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