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Re: “Resolved but not resigned to a Trump presidency”
I think we are most compelled now to look at our lives through the modest evolutions from which so many have and still evolve.
I impenitently stand on the sturdy shoulders of those whose devotion to change though not violent was still virulent and vituperative. I know the names of god mothers and fathers my own mother and father--whose flesh side of hand bore the scars of hours and hours of unrelenting work in bad conditions though in distinguished and dignified silence still voluminously tore down institutions like this newly proposed national one-- that was meant to do them harm. I have stood in sun, rain, wind, and cold with black community leaders who rallied their folk and other looking folk from all over and dared them to be still while local, county, state and federal leaders unabashedly targeted populations and attempted to undermine basic dignities that lineage blood had shed to attain. I have had my fair share of voter education rallies, donation pickups for clothing pantries, donation dropout to senior citizen high rises and section 8 community dwellers, document reads and signature signs for the unable to do so and have caught myself on occasions stopping just short of begging to hear just one more sage line from one of the most encouraging older mentor men I knew whose AIDs related death so stunned me in my younger adulthood I could hardly go among the many people and agencies he changed over his life because the memories were too painful. I am RESOLVED AND RESIGNED to be and do one thing whatever I and those of a kindred spirit have always donewhatever we can reasonably to destroy what appears to be one of the most openly divisive hate mongering machines to touch down in the free modern election era since Jesse Helms and Robert Byrds forces converged but still even many of that day never thought to give glimpses for presidencies.
In any case, we certainly cannot be trepid souls before and among those whom time has placed us in such proximity. Those who did so much more with so much less. They ALL told us who NEVER to trust AND WHY. We have been empowered. We know what we must do. We have been successful and will be again.
We just have to get past our utter appall and misinterpretation of how soon history can duplicate itself.
Re: “Checking in after Charlotte unrest, and not on Facebook”
Uh huh.
Sister Jones and that old deacon have me wanting to know if we should be expecting any others for comfort outside of those who look like the primary suffers.
I cannot help wondering how similar what we see today is to what took place centuries ago when people of color were being killed and there would be the same abiding silence. I think silence meant more than the absence of basic human cordialities then and I surmise it means more amid the noisy stillness today.
Perhaps we have been too difficult to reach, get in touch with, to contact. Perhaps we have not offered that we would like others folk to look in, see how we are doing. Perhaps we have not done a good job conveying that just because there have been nearly 200 African Americans killed this year --a great many unarmed --that it is okay if others who do not look like the victims and are openly aghast and outraged to come by and let us know. Sister Jones and old deacon usually don’t take too long with their petitions. Other looking folk are welcomed to follow them at our house or worship. Oh, if welcomed, we would gladly go to their churches as well.
Perhaps, just perhaps, we need to be, like these mounting killings, in plain view.
Something like:
“America, you are most welcome and encouraged to join African American and others in prayer and expressions of loving care during this time of deep abiding anguish, sorrow, and distress that has witnessed scores of unprovoked African American deaths and killings. We would be most thankful for your prayers of healing and recovery for us and for our whole nation. We know as one indivisible nation under God this would be exemplary of our collective citizenship.
“And as we make this formal, we accept that you may not be free to join us until after you have comforted the offending police departments and law enforcement agencies or completed honoring our nation’s promise with a stoic hand over heart, stand-at-attention national anthem recognition. That is fine. What matters most is that you know you are welcome to still come by and see how we are doing. Forgive any previous oversight.”
There.
It’s done.
Maybe that is all we need to make Sister Jones and Old deacons exemplary offerings more multicultural....
Re: “The recent nice weather has brought out the bugs, bees and Bible thumpers”
LOL… Faith is deeply personal for me. And for that reason, I do not want to be broadsided by it with all the burnish of a 90s summer high schooler’s magazine spiel to offset college tuition. We realize that everyone sells us everywhere—home, in and outside of stores, restaurants, on and through electronic devices— and some of it admittedly we think is creative and even will find an official go-fund-me spirit in us for a few dollars. But proselytizing for all it’s little old ladies, deep-voiced authoritarian men or even Easter Sunday basket toting youngsters seems to assign more than it asks, dictate more than it derive when it comes to moral attitudes, dispositions and approaches. I refuse to be bum rushed. I am first to verbalize and commit to eye contact that say “Thanks for the interest but I have other approaches to which I am committed. Have a good day.” If they repeat I say no thanks again. I keep walking, not answering anything afterward. When I feel targeted where I live, I have been known to ask if calling the leadership to have my house removed from listing will help maximize their efforts in favor of more suitable areas. Turning the pitch works for me. Seeing the hardliners turn and head in the opposite direction, all the more…
Re: “Straight Outta Compton may be a great movie, but at what cost?”
I am not about to spend any long time droning on about Straight Outta Compton.
The worlds socio-political, economic even climatological dilemmas have probably a facet or two too many to be solve in the 2 1/2 hours it took this movie to be screened before largely approving audiences. Perhaps and hour more than is usual for the target audience even. But hey..
SOCs Directors and producers I am sure wanted a riveting story, some true-to-life depictions and other embellishings for visual appeal . But more than anything they wanted raw cinematic attendance numbers. That gets them a shot at another film. I think they hit pay dirt. What reasonably more can one ask if the film offers a decent storyline, commendable acting and millennial generation accepting soundtrack?
