Wednesday, July 23, 2014

The Problem With Ms. Hill.

I saw this article that Vibe Magazine put out and I decided I'd say something about it. Here's the video footage of the alleged "Kanye moment" as mentioned by the writer of this article.




 I get sick of people talking big shit on her. Sure, she had kids by a guy who she didn't marry and he was out (for lack of a better phrase) fucking and ducking. He broke her heart and she lost her mind for a while. That sort of thing happens to a LOT of people. Why did people shame her for that? She wrote about her relationships, and various things that happen in her life and people balked about what she had to say. They said she was trying to be "holier than thou" and trying to preach to people. I saw it as her trying to tell people what she had been through. Sure she did get at some men, but so what? Men shit on women CONSTANTLY in rap songs and no one bats an eye. She said something about some of the men she's been with or know about (without using or making up any derogatory slurs towards said men, might I add) and everybody was saying things like "Fuck that dumb bitch. She think she's too good, etc, etc." I guess women aren't allowed to mention said things (the aftermath of Nikki Minaj's Looking Ass Nigga was a great example of that) , but men can throw women under the bus all day and night and make up new slurs for all of the women they ran across. That shit is not cool at all. 

She's late to her shows. What planet are people on when they think a show is going to start on time? Shows NEVER, EVER start on time. At least she came to the shows and didn't use a stand in like MF Doom did, and yet people are still buying Doom's records. They said it was a "dick move" for him to do such a thing and left it at that. But oh no. Not Ms. Hill. She can't get a pass. Nope. And people want to say that she's rude. Newsflash! there are a LOT of rude artists out there, and I bet a lot of them are ruder than her. So What? If she's "rude to you" then don't see her play. Plain and simple. Nobody is twisting these people's arms or holding them at gunpoint and making them see the shows. If she is late to every show, people should expect that and prepare for it, since it's common knowledge in this case. In fact, this is the reason why I don't go to most shows. I just don't have the time these days. 

She is far from perfect, and is a flawed person. She's trying to get along in this world while people try to grasp at excuses to not like her. Whether it's for her music (That Thing, or any other song she wrote to blast on her ex-es WITHOUT male bashing slurs, might I add), or alleged "craziness" or not paying taxes. That being said, I haven't seen anybody talk shit on Wesley Snipes for not paying taxes, and he's been in jail for a while. In fact Murs wrote a song on the White Mandingo album called 'Free Wesley Snipes." If my memory is correct, people were mad that he got locked up and all of the Wall Street people are not locked up. People said that Wesley Snipes got locked up because he was Black, and people were mad about it. Why does Ms Hill get looked at in a different light? Sounds like she ought to write a follow up song to Mos Def's "Mr. N!gga" because it looks like she's getting the Ms. N!gga treatment to me. I'm just sayin.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

I Did it All For the Views (Part 2)

Yeah, I said I was done with that first installment, but I had to come back again this time. This time I want to focus on so-called "hood pranks". I'm sure you've seen a few of these called pranks where two kids go to "the hood" (read as wherever a bunch of Black people live) and they try to see what they could get away with.  They basically go around antagonizing the residents of the neighborhood in hopes to get a reaction out of them. Heres a couple of examples of the kind of things they do:


They ask people for the time and then they took the phones of those being pranked.

 
 They go around asking people if they "Have a problem".

 
 And ask if they can throw punches at people.

 



I already know what you are thinking. You are thinking that those fools are going to get themselves killed doing that. I'm thinking the same thing.  Now that I think about it, what was that I said in the fifth paragraph on the previous blog about compromising principles for likes, views, and becoming internet famous? Hmmm, this is the same pattern exhibited by the previous blog on the same subject matter, me thinks. The question I want to ask here is how long would it take for one of these kids to die?  I don't even know.  But I do know that Banksy (UK based graffiti artist best known for his quirky and politically charged murals) wrote an open letter to these guys.  I'm glad he did. Here's a snippet of what he told them:


I’m not sure if this is some weird racist humor that just doesn’t tickle my fancy. Maybe it’s some social experiment that uses racial tropes as its punchline and a means of instruction and enlightenment, or both lumped into one. I imagine a select group of White Americans react to these videos in a way similar to how Black guys react to magic. “OMG! That black dude was pissed! He broke his phone lulz!” or something along those lines, otherwise these videos probably wouldn’t keep being made.
There is some humor here, because I have to admit, like when some jackass keeps walking up to only Black folks and asking “you want to kiss my ass.” I finally laughed when he got knocked out, literally. Worst part is this goober thought it was funny too, and now he’s laughing to the tune of 1.7 million views worth of AdSense dollars.*


He then goes on to ask the following:


But what if I went into an affluent neighborhood, approached only White people and started attacking them like it was The Purge or something? Is this acceptable as long as it’s under the guise of a practical joke and called “In the Burbs!!” If I’m daring ornery old white guys into a fight, there’s a good chance that I may actually have to take a punch or two and this is probably true for brown, yellow, orange or purple people, too.
Now that's a very good question. Again, as mentioned in my previous blog on this subject, we can't go anywhere in the wrong neighborhood without being questioned. I also mentioned it here where the police were called on a person who lived in his neighborhood and went to his car to get a pack of cigarettes. The result was him getting shot because his neighbor didn't recognise him. Anyway, Banksy goes on to say the following:


But that isn’t being acknowledged here, instead these reactions are being treated as “Black people reactions.” “Get a look at how these Black folks react to me doing funny stuff.” Nope, these are the reactions of anybody put into these ridiculous situations.

I'm really glad he spoke on it. However, it begs to question why it hasn't been spoken about in the US yet?  I found a link from NY Daily News that asked them to cease and desist, but I have heard nothing else of the sort. The pranksters say they target everybody, but as Banksy said, their videos are treated as "Black people reactions."  Something tells me that it won't be that easy for them to stop doing it. If they stop, someone else will do it, and it'll keep going until someone does get killed.

Sometimes I wonder if someone did get killed, would the Stand Your Ground defense work for the killer. Something tells me that it won't even if the whole thing was filmed on site. Something tells me that the killer would get locked up for a very long time. They may or may not be sued for pain and suffering from the prankster's family. But hey, at least the kids would be rich, right?


Maybe it's just me, but I'm wondering, whatever happened to jumping out of the window of a moving vehicle, jumping over several flaming cars via motorbike, or eating glass as a daredevil prank? I guess none of that stuff is more dangerous or as courageous as messing with Black people.

"Blacks Beat Up White Person for Coming into Neighborhood" or "I Did it All For The Views!" SMMFH >:(

Okay. Let's discuss something different. I found this video of some Black people beating up a White person for coming into their neighborhood.  Here's the original post for all to see.

Now I don't ever re-post fight videos, nor do I watch them or care for them at all. This is the first time where I've actually said something about them. That being said, here we go.

This shit is not cool, nor will it ever be. I find it beyond careless and ignorant to post videos of people getting beat up regardless of the race of the victim. Back in the day, if a person in the neighborhood got beat up, it stayed in the hood and didn't get put on blast for the world to see. Sure, the entire neighborhood would know that so and so got beat up by (insert successful fighter here) but it would take at least a week for it to fizzle out and everybody would go back to what they were doing before the altercation took place.  In the worst case scenario, the police would have been called and they would have stepped in. Now people have the ability to upload these videos on the internet for the world to see. People all across the country could sit back and watch people get beat up,harassed, raped, or even killed.  I mean, I'm all up for art imitating life, and I enjoy movies like everybody else, but the thing is that in movies, no one really gets hurt. That man or woman that got beat up, killed, raped,harassed, etc. will get up after the scene and accept praise from the director for putting on such a convincing performance. Everybody has the chance to go home at the end of the day. That doesn't happen in these videos. Real people get injured or killed from this foolishness, and that's not a good thing regardless of how many internet views, likes and internet fame one may receive. And, that's one of the reasons why people who make these videos really need to GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH THAT MESS. Here's a few more reasons on why they need to go somewhere with that:

Don't people know that when they put up these kinds of videos, this opens them up to being arrested? Didn't some of y'all learn shit from watching Menace II Society? Remember that scene where O-Dog takes the video tape from the convenience store that showed him killing the owners of the store? He made a mistake and shared the video, and copies were made. Long story short, it caught up to him and Kane and the cops were on their radar. I mean, stupid is as stupid does, right? I guess this is what happens when everyone has access to a camera, right? Anyway, this is not a laughing matter, so I'll get back to the seriousness of the subject.

I'm trying to find out what is on these people's minds when videos like these get posted up. Are they really just compromising their principles so they can earn likes, views and internet fame? What do they really gain from it? Sure, a person may get a bunch of views from creating a silly or fun video (which is fine and dandy), but what really happens when it's a video as serious as this? I've come across many fight videos in my facebook feed, but I never hear of any arrests tied to them. Maybe I haven't scoured the internet long enough to figure out the outcomes of these videos because it would mean that I'd have to watch them and find out the names of these people.  That being said, I have enough on my plate and I am already upset and disgruntled by quite a bit (as if you can't tell by now, lol); one can only take so much.  I'll leave that up to the police.

But what really pisses me off about this video is that now that man is going to leave the scene and he's going to hate Black people. I don't know the guy at all, but he must have been okay with Black people since he was able to walk through the projects with no shirt on. For all I know, he could have been there looking for drugs but, that's beside the point because again I don't know the guy at all so I can't really say why he was there. He was walking there and they should have left him alone.  He wasn't doing anything to anybody.

Speaking on leaving people alone and assuming the worst of people "not belonging" in certain neighborhoods. I'm sure you remember Trayvon Martin? He was in the wrong neighborhood and he got shot by a "neighborhood watchman". There have been several instances over the years where Black people have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and have been lynched, killed, beat up or all three.  Google "Sundown Laws" to view the consequences for allowing the sun to "set on you" while being Black in the United States of America for further reference, or click on the word "lynched" to get a good idea of what could happen.

Another thing that trips me out is some of the comments on this video. Here are some direct comments taken from the original post (names withheld)  :

1.  Animals!!!
2. They are always bad ass in groups
3.  we all know what they are, just looking at this stuff doe's nothing, u all know what needs to be done
July 11 at 5:47pm · Like · 39
4.   It would be time to get the gun and go level the hood.
5. Racism at its finest. Wait, that can't be racism, it was blacks beating the crap out of a white guy and the only way for it to be a racist crime is to have it the other way around!
6.The only way the monkeys can fight
7.  That's the way they are; scumbag f--king losers who will amount to nothing, which is obvious!. It takes more than one of them to beat a person down cuss they're too much of a coward to take a man on by himself, AGAIN which is obvious!. And to the person filming and laughing, I can already hear you crying for yo mama cuss Ben Dover has you penned in your cell. You hear that? that's me LAUGHING now!!
8. Complete hate crime and yet nothing! Our country is so full of double standards when it comes to shit like this. If the show was on the other foot I can tell you about 5-6 white boys who'd be facing federal hate crimes and have their faxes plastered all over the news. (Next)
9.  Black people beating up on whites doesn't make the news because it's not rare and thus not newsworthy. Complete bullshit
10. Oh yeah...and this is why is see NOTHING wrong with racial profiling and prejudices. It's all about statistics and ones personal life experiences with another race. 

(I guarantee this white guy from the clip will always profile and carry prejudice walking through the ghetto next time!)

11.And that's why there should be concealed carry .

And then there was this:
1. How do you get 5 black guys to stop raping a white girl?
19 hours ago · Like · 20
2. Throw them a basketball.
19 hours ago · Like · 68
3.That be them NIGGER only way they know fight
3 hours ago · Like · 14

Now aside from the usual stuff one would find, there were voices of reason sprinkled in:
1. may I ask a question about this man and his location? Why was he there and what was he there for? He doesn't look like he was delivering anything. I'm not saying that he doesn't have a right to walk around. But let's use some common sense. If I was walking through a certain part of Mississippi and I see the confederate flag and hear the banjos from deliverance. I'm moonwalking back to where I came from. Common sense, you know what I mean? The youth of today has no idea of the consequences for there actions. At least the black woman did step in to get them off him.
3 hours ago · Like · 21
2. 3 years ago I was in a hip neighborhood, I faced 4 thugs. It could have been news worthy, but I barely avoided it. It was a high end nightlife area and we all fit right in. Don't blame the victim. Blame the thugs.
3 hours ago · Like · 18

Now let's address some of these comments. I'll do it in three groups in the same fashion as I separated the comments: 
 
Let's address some of the comments in the first group:

Comments 2, 3,6, and 7. "They're always badass in groups.", " we all know what they are, just looking at this stuff doe's nothing, u all know what needs to be done" , "The only way the monkeys can fight", and "That's the way they are; scumbag f--king losers who will amount to nothing, which is obvious!. It takes more than one of them to beat a person down cuss they're too much of a coward to take a man on by himself, AGAIN which is obvious!. And to the person filming and laughing, I can already hear you crying for yo mama cuss Ben Dover has you penned in your cell. You hear that? that's me LAUGHING now!!

Response: So is everyone else, and yes, the act of  jumping people is considered universally bitch like behavior. I bet everybody could name an instance where something went down between yourself and a group, and the group started the conflict. This sort of behavior is exhibited especially when people feel they are strong and a smaller group are the odd people or person out. Cops harass people because they have the power and jurisdiction to do so. Men have done it to women (street harassment). Little kids pick on other kids that they feel are vulnerable, and sometimes they do it in groups. This is not limited to Black behavior, so why treat it as such? I'm not defending their decision to jump the White guy, but still this is a universal HUMAN phenomenon that shouldn't be assigned to a specific set of humans in order to vilify them and demonize them. Calling them animals and monkeys based on human behavior is pretty shortsighted and implies that the person referring to them, was already prejudiced from the beginning. Using that as a template, I guess it is fine when cops do it to White people, or whenever it's a situation with just White people involved. Show me a fight video where two White people (or more) are fighting, and there would be comments cheering on the winner if it was a one-on-one fight, or the comments would be geared toward anti bullying and hoping the group of individuals got arrested. But nope. Instead, we get generalizations of a whole people based on this video. I have never heard people see a fight video and say, something along the lines of  "Wow. Those White people are savage animals because, that's how they are. I mean, look at history, they are always looking to hurt people to the point where they even do it to their own. Talk about White on White crime, lolz!."  Anyway, you get the idea.

Comment #10 " Oh yeah...and this is why is see NOTHING wrong with racial profiling and prejudices. It's all about statistics and ones personal life experiences with another race.  (I guarantee this white guy from the clip will always profile and carry prejudice walking through the ghetto next time!)"

Warning: Please pay attention to the words " Using That Logic" in the response section for this quote.  That part is crucial to the discussion. If you miss that part and get all huffy about what I'm about to say, then I have nothing for you.  Please read carefully.


Response:  Okay I had a conversation with someone who said exactly the same thing regarding supporting profiling and personal life experiences with another race. He said that if someone were dressed like a thug or a terrorist, he'd profile them. At the time, he was wearing a suit and tie. I told him that in my experiences plus what I've seen, White people in suits and ties are thieves. They could steal millions just by wearing a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase. They have taken entire companies down and have defrauded many people of their life savings under the guise of receiving a hefty return on their investments only to leave them penniless while the so-called "investor" spends all of their hard-earned money on self-serving luxuries. 


 And as far as terrorists and profiling go, I could say that at one time in America (EARLY 1900s) most White people belonged to the Klan. They were Klan costumes by night, and wore respectable clothing by day. No one could tell whether or not a person belonged to the Klan unless they met at a Klan rally prior.  USING THAT LOGIC , it would have been safe to say that all White people are Klansmen.  That being said, I could say the same thing about White people if I were to use that argument, but I'm sure if I did that, it would be classified as reverse racism (as if racism had a correct direction in which it should go). A White person could tell me that the Klan is a fringe group right now, but how could I be so sure? That person who told me that and those who compiled the statistics were White so they could be lying.  They lied to the Native Americans, so how could I be so sure they are telling me the truth? Sure, the White guy in the video may go away from the area and start profiling, which is unfortunate, but using that same logic, shouldn't Black people profile White people?  I mean, the proof is written in the history books, the media has shown everybody that White people would need to be profiled, right?  Shouldn't all non-White people start taking up arms to prevent White people from stealing from them? Should they fear White presence in their neighborhoods because something or someone may come up missing?  These are things that should be thought about IN FULL if one wants to support profiling.  On to the 2nd category.


Comments 1 and 2:  " How do you get 5 black guys to stop raping a white girl?"
"Throw them a basketball."

Ah, good old racial jokes. So conventional, familiar, and yet, so predictable. It's crazy how many racial jokes there are out there when it comes to Black people. It seems that Blacks are supposed to be made fun of, joked about and used for malicious entertainment.  It's been that way since the 1800s, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see them on facebook.  There I go spewing reverse racism and profiling again. Whatiswegonedu?? <Kanye Shrug>  Smh. That being said, on to the third section.


Comment #1: " may I ask a question about this man and his location? Why was he there and what was he there for? He doesn't look like he was delivering anything. I'm not saying that he doesn't have a right to walk around. But let's use some common sense. If I was walking through a certain part of Mississippi and I see the confederate flag and hear the banjos from deliverance. I'm moonwalking back to where I came from. Common sense, you know what I mean? The youth of today has no idea of the consequences for there actions. At least the black woman did step in to get them off him."


The first comment is a well thought out one. It's where I wondered, what was the intention of the White guy in the Black neighborhood. However, only he could tell us why he was there.  The last comment seemed like the only voice of reason in the whole comment section. I decided I'd leave you with that because I really don't have much to say aside from my first paragraph.

"3 years ago I was in a hip neighborhood, I faced 4 thugs. It could have been news worthy, but I barely avoided it. It was a high end nightlife area and we all fit right in. Don't blame the victim. Blame the thugs."


I'm sure there were a lot more comments, but I only saw the last 50 of them so I decided I'd take a few of them and speak on them.  Anyway, long story short. Stop this shit. Start filming cops and corrupt officials so we can catch them doing dirty. Leave the petty bullshit alone and work on fixing our cities so we can live in peace regardless of what race you belong to.

And a big FUCK YOU goes out to worldstarhiphop.com. 

Sorry about lying to you about leaving you with that last quote but worldstarhiphop.com had it coming.

That is all.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Fundraiser for Potato Salad Raised over Forty Thousand Dollars.

Hol up...what?
Yes. You read right. Apparently a guy wanted to make potato salad so he started a kickstarter program to raise funds. No big deal, right? Maybe he had a family recipe that he wanted to share with the world.  Maybe it was so good that all of his friends had been begging him to mass produce it. I was hoping that was the case, but once I found the original kickstarter, I was surprised to find out that his maximum goal was one hundred dollars.  He could have gone to friends, family members, gone through his couch cushions, looked around in his car, and rolled up some pennies,and (insert any type of bootstrap pulling behavior here) to get the money for it. But nope, he enlisted the whole internet to help him reach his goal. The goal was that if he made one hundred dollars, he would try to make 2 different versions of potato salad.  

This mofo right here was able to raise over forty thousand dollars. That's right!  Forty. Thousand. Dollars.  I'm trying to find out how the hell could someone raise that much for making potato salad that isn't going to be consumed by the masses. This is something for him and his friends.  And when the money started rolling in, he upped the ante. Here's his big stretch goal Word. For. Word.:  


A BIG STRETCH GOAL: 

We're really tearing through these stretch goals. I honestly don't know what is realistic anymore. So, I thought maybe we try to double the current number? 
$3000: My kitchen is too small! I will rent out a party hall and invite the whole internet to the potato salad party (only $10 and above will be allowed in the kitchen)! The internet loves potato salad! Let's show them that potato salad loves the internet!!
Now, in an age where Levar Burton raised millions on the very first day of his kickstarter in order to bring back Reading rainbow while Washingon Post tried to smear the effort by saying it was 'bullshit' because Reading Rainbow was a "failed endevor" is killing me. This fool gets funded for a chance to make potato salad and "invite the internet to the potato salad party" doesn't get called "bullshit"  by any media outlets? They need to GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH THAT MESS. For those who still don't see why, I'll break it down for you. Levar Burton was trying to bring back the joy of Reading Rainbow for the next generation of kids. I loved that show so much that when it was time for the kickstarter to happen, I jumped at the chance for supporting it by donating what I could. I still don't understand how somebody could crap on the idea and a successful attempt of making something positive for the kids.  Who does that and says it's okay to do so? Meanwhile, the potato salad fundraiser is called "bizarre" by the same establishment.  Something's strange here indeed.

Meanwhile, somebody decided to test the rest of the internet by starting her own kickstarter by asking for white privilege as a joke. She's getting money from it and her rewards are hilarious as well.  Needless to say, I'll be watching for the outcome of this. I'm not going to lie. I hope she gets that money because it'll open up a discussion that a whole lot of folks just don't want to talk about. Until then, I'll be waiting and watching.


 Popcorngif.com


Anyway, shoutout to the Miles Ahead campaign that Don Cheadle started.  He made his goal 8 hours before the deadline. I'll be honest. I was really nervous about this movie. I didn't think they'd make the goal in time. I'll be looking forward to seeing this film, purchasing it and receiving my reward for donating. 

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Random Encounters While Black

Why come (and I have to say it like that), every so often, I encounter a White person who feels the need to speak to me in a really fake impression of what they think is African-American vernacular? They either do it among their friends whenever they see a Black person, or when they speak to me. Who told them that this was necessary? Where did they get the idea that this was okay? I've stopped them on several occasions and I asked them about it. They say something to the effect of, "I'm getting on your lev-el." as if I would have no way of understanding them if they didn't talk like that. On several instances, I had to straight up tell them that they look really dumb when they do that because they are implying that Black people can't possibly understand what they say unless they talk "like that". I told them that I find it patronizing, and if they want to say "Hi" to me or have a conversation, then they should just do it instead of hiding behind racist tropes and acting like something they saw on the television. Besides, talking to Black people like that is sooo dated and tired. Learn to communicate with people and do it without attempting to mock them.

Long story short, if anybody who isn't Black decides to read this, I have a public service announcement for you. If you feel the urge to "talk Black" around a bunch of Black people or one whom you think is "cool", please Get The Fuck Outta Here With That Mess. It is not "cool", "comforting" or acceptable to anybody. Also, if you are reading this while Black and you are involved in a situation like this, you especially need to Get The Fuck Outta Here With That Mess. don't let that mess slide. It will never be cute or endearing. 


That is all.