouldn’t have to spend that time living in a manner that satisfies anyone else other than ourselves.”

”

- What.Is.Black? The Absence of Individualism. - Big G. (via bee2liz)

~Preeeeetty much…

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:39:28 -0500

~Preeeeetty much…

queerconomics: Made rebloggable by request. Thank you very much...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:14:33 -0500

queerconomics:

Made rebloggable by request. Thank you very much again to everyone who messaged me telling me how to do this!

Everything Americans Think They Know About Drugs Is Wrong: A Scientist Explodes the Myths

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:04:57 -0500

Everything Americans Think They Know About Drugs Is Wrong: A Scientist Explodes the Myths:

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

james-bliss:

Columbia University scientist Carl Hart combines research and anecdotes from his life to explain how false assumptions have created a disastrous drug policy.

[Kristen Gynne]:How does institutional racism affect policy? In your book, you talk about how crack, which is pharmacologically almost identical to cocaine, is punished with an 18-1 (and once 100-1) sentencing disparity because of racially coded language linking the “crack scourge” to bad behavior in poor, black communities. There was also a recent ACLU report, which found that blacks are an average of four times more likely to be arrested for pot than whites.

[Carl Hart]: ‘I often testify as an expert witness to help women who have used marijuana while pregnant to keep their children. Case after case is a black woman. Security in the court is all black; the judges are all white; and the lawyers are young and white, building careers. It’s just slavery all over again.

When you have a group that’s already identified as an “other,” or a villified group that is a minority, it’s easier to associate a behavior with them. But people don’t see black people as being fully human. That’s what happens in the US, although people won’t tell you that.

Because when we think about Trayvon Martin, when we think about Ramarley Graham, Sean Bell, these black kids who were killed at the hands of some security or law enforcement person—that almost never happens with white kids. If it did, it would be a national crises. But it’s not a national crises because we really don’t value black men and boys in the same way we value white boys and men. We don’t see them as being equal.

I look at how people behave, and it’s clear. As long as you view this group that way, you can continue to put large percentage of law enforcement resources in those communities, but not so much to make them better. If you want to make it better, you give people jobs. Instead, we put police in those communities to pretend that they care, to pretend that you’re doing something. But that’s not helping.

Whereas drug reactions are predictable, interactions with police are not and too often become deadly. As a parent of a black youth, I’d much rather my kids interact with drugs than law enforcement. White people don’t need to think about that. Police officers too often see young, black boys as less than human. It creates a mentality where black kids are supposed to “know your place,” and it affects your psyche. Indignities become part of who you are.’

^^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS whole entire thing!

makavelliscolonel: DEFINITION OF THUG LIFE.

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:56:01 -0500

makavelliscolonel:

DEFINITION OF THUG LIFE.

"Fascinating new research by my University of Chicago colleague, Jeffrey Grogger, compares the wages..."

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:46:33 -0500

“Fascinating new research by my University of Chicago colleague, Jeffrey Grogger, compares the wages of people who “sound black” when they talk to those who do not.
His main finding: blacks who “sound black” earn salaries that are 10 percent lower than blacks who do not “sound black,” even after controlling for measures of intelligence, experience in the work force, and other factors that influence how much people earn. (For what it is worth, whites who “sound black” earn 6 percent lower than other whites.)”

- Freakonomics » How Much Does It Cost You in Wages if You “Sound Black?” (via daniellemertina)

So… if you sound Black when you talk… have a Black name… or remind White people at all that you are Black, you will pay for it in multiple ways.

(via knowledgeequalsblackpower)

So basically, this is why I had to learn early on to “code switch” and change up my tone of speaking to a higher pitched, valley voice when I had to because I figured some shit like this was taking place. I already knew I was getting judged for sounding “black”, so I had to learn to adapt to different voices to get what I need done, sadly. But people won’t believe you when you show them the receipts . (via nouschic)

blackpeopleproblems:

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:37:24 -0500

blackpeopleproblems: