Don't call it a comeback!

Back up and running....

July 1, 2011

In Remembrance...

Image via WikipediaUntil someone else with better web skills, and an actual stand alone site does it...

Bullied To Death 

Asher Brown, 13, Texas

Billy Lucas 15, Indiana

Tyler Clementi, 18, Rutgers Univ.

Seth Walsh 13, California

Raymond Chase, 19, Johnson & Wales Univ.

Phoebe Prince, 15, Mass.

Justin Aaberg, 15, Minn.

Alexis Skye Pilkington, 17

Jon Carmichael, 13, Texas

Kimberly Linczeski, 12, Michigan

Tyler Long, 17, Georgia

Hunter Layland, 15, Texas

Iain Steele, 15, Illinois

Daniel Mendez, 16, California

Jaheem Herrera, 11, Georgia

Carl Walker Hoover, 11, Mass.

These are just the one's I've found thus far. It's heart breaking to know that bullying has caused the deaths of these students, these young lives. And for what?

Will add more (sadly) as I obtain more.

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Trapped Miners in Chile face 4 months underground until rescue

It's old news that Americans don't really know too much about what's happening around the world unless it involves us directly. We think that when disaster strikes as long as we indirectly render aid (a TV spot here, some donations there) we are doing the American 'thing' and helping other nations far less unfortunate than us.

So it was no surprise to me when I had to dig to find more information about the Chilean mine collapse that happened 17 days ago (Aug. 5). 33 Chilean miners are trapped 2,257 feet below the surface. All 33 are still alive as of today.

Sad news, it may take up to FOUR months to rescue them. Yes, those same 4 months that you are counting down to Christmas, these men may not see the light of day until then.

Can you even imagine? All 33 are confined to a space no larger than a hotel room, and we're not talking about some luxurious suite either.

Here  is the ABCNews report and Here is FOXNews. Read some of the comments other readers have left, they mostly sway to the "I'm glad it's no me persuasion". Americans and their self loathing.

What is the American government doing to help these people? Surely technology can help aide these men quicker than four months. Is any other government helping the Chileans? Are we really all that selfish?

Note to self: Make a Google Alert for this topic

I never called you a racist....but if that's how you feeling

Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO and listen to a black comic, and all you hear is nigger, nigger, nigger. I don't get it. If anybody without enough melanin says it, it's a horrible thing. But when black people say it, it's affectionate. It's very confusing.

I contemplated on if I should keep the * used to replace "igger" in the above quote taken from HuffPo but in all attempts to be just lay it all out there, I thought it necessary to keep the "igger" to get the full effect.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger (I had to copy and paste that) has really made a lot of people mad with her "rant" on the usage of the word nigger. It seemed like I was the last one to even hear about her comments until a tweet about it popped up on my phone. I glanced at the tweet and kept on moving. What was the big idea, white folks say nigger everyday.

Please note that I do understand the severity of the usage of the word nigger. I do not use the word personally but I don't always condemn those that do you use it. I've just taken a personal vow to remove the word from my vocabulary. Thus removing it allows me to come up with more cleaver words to use.


I know the age old argument of "Black folks use it so what's the big idea", and that is like the fighting in the Middle East it will never end. Yes, I'm that pessimistic. I don't like the word, and am unsure how the whole "we are going to take back the word" movement got started, but clearly that "movement" is standing at a halt, or run out of gas because clearly no one owns it.


I won't provide a history lesson on the word, Wikipedia that yourself, but it would be best that you know a small amount before you join the discussion on why it's being used today, and why one group can use it and another cannot.


My question to those that are not supposed to use it but say "you use it" is this, why do you want to use the word? Do you want to use it because the other group can, and you don't want to be told what you cannot do? Rules apply to whom may call one a spouse. I cannot call another woman's husband my husband, and then make the statement "well you call him your husband".


Maybe not the best comparison but you get my drift.

My question to those that do use the word, and say to the other group "you can't say that", why do you still use the word? What exactly do you mean when you say it? It can't be a good thing, and a bad thing at the same time. You can't call a woman a bitch as in "that bitch gets on my nerves" and then say "damn that bitch is fine". Does the word really interchange like that?

So everyone had gotten all up in arms about Dr. Laura, and she did what any white person whose stepped on Black folks toes (ie. Don Imus) she's quitting her radio show. Just like that, and obligatory apology and the cancellation of her radio show.

