The Black Woman: The Chimera of Black Male Fantasies

Before I begin I would first like to apologize. This post should have been written a month ago, but the sensitive nature of the issues I would like to discuss left me in a peculiar position. In launching this blog I have undertaken what I deem a revolutionary project to re-define blackness in this space. Born as a negation, re-definition would mean an infusion of positivity into what it is to be black; however, the current issues that have been weighing on my heart concerning the nature of the rhetoric young black males have been engaging in is anything but positive. In accordance with the mission of aesthetic noir, I would be distraught if this post were ever to be read by those afflicted by whiteness and used as ammunition against the black male in a world that has already beaten him to the ground. However, despite my allegiance to protect blackness from malicious appropriators, I would be doing myself and my fellow brown and black sisters a disservice by not speaking to our current pain. It is impossible for me to turn a blind eye to the way in which the black female is being hunted and degraded as though it is 1692 and witches are burning in Salem, the flames have grown too big. While I love you my beautiful black brother, I cannot ignore our points of separation that are a result of the wheel of misogyny in which you are necessarily a cog because lets be clear, to be male is to have, by definition, unearned social, economic, and political privilege and power by virtue of your genitals. Don't get me wrong, I very well understand the complexities of the matrix of privilege and oppression. While you are male you are also black and so your privilege is not cut and dry, but the fact of the matter stands that this privilege does in fact exist and it's time to call it out.

With all that being said i'm sure you're wondering what the fuck is a chimera. In Greek mythology, a chimera is a fire breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. Through literary evolution, the term chimera has been used to describe anything that is believed to be implausible. Insert black female here. Taking cues from the good ol plantation days, the black male has participated in and facilitated the deconstruction of the black female into the light skin woman and the dark skin woman. Our sensibilities have grown so accustomed to these contrived methods of separation that to the untrained eye the black woman seems 'normal'; however, all I see is a chimera, two heads, two different bodies, struggling. Why? Because whiteness and maleness said so. Whiteness said, "black woman I will rape you, keep your dark skin sister in the field to suffer in the sun, and keep your light skin sister in the house to continue to rape". And then along came maleness, black maleness to be specific. And black maleness said, "now that you have been violated, deconstructed, and separated from yourself I will continue to codify this traumatic separation by coveting the light skin woman and casting off the dark skin woman like yesterdays trash". And then it gets interesting, or should I say sickening. Black maleness then said, "however, although I will covet the light skin woman because she is closer to the whiteness that I wish I could participate in, I will degrade, destroy , and gentrify the self esteem of ALL black women. Why will I do this? Because, although I have male privilege, my racial oppression has criminalized my body. And although you are the one that always consoles me when Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo are murdered, I am threatened and jealous of the way in which you pass through white society without a target on your head, without the fear of being shot. And so I will sexualize you. I will draw upon the very trauma that whiteness has engrained in you because at least your racial oppression keeps you alive". But does it really keep the black woman alive? When the black woman is sexualized by not only white men, but also black men, is she not being murdered every time she is called a thot, a ho, a bitch. To black men, those may just be arbitrary words, but to the black woman they are symbols of the institution, into language, of violence against black women by black men. And unfortunately those weapons of violence don't merely stop on twitter, they are carried into 'romantic' relationships in which the black woman is beaten at the hands of the black males insecurities which is followed by the black males 'love' as to not stop the sex. Implausible is an understatement. These weapons of violence are carried into the mental health of the dark skin child that is raised in a world that loves her lighter sister but hates her, causing her to dive head first into the black males sexual trap. These weapons of violence are carried into the broken relationship between the dark skin woman and the light skin woman, a place of hate where there should be love, all because of the insecurities of the black male. Implausible is an understatement. It pains me to see the black man follow the sexualization of the black woman handbook that white men wrote and trademarked; however, they say the most effective way to change others is in fact to change yourself. So while this post may seem as though it is directed at black males, it is in fact directed at black women. It is time for us to stop ignoring the way in which we are oppressed by black males. It is time for us to come together and become whole, destroying the chimera society has created us to be. We are not defined by our vaginas and we are not responsible for the black males criminalization. While the criminalization of the black male pains us too, we cannot take on the burden of responsibility of a racial crime we did not commit. Furthermore, the light skin black woman as the standard of beauty needs to be recognized as a farce to keep us complacent, to keep us from actualizing our brilliant dynamic potential. And if no one else is going to lift up our beautiful dark skin queens, then dammit it's time that we fucking do. If no one else, change must come from us. My black and brown sisters, revolutionary change will be ushered in by us, it's time to realize that.

