Recovery and Healing part 2: How

We must remember, they are the ones who dictate all trends and fashions. They try to appeal to US in order to get us to part with our money. They create an artificial value on all of their things in order to get us to buy them:

That Michael Kors bag? Worthless. 

Diamonds? Worthless.
Those shoes? Worthless.

Those viral videos telling us about the new musical sensation? Worthless. 

All things required to achieve mainstream appeal? Worthless.

Etc...You get the point.

We are doing this right now. We have spent a lot of money with Black businesses these past two years, and that's wonderful. We've done it consistently. And that's a beautiful thing.

We have to drop these mainstream standards and create our own. All of these are respectability politics in one way, shape or form. We have to look deeper. All that "glitters" is not gold. And that's one of the sayings they use to tell us what's good. And the real question is "What's good?" Nikki Minaj told us that, but some of us were looking at her package through supremacist eyes.  

I'm not mad at anybody for doing so, nor do I think I'm better than anybody for recognizing what I saw. I can not stress that enough. We can't help it.  I said separating oneself from the supremacy is going to be hard. But it is necessary. I'm still learning, and I know I am not perfect. I am conditioned in ways I haven't even begun to figure out. As far as I know, I might have just scratched the surface because each day, I find out something new. We have to accept the fact that we are not better or worse than anybody else regardless of economic situation, appearance, "intelligence", etc. I've been surprised by homeless people, by prostitutes, rich people, drug addicts, thugs, so called middle class,and poor people throughout every way possible. We as Black people are all in the same boat, or barrel, as the saying goes (Crabs in a barrel).  We know who built the barrel. We must go ahead and leave it. I know we can. We've got this. As I said, once we understand supremacy, all we have to do is jump out of it.  The easiest way to jump from it is through your mind. But you have to know what you're reading, and what you're learning, and how to learn and apply it first. I'm not saying disregard your degree from a primarily White institution because of "tricknology". Go ahead and keep that. You've earned it. You worked hard for that, and hard work should be recognised as such, no matter where it came from. But I'm saying reevaluate yourself, and mold yourself into something that doesn't engage in supremacy.  There will be no shaming about how you receive your education, be it by running the streets, trade or community college, online or brick and mortar four year university. All education is good education and I believe the sooner we recognise it, the better we will be. 

Again. We have to define what's good, and not use their standards as the benchmark because each time we've done so, we got burned.

The second way to jump out of it is through action. Again, this goes back to kissing yourself, but catching yourself in the act is the real trick. You won't see it, but when you do, you'll be mad.

And that's still okay. It's part of the process. You will be mad over and over and over again. But as long as we keep looking forward,acting with our money, and creating our own standards,we will be able to fully disengage. 

That's how.