Live on freedom of speech.

Think about it, that's like Malcolm X, living present day and him having to apologize to white folks and cancel his program because of the views he had. Black folks would be up in arms, talking about "you can't censor him" "it's his right"

It was Dr. Laura's right as well, right? I mean we don't have to agree with someone but we can't be iffy and only let rules apply when it benefits us. I welcome the right for anyone to at anytime say what they want to say. If I disagree or if I don't want to hear it I turn the dial, change the channel or leave the venue.

Covert racism, insensitivity or intolerance doesn't make it any less so racist, insensitive or intolerant. Dr. Laura still has her same views. A revolution is not complete unless you change the minds of those you revolt against. Erykah Badu said it best in her song "Soldier"

To my folks on the picket line, don't stop till you change their minds

So she's off the air come December, what has changed? What awareness has been raised? Other than the fact that open discourse cannot be managed within the Black community? We always crying foul to other people that don't fit our norm of what's okay to say.

When are Black folks going to start getting upset with rappers and politicians the way they do with radio host?

When are we going to finally see the destruction that these "endorsers" have on our children? When are we going to demand better education for our students? When are we going to request that rappers stop referring to our women as bitches and hoes? When are we going to start teaching our children that money isn't' everything?

When are we going to demand that our children have fathers in the home, embrace Black love and aspire to be more than we were before?

When are we going to write congress and have our voices heard? When are we going to protest injustice for all groups? When are we going to demand an equality in our schools? Better meals to combat obesity?

Damn, more unity between us period? But we worried and got our feelings hurt by a white person saying NIGGER.

Poisioned....

As a supporter of Black women wearing their hair natural, it saddens me to know that the journey to having Black women turn back to their natural roots is a long, unconvincing road.

I have worn my hair natural since February 2006 when it just clicked for me that I should no longer subscribe to the superficial notion of dictated beauty in America. I was truly inspired by India.Arie's single "I Am Not My Hair". It became my anthem and I was free.

Free from believing that my beauty lay within my hair. Free to think outside the box and decide for myself what beauty is or isn't, to me. Free to say I'm proud of my natural roots and I'm no longer apart of "groupthink". February 2006 with the beginning of growth for me. I was to graduate from University in December, and looked forward to starting a career in 2007.

It was the turning point that I needed, it allowed me to see the bigger picture and become more involved in other endeavors that hold the Black community behind.

I am now almost five years later used to the stares I get, especially from young children. As a teacher I had to grow thick skin for the outrageous questions children ask. "Yes, I'm a girl, you do see these earrings and skirt I'm wearing" "No, I am not bald" "You do not have to like my hair, we are all different and women can have short hair and men can have long hair". If they stare, I wave. If they ask, I answer.

Adults on the other hand, baffle me. Seems as though they'd be more apt to accept my hair (not that I care) if it were pink or blue or sporting glitter on my extensions. I guess because they expect Black women to have "silly" hair. Yes I am calling red,white and blue hair "silly". It's as if they cannot believe that I have stepped out the box and am being defiant and not subscribing to what is normally "Black".

Surprisingly though, I get most of my compliments from White men, who express that they just "love my hair". I have no explanation for that one. Black men as well, but those vary. I guess some people think I'm some militant feminist lesbian, seeking to push her world views on the masses.

Negative. I'm not any of those mentioned above, not that there is anything wrong with them. I'm just me. Comfortable in my own skin. Someone rocking shorter hair than most, but portraying more inner beauty than the rest. I am me. And I am NOT my hair.

Sad video below, exactly why we shouldn't "relax" our hair. Our hair wasn't meant to be "straight" and "relaxed". Rock your natural hair, feel free...breathe again.

 

Love Parents!

Will All True American's Please Stand Up!

I applaud this sheriff in Arizona for his plight to arrest protesters of the Immigration law in Arizona. We need more people like him to stand back and take back America!

The sheriff of the most populous county in Arizona says he's "not going to put up with any civil disobedience" when the state's new immigration law takes effect.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says that if protesters want to block his jail, he'll put them in it.

The Arizona law, which takes effect Thursday, requires officers enforcing other laws to check a person's immigration status if they suspect the person is in the country illegally.

Arpaio told ABC's "Good Morning America" he doesn't know "what the big hype is."

This is the same sheriff that has inmates wear pink jumpsuits and sleep outside in tents.