Kendrick Lamar & Black Hippy: The modern day Tribe Called Quest

The debate on whether or not Kendrick Lamar is worthy of all his recent praise was particularly buzzing on all social media platforms the night after Kendrick Lamar and his fellow Black Hippy members, Schoolboy Q/Jay Rock/Ab-Soul, along with fellow TDE signee Isaiah Rashad stole the night at the 2013 BET Hip-Hop Awards with their cypher. I won't even attempt to summarize their cypher because no outside analysis can do it justice. Long story short, the shit was mean.

Left in awe by the verse I did what any person would naturally do, went on twitter; however, I waited.  I didn't want to hear people's reactions to the verse immediately after because, as with any new shit that just drops, everyone's a fan in the beginning. So it wasn't until the next day while waiting in the gynecologist's office, I know what an odd place to be contemplating the state of hip hop, that I perused through twitter to see what the people had to say. Per usual there were the hype beasts, but what I was more interested in were the nay sayers. I came across several tweets from a friend that felt as though sentiments that kendrick has the potential to be the greatest of all time were premature and solely founded on typical popular culture group think. His tweets went on to list current rappers that could rap circles around Kendrick. Funny thing was, I agreed. Kendrick Lamar by no means is the #1 best rapper of all time. Is he talented as all fucking hell? Absolutely. But there was merit to the idea that Kendrick Lamar buzz is not and cannot be a sole byproduct of his rapping ability. But despite my agreement I am too a Kendrick Lamar stan which left me wondering, what is it about kendrick lamar that has everyone so excited? While I agree he may not be #1 rapper of all time, I do believe there is something unique reminiscent about his music. In the same way that The Notorious B.I.G. rose to fame not simply on his lyrics but on the aesthetic his music created, Kendrick Lamar is a part of a movement bigger than himself.

As I was thinking about this, still at the gyno, I suddenly, without any notice or effort, knew what it was that makes Kendrick Lamar's music so enticing. More than just Kdot alone though, I realized why Black Hippy is garnering buzz with great inertia. Kdot and all of Black Hippy are the west coast reincarnation of the Tribe Called Quest movement. Their presence in hip-hop reminds us of a time when rappers put the brotherhood before everything and nerd chic set the pace for culture. In both cases, of A tribe called quest & of Black Hippy, their music makes you feel as though you are a part of something dynamic, unlike the current trap music phenomenon that only makes you feel like you are a part of a generation of twerkers....which is hardly dynamic to say the least.

Running with this thought, I used the documentaries 'Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest' & the TDE documentary 'On The Road' found on complex.com as research to see if there was any weight to my thought. To my surprise the two movements are comfortingly parallel. Although the role of locality in each movement does have a say in aspects of their respective aesthetics, their similarities transcend whatever small differences exist in drug usage, relationship to gang life, style of dress etc. What is more striking is that in each documentary, both A Tribe Called Quest & Black Hippy articulated that the philosophy's that define and drive their movements were:
-the unit
-loud & in color communicated through their creativity and style
-a constant nod to the streets that raised them
-dedication to a culture
-commitment to blackness
-arrangements of music that mashed up genres into a result that is always hip hop
-the rise of the social mishaps that were dedicated to remaining social mishaps
-modern day weirdos that were geeky nerdy borderline freak show but never short on cool
-raps that were about the 'everyday' that are devoid of melody but still have pattern
-esoteric but still dragged into the realm of human understanding accented by a hard edge
-honest self expression
-& most importantly empowerment & prosperity of a culture

I could go on and on, but the point is that Kdot & Black Hippy are, as A tribe Called Quest once was and will remain so forever, the coalescence of proud individuality with an interdependency that has social justice woven into its fabric. In both movements, the typical hip-hop flashiness is traded in for a covenant to honesty, the fans, and the music.

