black rage

"Black Rage is founded on 2/3rds a person,
Rapings and beatings and suffering that worsens,
Black human packages tied up in strings-
Black rage is founded on these kinds of things.
Black rage is founded on blatant denial,
Squeezed economics, subsistence, survival.
Deafening silence and social control--
Black rage is founded on wounds in the soul.
So when the dogs bite, when the beatings, and when I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember all these kinds of things, and then I don't FEAR so bad."
--Lauryn Hill

(Hear the entire song here.)
 

And that's why I'm not scared to say what I say. You don't like it? Oh well. My people go through too much for me to keep quiet. If it makes you uncomfortable, well, imagine how it makes us feel. Let's talk about it, shall we?

america needs a second opinion

"America's pathology is her denial. It is what keeps us sick about this issue of race. It is our denial. What does it look like? When people say...often couched in the form of a compliment...'I don't even notice race.' ...It's insulting to say you don't notice race...the pathology associated with this statement is such that: 'I'd rather erase you than notice that you're there'..."--Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary

 

That is a proper diagnosis if ever I heard one. America, you're sick. You need healing. You need to pay proper attention to your illness, because we're all dying here.  Start by accepting that Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary's theory of P.T.S.S.--Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome--is a real thing.  You can find more information on it here, and watch videos explaining the syndrome here.

s.o.s.

Dear friends OF ALL RACES, especially White friends--please just read this. Then you *might* understand why we are so angry. Why we are so very, very sad. Why this is about more than just Trayvon Martin. Why we feel hopeless. Why we despise those who misjudge us. Why we see no way out, around, above, or through this tangled web America has woven around us. You will never be afraid your child, husband, or father will be taken away from you just because of the way he looks. We have always been afraid. And always will be. The burden of being Black is that you HAVE TO ACCEPT THIS BULLSHYT EVERYDAY. Help us change this. Please. We're begging you. 

Be the change.

blackness is hazardous to your health

I read a piece that said "We know that being a black man in America is a life-threatening occupation..." --unfortunately, this is fact, not hyperbole.  As much as I would love to give my husband a son, the fear I would live in every day of his life makes me question the point of reproducing in this country.

Our ancestors prayed that we wouldn't know the pain they went through, having their children sold off to far-away fields, because they fit the bill, never to be seen or heard from again. Their prayers seem unanswered today, as we still deal with little Black boys being stripped from their families, never to be seen or heard from again. Just because they fit the bill.

Below is the link to an intelligent, fact-based opinion piece by a lawyer on the Trayvon Martin issue. I can't call it a case, because no one has been charged with this child's murder yet. Can someone arrest George Zimmerman's trigger happy azz NOW, please? Put him in custody? Hold him for questioning? COME THE HELL ON!! 

CNN "In America" piece by Carolyn Edgar