Yeah. Thanksgiving. One of America's favorite holidays. It's where people have to endure their families, put on appearances, and avoid politics just so they could be guaranteed a spot at the next gathering. To be honest, it's just a big exercise in phoniness while you're surrounded by food. That's it. People have asked me if I was doing anything for Thanksgiving. I've said the following in return: "Why do I need to celebrate Thanksgiving? What is there to be thankful for as a Black person in America? We could die just going about our daily business and people expect us to be thankful? For what?! What kind of lunacy is that? Anybody who says otherwise can kindly GET..(see photo below)
It's batshit crazy. Are we supposed to be thankful for being alive? Should those of us who are alive be thankful some rabid White terrorist didn't shoot us or beat us while protesting? That sounds like some (to borrow the language from our beloved #WokeCommunity) 'slave foolishness'." That's why I've been really happy about the backlash regarding the astoundingly hypocritical American reactions towards people not wanting to accept refugees or people perceived as "others"in reference towards Christmas as well as anti Thanksgiving related articles such as, Manning: Thanksgiving Myth Creates Fairytale of Land Theft, Betrayal, Genocide, The Truth About Thanksgiving: What They Never Taught You in School or what United American Indians call it, the "National Day of Mourning" , which is actually observed as such in Plymouth Mass. All of the anti Thanksgiving articles, and memes that laugh at Americans refusing to accept Syrian refugees because of "ISIS" have given me life. And I'll never ever forget this gem:
If there is something to be thankful for, I'll thank those who are dedicated towards telling the entire truth and not letting their presence get erased. And no. That doesn't include White people because (let history tell it,) they destroyed, looted, pillaged, murdered, raped, stole,beat, and forced their way into everybody else's faces to the point of being considered the so called norm on their terms, and then threw violent, and or insufferable tantrums when people got tired of their shit.
That is all.
Oh, and also Boycott Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and any commerce driven holiday and put that money towards Black businesses.
I had to wait on this one because I was so flustered. Well, maybe flustered was the wrong word. To tell you the truth, I can't condense my feelings into one word. I've had a combination of feelings ranging from depressed, angry irritated, giddy like a lunatic, anxious, sad, and reflective.
As you know, people have been upset about seeing Black people with the France flag over their profile pictures. I've had a few in my friends list. That list has been shortened quite a bit, but it doesn't do me any good because there are a lot of friends who have friends who have friends with that flag over their profile picture anyway, so if I truly wanted to delete it from my page, I'd have to get rid of facebook entirely. But since I need it for the nature of my work, I'd have to keep it up. Sigh. But that's not all. Black people are really pissed at those who have that flag over their profile pictures. That's completely understandable.
But what's really killing me is Black people worrying about the refugees. They say things like, "People swear you can only be concerned about one thing." or "Multitask, it can be done and it does not negate the hard work we must do to change our reality in America nor the compassion we should feel!" <<<< -_-
Here's why:
How are people going to be concerned about what's going on over there. Black people stand the chance of dying just by doing day to day activities, be it by cops or some deranged idiots threatening to shoot them while going to school, or a movie theatre, or while going anywhere. Somebody could call in a false call while we're shopping and POW! You life could be over because somebody called the police to say you had a gun when you didn't. And the caller could say they were "just messing around". I'm saying we need to work on what's going on in order to preserve our lives first, then we can think global. Americans have this drive that tells us that we really need to put everybody's situations above ours regardless if we stand the chance of dying. But if you notice, America will do whatever it takes to save themselves first and foremost. When a plane is crashing and the oxygen masks come down, the flight attendant tells you to use the mask first and then help the others. We stand the chance of dying. But we want to help others and be concerned for others before making sure we don't die first. -_- Let me say it again: When a plane is crashing and the oxygen masks