"We didn't run to mainstream, we made those mother fuckers come to us"
~Kendrick Lamar~

Don Lemon's Sexism & America's War On Young Mothers

If only it were this easy........

Before I begin I want to clarify that this post is in no way an advocation of unplanned teen pregnancy. The statistics are very clear that teen pregnancy has severe negative effects on the mother in terms of financial stability and in terms of academic achievement. And with Hispanic and Black females ages 15-19 as the two highest groups that have children out of all races and ages, the negative repercussions of unplanned teen pregnancy most directly affect communities of color, garnering teen pregnancy status as a social justice issue.

While I am not asking in this post for support of teen pregnancy, what I am asking for is a deeper sociteal look at the motivation behind teen pregnancy as opposed to our societies current style of pregnancy prevention via moral shaming. The moral shaming in particular that inspired this post took place last week in an article written by Don Lemon about Adrian Peterson & his recently deceased son. For those interested in reading another of Don Lemon's fabulous assaults on the black body, which might I add is probably the result of some serious self loathing on his part and a whole lot of light skin privilege (the younger cousin of white privilege), the article can be found here. While the majority of the article's focus is more on single mothers than young mothers it is the quote at the end that caught my attention. Commenting on parental responsibility Guru Lemon says, "Think before you decide to have a child, just because you can have one, it doesn't mean that you should. I always say you should plan for a child or stop having them out-of-wedlock". First off I want to say that he has a ton of fucking nerve to put down an entire group of women, young/single mothers, in one fell swoop. What sour lemon fails to realize, and what most of America fails to realize, is that when we put down young mothers we are exercising male privilege as well as white privilege and here's why:

Now bear with me yall i'm going to go philosophy for a second but this is the really good part. While there are many debates as to what human nature is I think that we can all be in agreement that one thing humans definitely live to do is to create. This idea of creation as an essential human function and defining characteristic was popularized by the king himself, one of my philosophy heroes and the only white german boyfriend i'll ever have, Karl Marx. As Marx tackled the question of how to end capitalism he began his focus on the question of why capitalism thrives in the first place. While that question has many answers, the one we are focused on is found in his theory of human nature found in his work Capital. While humans and animals both create things, what separates the spider from the human is that the spider creates only as its needs dictate; however, humans create as their imagination dictates. In other words, human creation is a product of our very own minds and wills, not some sort of instinctual pre disposition. We may be pre-disposed to create but what we create and the way in which we create it is a result of our individual desires. Furthermore, when we create we put a piece of ourselves into every creation, insofar as the imaginations that initiated the creations are parts of our core being. As you can see creation is an intimate process and a crucial tenant of what it means to be human. And this isn't just a bunch of philosophy hocus pocus, you can see examples of the assertion that we are born to create all around you. Just think, imagine what your life would be if you were not able to create things........ If you couldn't create ideas when you need to solve a problem......if you couldn't draw.....if you couldn't play the piano......if you couldn't create that killer outfit.......if you couldn't write that beautiful piece of poetry or that daring piece of journalism. Life without creation is like a flower with no water or a prison cell with no sunshine.

And this is what we say to young mothers when we shame them for having children instead of asking them why. If you remember at the beginning of this post I mentioned that hispanic and black women are the highest representatives of teen mothers and mothers in general. Now lets think about the backgrounds and lifestyle of these women. More likely than not these women are growing up in low income neighborhoods which means they are more likely than not in broken public education systems, children or no children their education prospects are narrower than their white peers. Due to their race these women are robbed of the abundance of opportunity in life that is instead gifted to white privilege. On top of having to survive at the bottom of a system built on white supremacy their status as women in a male dominated world pushes them down further. And so I ask you, where are their opportunities to create? Through what outlets can they exercise their imagination and being? In what ways do these young women get to fulfill their basic human need? For all the harm done, the one thing that teen pregnancy does allow is for young women of color, denied of opportunities to create, to see themselves reproduced in the world. In the same way that this blog post is a manifestation of me, these young women's children are a manifestation of them. The chance for them to see themselves flourish & grow in the world. So maybe, just maybe, if Don Lemon & the rest of America could take the time to understand young mothers of color before shaming them, they can actually come up with some pregnancy prevention that will be more effective like umm I don't know better schools, more jobs, more in school art programs.....Condoms and birth control pills are great but in a racist sexist system they are just not enough

Yo racist republicans............You Mad?!

