I saw this on my feed yesterday and I felt the need to say something about stuff like this:
My heart broke in several pieces, and I was in shock. I was in shock because the person who posted this picture used this woman's situation to shame her for her situation. The person who took this pic did NOT try to help that woman. They didn't try to find out who she was, nor tried to find out what's going on with her case, nor tried to get something set up so she'd be able to get her babies out of the street. But I know this picture is out here like that, and so is her business for the sake of shaming her and her situation. The person who took this picture is the problem. On top of that, somebody took this picture to put out a self serving meme to make them look like they're doing good. Instead, they got this woman's business out here like this. In the comments, some people went so far as to shame her for being pregnant as well. I went through as many shares as I could in order to find out some information on this woman to see if anybody knew who she was. I found nothing, so, I took it upon myself to do a Google image search (where you can save an image to your computer, and then drag and drop it into the Google image bar)and it turns out the picture is from the Dominican republic. She is Hatian and has been forced out of her country. But the person who took the time to type that caption over the pic for the purpose of shaming folks and getting likes is problematic.
My heart broke in several pieces, and I was in shock. I was in shock because the person who posted this picture used this woman's situation to shame her for her situation. The person who took this pic did NOT try to help that woman. They didn't try to find out who she was, nor tried to find out what's going on with her case, nor tried to get something set up so she'd be able to get her babies out of the street. But I know this picture is out here like that, and so is her business for the sake of shaming her and her situation. The person who took this picture is the problem. On top of that, somebody took this picture to put out a self serving meme to make them look like they're doing good. Instead, they got this woman's business out here like this. In the comments, some people went so far as to shame her for being pregnant as well. I went through as many shares as I could in order to find out some information on this woman to see if anybody knew who she was. I found nothing, so, I took it upon myself to do a Google image search (where you can save an image to your computer, and then drag and drop it into the Google image bar)and it turns out the picture is from the Dominican republic. She is Hatian and has been forced out of her country. But the person who took the time to type that caption over the pic for the purpose of shaming folks and getting likes is problematic.
Maybe, just maybe if people would quit doing this type of shit (taking pictures just to shame Black people instead of trying to help said people) something great could happen. But naw. People want to take pictures and put people's business out there like that under the guise of being "woke". On that note, today, somebody asked me the following: When did I first become "woke"?
That term is something I struggle with. Here's why:
I guess I could say it was in 2006. And it was a very slow and steady awakening. And I still can't say that I am actually "woke" because back then, I found out some stuff, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. I had no idea about what I didn't know. Looking back, I thought I was BIG. But now, I feel even smaller than before, and if I fast forward several years down the road and look back at 2015, I might say I was still asleep then, and I might say that I'm dumb now. I can't really call it.
These past few years have been very scary for me. They have left me feeling like the literary description of a person detoxifying off of hard drugs after many years of use. They have left me sick. They have left me tired, dried up, beat up, confused, angry, and a host of other feelings. I've been questioning a lot of so called "woke" people and the methods they've been using in order to try to wake people up. I've been feeling pissed off, irritated and depressed for a while now. And then this showed up on my feed:
I have to remember this myself. And it's a lonely road as well. And the more I learn, the more trouble I have.
BUT I think the problem could be with people who call themselves "woke" most of all. Because they want to be the teacher in some cases, but don't want to learn anything new. They want to be the all knowing one, but won't expand on it at times. I think those are the people I have the most trouble with. I think we need to learn to teach each other instead of going for the student/teacher role, which I feel may be a bit Eurocentric at best, because some of those who use that model will find a way to talk down to people they don't think that fit the description of awake. They look at those who aren't awake as "sheep" or "lesser than" and it shows in their teachings . That outlook is essentially enforcing Supremacy once a person gets right down to it because they want to reach down from their podium or pedestal and give to those they feel are "lesser" than them.