come down, the flight attendant tells you to use the mask first and then help the others. We stand the chance of dying. But we want to help others and be concerned for others before making sure we don't die first. Think about that for a second. Does anybody see what I'm trying to say here? Somebody brought up the idea of welcoming the Syrians because they feel they could make them into allies for the Black cause. But here's the thing: Why are we constantly looking for others to "help" us? Why can't we do this on our own? It's clear that not many "others" in this country want to help us already. In fact, a lot of "others" are very anti- black. Whose to say that Syrians don't harbor any anti-blackness? And if they did, who would want to have to start all over in order to educate them and persuade them to do the right thing? We'd just be starting all over again and not working with what we have already. Yeah. Standing up against police brutality and oppression in America IS doing the right thing so we can live. I'm just saying we've got to secure our lives first before we do anything else. Besides, this is up to the American government to decide whether or not THEY want to receive refugees or not. What good does it do US? I ask them this: What would you guys say if America actually did receive Syrian refugees. And the first thing they did was shit on Black people? What would you say then? Would you act surprised? Would you pray for them some more? What would you do? And I'm dead serious with these questions. Dead. Serious. As for me, I don't really care whether this country takes them in or not. I'd rather secure my life and not complain about the media about how every time something horrible happens to us, they don't portray us in a good light or downplay the incidents when they made it painfully obvious they fucking hate us and will show the world that we are to be hated every chance they get. How many times do people need the media to tell them in so many words before they get the point? How many? Another question I asked was:
Does anybody remember Hurricane Katrina? Do they remember how the media called all of the relocated Black people refugees? Do they remember how they were treated the entire way through? Does anybody remember the paraphrased respectability and morality rhetoric the media pushed while the people were dying? Do they remember how people were saying things like, "Well, they should have had hurricaine insurance. Why were they living there in the first place? Were they too lazy to work harder so they could get out of there? They were just too lazy to get out of there in the first place. Those people are always looking for handouts. I don't want them in my state! It's called responsibility folks!" I remember that very well because I started a new job, and I was concerned about how Hurricane Katrina was handled, BUT I had enough sense to just sit back and listen to what people were saying so I could get a good feel about the workplace and the people in it. Somebody straight up said, "I don't care about those people. They should have had insurance."
Meanwhile, they themselves currently live in an area on an earthquake fault where the earthquake is overdue by five hundred years. And earthquake insurance is separate from regular home owner's insurance, and is also much more expensive to get. -_- Think about that.
As for me, I'm just going to watch people act crazy, get paranoid over ISIS and talk shit about how they aren't going to let refugees come over here, and how they're going to protect America. It's comedy. Pure comedy
We all know how there are safe spaces for domestic violence victims, folks who are LGBTQ, ex religious people, victims of child abuse/child molestation, sexual assault victims, etc right? And we all know that the safe places are there to provide a space where they won't get shamed for being LGBTQ, harassed for leaving their religions, being abused/molested as children, or being shamed or harassed for being sexually assaulted, etc, right?
We know how anti LGBTQ, extremely religious people, child abusers/pedophiles and committers of sexual assault, etc aren't allowed in these groups, right? What would someone think if people of that caliber tried to enter those safe spaces for validation or infiltration purposes? What would those people look like if they tried to infiltrate said spaces?
Well. That's the exact reason why Black people seek safe spaces. They want to have a place where they don't get abused for existing, or letting their hair down. They want a space where they can talk about their experiences in the world they live in and exist. That is all. And when people go to those safe spaces for the sole reason of trying to infiltrate or be validated, then what kind of people are they?