I was scrolling through twitter procrastinating from my work per usual and I saw a post from a friend with the link to an article about the sole individual behind the government shutdown. (for anyone that wants to read it here's the article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2458372/Michael-Needham-The-31-year-old-Stanford-grad-planned-government-shutdown.html). After reading the article all of a sudden it hit me that the entirety of the government shutdown issue can be summed up in the fateful phrase that came from the historic Cam'ron & Bill O' Reilly interview............YOU MAD?!

If you haven't seen that amazing moment in rap/pop culture history that is the interview with Cam'ron & Bill O'Reilly here it is below. Please watch because it is absolutely hilarious if nothing else.

Now for anyone that doesn't know, the issue of healthcare in America is extremely near and dear to my heart. Both my parents are physicians and have dedicated their lives to providing quality healthcare to underserved social groups. And as many of you know the issue of race is my life. And so when I look at the government shutdown I see a perfect storm of issues of healthcare colliding with issues of race which has unearthed issues of salty white dudes that are just mad.

Why are they mad? Well lets starts with the article I posted above. The article details information about Michael Needham who is the alleged source of the idea to strong arm the president and force a government shutdown. What's most interesting about ole Mike (can I call you Mike?) is that he is the head of heritage action which is "the lobbying arm of the powerful conservative think-tank the heritage foundation". Now as we have all seen all over the news, many of the voices that are citing the affordable care act as the worst thing since slavery (and i'm not even going to touch how ridiculous that statement is right now) have come out of the heritage foundation. But what is most ironic about the heritage foundation, more ironic than their name, is that the idea of the individual mandate, one of the central tenants of the affordable care act that basically states each american citizen should be mandated to have insurance, COMES FROM THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the core component of the affordable care act, the very same thing the heritage foundation is now trying to destroy was created by (drum roll please) the heritage foundation. I'm telling you, you can't make this shit up. And what's even more ironic about the fact that the man who cooked up the idea for a government shutdown is a part of the organization that helped ideologically create the affordable care act, is that Mitt Romney while governor of Massachusetts used the ideas that came out of the heritage foundation as the framework for the healthcare plan he created for Massachusetts which looks a whole lot like the affordable care act. And we all know how much we love Mitt Romney.

And so as I was reading the article about this dude Mike (not Michael Jordan) I realized that the only reason hundreds of thousands of Americans are suffering at the hands of this government shutdown is because the far right radical republicans are mad, they are mad that the black man is going to get the credit for an idea they came up with first (as if any one person can have the trademark on ideas.......that's sarcasm by the way). These people hate the black body so much and are blinded so much by what they think their whiteness should afford them that they will go to the greatest of lengths to make sure that President Barack Obama does not leave behind an amazing legacy. They can't afford having to deal with the cultural fall out of another Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and so they will stop at nothing so that young kids won't have another hero, so that they won't have to dedicate a national holiday to him, so that they don't ever have to make another monument for a non white person. All that these painfully racist men can handle is their one precious token which is Dr. King, who might I add they have successfully white washed in the American consciousness by only teaching in schools King's more pacifist works and not letting children know how much of an awesome kick ass shit stirrer King really was. I know that I've written Facebook statuses before about how this government shutdown is the glaring sign that America still hates the black body but to read that article and have it be so plain in my face floored me. And all I could think to myself was: damn you racist republicans.....yall mad huh?!



The truth is far stranger than fiction

Why this bitch Miley annoys the crap out of me

First off I want to say welcome to the new blog. My goal with this new blog is to focus my energies on legitimately nurturing and growing this into the mission statement that I list on the far right of the page. So if you're curious about the meaning of the name and what I plan for this to be just give the description on the right a quick read.