And the self proclaimed teachers aren't willing to accept questions raised by the pupils, should they decide to ask questions in the first place. It's like they just want the pupil to absorb information and agree with them for fear of making the teacher feel or look dumb because the pupil forced them to think as well. As a result, the teacher gets irritated with the student, and says something mean. They might cuss them out. As a result, nobody learns. The teacher thinks the pupils are dumb, and the student is left feeling like, "Fuck all of this. I'm through." And they tune out. Or should I say "drop out". And that right there is what we're dealing with.
This is the very same problem with the school system. They present this teacher, pupil , woke/sleep superior/inferior, subordinate/insubordinate model that we emulate unknowingly. We can all learn from each other. And we can learn from different approaches. We can ask questions, not to be mistaken as being contrarian, but to gain another approach or find a way to approach something from another angle especially due to the complexity of the topic. Now one must be careful not get that confused with someone who just wants to debate and not learn anything. Those situations are easy to spot, and can be weeded out.
For those who ask me what I'm going to do about this I'll tell them the following:
There are solutions sprinkled throughout this writing. Change the teaching method and people will learn better. I use this to teach children, and I learned it when both of my parents tried teaching me math. One of my parents tried to beat the lesson into me, and the other was able to successfully teach me in five minutes. I learned two lessons: I learned math, BUT I also learned to never ask the abusive parent for help ever again. The same thing happened with learning how to read. These methods could be used to teach anybody regardless of whether they are a child or a senior citizen as long as they are open to it. Teach them while they are young for best results, but always remember that grasping concepts is not something that should be limited to children. They will grow and their foundation will be strong, or they would be able to strengthen and repair that which is faulty. Make the lesson fun. Learn from each other. Accept questions. Look for answers together and share them with each other.
And for God's sake, whenever you see some posts like the first pic shown, do a Google Image search. Try to find out who they are and what's going on with said person. Don't shame them, and also find out any information you possibly can to help said person and to raise awareness. Relaying information and taking action could save several lives. If we all did this, the possibilities would be better than where we're sitting right now.
As far as the family in the first picture's situation goes, I'm not sure what we can do over there, when we have a lot of problems over here in The States. There's an old saying that if a plane is crashing and the oxygen mask comes down, we need to breathe oxygen first and then let other people use it. We've got to save ourselves before we can save others because we have to be alive to do it.
We also say it takes a village. We need the village back. And once we rebuild the village, we need the town, and the city. THEN we might be able to pool our resources together to build other countries, because we're hurting over here. We can't follow America's model. They run around without fixing their own shit first. Once we fix ours, then we can do that. Until then, we'll always be scattered and running around.
But where is the village? At this moment, it looks like our villages are online. But how do we make self sustainable physical brick and mortar villages without succumbing to: being priced out by overcharging for utilities and using that to seize property, absent landlords buying up property and letting it fall into disrepair so a big developer could buy it for cheap, driving up the taxes and push the original residents out?
That sort of thing has been done in several cities including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, and St. Louis. I think that right there is our biggest hurdle.
That term is something I struggle with. Here's why:
I guess I could say it was in 2006. And it was a very slow and steady awakening. And I still can't say that I am actually "woke" because back then, I found out some stuff, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. I had no idea about what I didn't know. Looking back, I thought I was BIG. But now, I feel even smaller than before, and if I fast forward several years down the road and look back at 2015, I might say I was still asleep then, and I might say that I'm dumb now. I can't really call it.
These past few years have been very scary for me. They have left me feeling like the literary description of a person detoxifying off of hard drugs after many years of use. They have left me sick. They have left me tired, dried up, beat up, confused, angry, and a host of other feelings. I've been questioning a lot of so called "woke" people and the methods they've been using in order to try to wake people up. I've been feeling pissed off, irritated and depressed for a while now. And then this showed up on my feed:
I have to remember this myself. And it's a lonely road as well. And the more I learn, the more trouble I have.