Compton that was then for this generation just as well been included on a CBS Newsreel of the 30’s era depression. Yeah old heads will sit and look and nod and think they have uncovered the linchpin that connects the polar words of what was hip hop then with now. But chalk that too to the cinematic byproduct that
filmmaking does not mind audiences mythologizing along the way.
We are not living in a time when art is expected to be an extension of social, racial and even ethnical awareness, certainly not that it was a generation ago. I do not know if it should. It certainly is not the way to build four-fold superhero or Fast and Furious franchises. It simply isn’t.
Sure there are and were national and institutional forces that had stakes in minimalizing national urban movements of all types include hip hop’s. But too many in the genre were quite willing then and too willing now to be objectified in exchange for the bling that adoring fans wanted and want to believe are the spoils of in-your-face-rhyming, Midtown PR-firm generated beefs, and good ol American opportunity.
To cut to chase Compton gave the West Coast a Bronx –like Olympus from which they could reign down their hood stories for all that would hear. How long was hip hop gonna be the conscious-just-for-summer-fun outlet when so much more could be idealized if artists were seen as super heroes on a mission to expose “the man”, who doubled ironically as the record company and management deals, had to worry. Neither coast can lay claim to creating verse, beats, MCs, flow, rhythm, dance or art. That preceded our forced stay here.
So called Blaxploitation had a lockdown on thug culture, misogyny and violence way before anybody in hip hop had it or thought they did.
Same kind of analysis can be done of the pop audience received Selma, indie relished What Happened, Miss Simone or television’s iconic Empire-- all with some socially relevant and good entertainment thematic value-- but at the expense of some other social realities for which they all but dwarf.
The Straight Outta Compton’s of the world give entertainment value fairly easily. Preempted pertinent truths should be no over-arching criterion for pulling up.
Oh… and I think I have the visual of the intergenerational exchange between the romanticisation professor and his commendably indulging young audience that has us here scribing away. Clearly the latter did not glean the coding for “the good old days” and bolted like thieves when they had the chance. Good to know some folk still know some good entertainment value when they see it….ol
Re: “The new guard steps up in today's battle for civil rights”
It has always been our young. They are probably most suitable to be the primary faces of or any current civil and social of movements activities but only when they are properly led by right minded “elders” who know the lay of the land and who can counsel as to where the landmines can be planted. Sadly too little teaching and too much resistance to change has placed the two at odds. We need right of both. In the meantime, I think we have to guard against suggesting that non violence protests and their close kinship to our faith-based heritage has somehow become inanimate and should be retired to a rural county assisted living combine. There have always been varying approaches to our social needs, domestically and international, from those whose protests have been classified “active” and others “passive”. But non-violent organizing and strategies are what fueled both for the most part and have created in their wake a veritable hallowed hall of great men and women that have been world changers, though their methods were often at the expense of our patience and endurance. Our young today with their enthusiasm and social media savvy has been able to build across vast divides that physical limitation once thwarted. “Share” and “reblog” options are doing what civil, social and religious institution memberships did exclusively just a generation ago. I still think this generation is passing through a kind of “honeymoon” period of gains that will eventually be replaced by the knuckle down grind that social and civil rights causes require. In either case, the powers that be have reason to be dismayed and disheartened. It’s almost like you old heads are not dying but multiplying …
Re: “Offering Rachel Dolezal a trip on Transracial Airlines”
There are so many layers to this. Use of term transracial adds another sobriquet to the rampant social, racial and cultural names for theft for which our folk has endured more than four centuries here. The kind of identity infringement of the sort to which Ms. Dolezal’s has engaged is rather interesting in light of its concurrent derision and adoration of the black woman and its real latent white fragility or denial of racism it too brings.
She is ironically thrust right into the vanguard of the kinds cases that groups such as the one she directed takes up. Of course, they cannot for obvious reasons here. But you understand my point. There has been considerable racial and social trespass. But most important, I think, are the issues of laws for which she is in violation and should be expected to face a day or days in court. A clear and present message must be sent that what she has done is unacceptable AND that there are binding legal consequences now that she has.
Re: “Ferguson Daze”
Don’t date some of us with all of those School Daze references … lol.
Ferguson has shown and taught many of us a great deal, some things favorable some not so much. But overwhelmingly it reminded us that protests remains an effective tool to draw attention to injustice and racism’s institutionalization of it. And yes, School Daze reminds us how we have to look beyond our internal “fraternizing ” oftentimes to bring about a greater external “order”.
I must admit how pleased I am that the wind beneath the Ferguson not-gonna-go-away-ism has lasted much longer than I thought many things could in the American live-and-let-live of today. That brisk gale that drives the attitudes of those closest to the scene of Michael Brown’s violation were not without their effects miles EVEN CONTINENTS away as others too were raised and gave voice to what they expect this country to be.
But what has me MOST encouraged is that an unmistakable group driving a lot of this “new” day struggle how they look a lot like some “old skool” groups of afore ” —young people.. of all races and backgrounds. Others certainly—maybe others still the majority. But these young are extrapolating so well in their own right. They are bold. They are fearless. They make the nuance connections even… they give us hope far beyond Ferguson perhaps, as we prepare to take on Ferguson’s macrocosm in the new congress, the repressive-minded folk that this country sent to Washington to steward BOTH bodies of our legislative processes.
Professor, School Daze will always jolt a lot of memories for many of us. I get the feeling this new group, with some familiar others, has gotten its “wake up” and doing something with it. And you best believe those who thought –or even hoped—that a whole generation was in daze while they planned the worst for them has much to keep them awake.