But enough with the pleasantries lets get straight to it. Although I was refraining at all costs to make my first blog post about this racist white woman, I decided after I received a good deal of commotion on a status I wrote about her to take the time to break down my lines of thinking concerning why I find her pictures with the Arizona can to be problematic. I'm sure for many of you my leap in the status from Trayvon Martin to the sexualization of the black male body was  a Grand Canyon sized one. For those of you that don't know, my ADHD defines a large part of who I am, so often times my thoughts move way faster than I can even express at times. So, lets slow this thing down right quick with the hopes of making my ideas clear to you all. 

In case anyone has not seen the photos in question here they are:

In order to understand the ideas ascertained from these photos you must view these two photos in the context of all the other photos Miley takes with Terry Richardson. Those photos can be found on his blog terrysdiary.com. In addition, Miley Cyrus' recent grotesque displays of cultural appropriation must also be taken into context to understand where i'm coming. I'm not going to go into the VMA performance because i'm sure you've all seen it and heard the arguments that she uses her black dancers as accessories (also it's just a shitty performance all around so I don't want to give it anymore life than it already has stolen). But keep those sentiments in mind while I lay my thoughts out. 

When you look at her recent media displays it's painfully clear that she is flirting with black culture. While i'm sure that black people will never be her target market, she is most definitely trying to capitalize on the 'cool factor' that is part and parcel to black culture ('cool factor' from a capitalist, lets make money off of the niggers stand point). When you watch that piece of shit video for that piece of shit song with her, mike will made it, and Wiz my above point cannot be any clearer. She wants to tote herself like a black woman without having to take on any of the racial oppression that is a part of being black. Essentially, she wants to be 'the down white girl' (whatever the fuck that means). 

With all that in mind lets cut to the photos from the Terry Richardson shoot. Throughout those photos she performs her minds idea of what blackness is, what it looks like, how it comports its body etc. That this shoot is another one of Miley's minstrel shows is the most obvious when you look at the photo of her with the blunts in her mouth with a tshirt on you would see Kid Cudi wearing and her throwing her fingers in the air like gang signs. That photo ladies and gentleman is Miley Cyrus telling us what she sees when she looks at black people. Miley Cyrus continues to tell us what black people, specifically now black men, look like to her in her photo with the Arizona can that's doubling as a penis (ouch!). I'm not going to explain why that's a phallic reference because we all know it is, and if some of us don't google articles about phallic symbols and educate yourself please and thank you. 

So, if so far we have shown that Miley Cyrus has been essentially performing in black face recently, and if we have shown that this photo shoot is a continuation of that, then it is safe to say that her understanding and perception of the black male body is a sexual one. The grape flavored arizona iced tea can is a clear symbol of blackness here (we all know black folk love grape flavor and they love arizona), the can is also quite large; therefore black males = big dicks (If you missed the jump there re-read this paragraph). Miley Cyrus is making the statement that the essence of the black male is sexual predator and since she has made subtle (but not so subtle) statement after statement that she wants to participate in blackness, in that photo she is screaming that she wants the black man to do his job and fuck her (for anyone that feels the need to talk shit right now, this is not an assumption. She left her white fiance and is messing around with the producer Mike will made it who is black). 

In the midst of her yearning to sexually express herself through her performances of blackness, the only thing Miley Cyrus actually expressed is that she is a culturally unaware fucking idiot. Why so harsh you ask? Well because the girl who's trying to parlay into black culture (in addition to further codifying black males as sexual beasts with large schlongs) used a socio-political cultural symbol that JUST RECENTLY caused great pain in the black community. Skittles and Arizona will never be the same; however, Miley Cyrus chose to ignore the weight of those symbols and include them as props in her minstrel show anyway. I'm sure if you ask her why she did it her answer would be "The Arizona iced tea can isn't a racial symbol, it's just my favorite drink" (see http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/earshot/miley-cyrus-racist-vma-criticism-635529)

R.I.P. Trayvon Martin