BUT I think the problem could be with people who call themselves "woke" most of all. Because they want to be the teacher in some cases, but don't want to learn anything new. They want to be the all knowing one, but won't expand on it at times. I think those are the people I have the most trouble with. I think we need to learn to teach each other instead of going for the student/teacher role, which I feel may be a bit Eurocentric at best, because some of those who use that model will find a way to talk down to people they don't think that fit the description of awake. They look at those who aren't awake as "sheep" or "lesser than" and it shows in their teachings . That outlook is essentially enforcing Supremacy once a person gets right down to it because they want to reach down from their podium or pedestal and give to those they feel are "lesser" than them.
And the self proclaimed teachers aren't willing to accept questions raised by the pupils, should they decide to ask questions in the first place. It's like they just want the pupil to absorb information and agree with them for fear of making the teacher feel or look dumb because the pupil forced them to think as well. As a result, the teacher gets irritated with the student, and says something mean. They might cuss them out. As a result, nobody learns. The teacher thinks the pupils are dumb, and the student is left feeling like, "Fuck all of this. I'm through." And they tune out. Or should I say "drop out". And that right there is what we're dealing with.
This is the very same problem with the school system. They present this teacher, pupil , woke/sleep superior/inferior, subordinate/insubordinate model that we emulate unknowingly. We can all learn from each other. And we can learn from different approaches. We can ask questions, not to be mistaken as being contrarian, but to gain another approach or find a way to approach something from another angle especially due to the complexity of the topic. Now one must be careful not get that confused with someone who just wants to debate and not learn anything. Those situations are easy to spot, and can be weeded out.
Google "Concern Trolling" to see what I'm talking about. Basically, it's when somebody asks a question or presents a situation they really don't want to know the answer to for the sake of feeling "right". A great example of that is, "Why can't there be a White only television channel? Black people have one. If we had one it would be racist."
Or it could come in the form of a backhanded comment or post. It could come in the form of passive aggressiveness. These are tools used to keep any real conversation or action from happening. As far as the first picture goes, not only does it enforce Supremacy, but it's a method of concern trolling because a bunch of people shared it but nobody tried to find out anything else about her.
For those who ask me what I'm going to do about this I'll tell them the following:
There are solutions sprinkled throughout this writing. Change the teaching method and people will learn better. I use this to teach children, and I learned it when both of my parents tried teaching me math. One of my parents tried to beat the lesson into me, and the other was able to successfully teach me in five minutes. I learned two lessons: I learned math, BUT I also learned to never ask the abusive parent for help ever again. The same thing happened with learning how to read. These methods could be used to teach anybody regardless of whether they are a child or a senior citizen as long as they are open to it. Teach them while they are young for best results, but always remember that grasping concepts is not something that should be limited to children. They will grow and their foundation will be strong, or they would be able to strengthen and repair that which is faulty. Make the lesson fun. Learn from each other. Accept questions. Look for answers together and share them with each other.
And for God's sake, whenever you see some posts like the first pic shown, do a Google Image search. Try to find out who they are and what's going on with said person. Don't shame them, and also find out any information you possibly can to help said person and to raise awareness. Relaying information and taking action could save several lives. If we all did this, the possibilities would be better than where we're sitting right now.
As far as the family in the first picture's situation goes, I'm not sure what we can do over there, when we have a lot of problems over here in The States. There's an old saying that if a plane is crashing and the oxygen mask comes down, we need to breathe oxygen first and then let other people use it. We've got to save ourselves before we can save others because we have to be alive to do it.
We also say it takes a village. We need the village back. And once we rebuild the village, we need the town, and the city. THEN we might be able to pool our resources together to build other countries, because we're hurting over here. We can't follow America's model. They run around without fixing their own shit first. Once we fix ours, then we can do that. Until then, we'll always be scattered and running around.
But where is the village? At this moment, it looks like our villages are online. But how do we make self sustainable physical brick and mortar villages without succumbing to: being priced out by overcharging for utilities and using that to seize property, absent landlords buying up property and letting it fall into disrepair so a big developer could buy it for cheap, driving up the taxes and push the original residents out?
That sort of thing has been done in several cities including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, and St. Louis. I think that right there is our biggest hurdle.
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