I've learned something. We must not get combative whenever another Black person is critical of another. The reason why is because we have to learn to know the difference between constructive criticism vs trying to start something. For example, if someone posts something that questions Black people's relationship with Jesus Christ, it doesn't mean they're trying to start something. It means they're trying to engage dialogue. However, if they posted something that was meant to castigate and throw stones at those who believe in Christianity and happen to be black in the form of " Hey Black people! (insert disparaging thing here followed up with insults)," someone counters that with a sensible comment, or a question, then I believe it should be looked at as a chance to bring dialogue as long as the conversation doesn't devolve into argument. There is also a difference between asking a real question vs a fake one. For example, a fake question is "Why do Black people get BET and there is no WET... If I did something like that, I'd be racist". VS a real question: It has become increasingly apparent that we won't exactly know who and what we're voting for because politicians have a tendency to "put their best face forward", so to speak. That being said, Is there any way Black people could completely disengage from this current system we're stuck in if we should choose to?" That being said, there are 2 definitions of the word "argument" (as cited by Google) since the word may be subjective depending on the person. : 1. an exchange of diverging or opposite views, typically a heated or angry one. "I've had an argument with my father" synonyms:quarrel, disagreement, squabble, fight, dispute, wrangle, clash, altercation, feud, contretemps, disputation, falling-out; informal tiff, row, blowup, rhubarb; vulgar slangshitstorm "he had an argument with Tony" 2. a reason or set of reasons given with the aim of persuading others that an action or idea is right or wrong. "there is a strong argument for submitting a formal appeal" synonyms:reasoning, justification, explanation, rationalization; case, defense, vindication; evidence, reasons, grounds; counter argument "arguments for the existence of God" Sure, the fake questions mentioned above would definitely fall into definition number 2, BUT the trick is knowing which are real and which are fake, and how the questions are framed. I believe one must need to know how to spot said questions and respond accordingly. In order to do so, I have gone to the African American or the Black People categories on Quora (a website where people can ask questions and get educated answers), and I found so many obviously fake questions that range from the ones mentioned above, to those littered with multiple syllabic vocabulary words. Here are a few examples complete with like responses:
Why do black people in the US get angry so quickly? This approach could be used with media as well. For example, this Fox News video had been circulating around where Glenn Beck openly admitted that the founding fathers are indeed Black:
Note the sly implications in the video. They try to low key excuse themselves from the entire thing and then tell White people that today's Black people have no excuse for being bitter and not excelling in The States since the founding fathers were able to do so. They gloss over all of that while claiming Blacks adopt the "victim narrative," but they conveniently forget about all of the rules that were put in place in order to keep Black people in the perceived status: Please see the following: The One Drop Rule, Jim Crow, and everything that happened during the reconstruction. Some tactics include "whitecapping" which was the taking of Black farmers land and selling it to White farmers. It was essentially, the trail of tears for Blacks.
This begs the following questions:
Why do the KKK still exist and why aren't they dealt with the same way we deal with so called terrorists in other countries? Is it because "the losers" (as Glenn Beck put it) sought revenge against Black people after all and more of these uncovered pieces of history involving them or no? Is this why Black history was hidden and not taught in schools? It seems to me that ALLL of that was done because of manufactured supremacy. That being said, focusing on "merit" might not work in their favor because that "merit" is rooted in manufactured supremacy. All of the laws put in place in order to keep supremacy alive means that so called "merit" wasn't earned. It was given. So what's to be done with that merit based on manufactured supremacy, perse?
And the fact they mentioned how those who speak Spanish are being intentionally kept (paraphrasing) from learning English and comparing it to modern day slave times without the whips was interesting. Modern day slavery could not be based on whether or not people learn English. They're solely speaking on assimilation as if that would magically fix things because if we all learned exactly what they're trying to say, they wouldn't like it at all. In fact, whenever we question them and or take charge, they'll be the first to balk and sully our names and character through various means. The video is another form of respectability politics and vouching for Republicans nestled snugly into some divulged truth they fancied themselves as so fortunate in giving to their audience and viewers that was neatly packaged with Fox News approved books to purchase. Think about that for a second.Honestly, all I could do is take everything in that video, laugh at the agenda and file it away in my mind because I think once we really hone our craft, while learning to recognise every meaning behind their words and actions, and moving accordingly, doing so might be something every Black person could use to train themselves to understand, see, and properly respond to foolishness in a complete and thorough manner on and offline.
