On That Beyonce Video Called "Formation":

So people are going wild over Beyonce's video, and some are not enthused. I see why people are excited: They're excited because she showed people that its okay to accept themselves (complete with big nose and natural hair) regardless of respectability politics. She addressed the gossip around her and her family. She said there is nothing wrong with being from the South, and Black at the same time.  The imagery in the video got people so riled up, it was enough to cause people to want to boycott the Superbowl.

You'd probably think I'm going to tell the boycotters to GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE With That Mess, but I'm not.  In fact, I don't think I even need to tell you why because if you've been following my blog, you already know why. Be that as it may...

I can definitely support what she's saying. But Red Lobster gets no love because they don't actually cook their food. They use microwaves to heat it up, and you could buy the biscuit mix at the grocery store (which is not the point of this discussion, so I'll stop being petty). 

BUT just because people are buzzing around her song doesn't mean they are distracted. They're just happy to see all of that Blackness for one night. Sure, the Superbowl in general is not really my cup of tea, but her performance was what people like myself wanted to see, and since I don't care for sports, I went straight for the performance, no commercials, no fluff, and I clicked the play button. 

And it was glorious! Here's why:

Who knows how  many Black women she will get to finally accept themselves all the way? She might even get women to stop getting plastic surgery in order to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards.

Plastic surgeons will see a dip in their profits, and they could quite possibly end up with zero Black customers. Black modeling agencies and photographers will pop up and will showcase Black features in all their entirety. Its only a matter of time when we see no more 'strange lighting' that almost always needs an 'explanation'.  This could be the end of Black makeup tutorials where the makeup is several shades lighter than the actual complexion of the woman. 

Black people with "Jackson 5 nostrils" will no longer feel some kind of way about having a wide nose.  How many little Black girls and boys will see the clean version of her video and will feel comfortable with their Black features, because we all have that one family member or 6 that has something crazy to say about Black features as if they never saw a mirror in their entire lives? I'm talking about:

• That one relative who claims they're light skinned when they're complexion is looking like a Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate bar. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with dark complexions, nor is there anything wrong with light complexioned Black people, or dark chocolate. I'm just calling out those fake light skin-ded folks who always have something extra to say about different Black skin tones (you know who you are).
• That one relative who tells you your baby came out light, or that your baby has 'that good hair' as if that's a badge of honor.

• That one relative who tries to give you tips or tricks to prevent that baby's nose from getting too wide, or has to help you not get 'too dark' when you're busy being a kid in the summer. 

I can't help but respect Beyonce for clapping back at people like those since they are responsible for passing down and or fostering anti-Blackness in Black families. Getting at them was long overdue, and let's face it. Those of us who have clapped back at their own family members who say stuff like that are still looked at kind of funny. Maybe its wishful thinking on my own part but if a famous person busts back at them in a different format and it reaches them then it could be possible they won't have shit else to say since somebody else is saying what you've been trying to say all along.

On the other hand, I see why people are not enthused as well. That money her and her husband earns comes from mainstream media. That's the same media that won't endorse Black artists for real. But that's okay. We learned the Oscars aren't for us, and they won't ever be. We learned the Grammy's aren't for us either, nor is any award given to people at the discretion of gatekeepers who are out of touch with the audience, or the people doing the creating (I'll give you a hint. Those gatekeepers ain't us.).

And donating to Black Lives Matter was a bad move on their part because that establishment isn't doing anything for the people in Ferguson. In fact, the last thing they did was endorse Hillary Clinton, whose husband is responsible for the same high incarceration rate Blacks are more susceptible to being on the wrong end of. That same high incarceration rate is what kept the government of Ferguson and other St. Louis municipalities shaking down the citizens. The fact that Clinton stood her arrogant ass up in a Black church in Missouri so she could tell the people "All Lives Matter" will not be swept under the rug any time soon with me.  Black Lives Matter also created "Campaign Zero" which is supposed to be a "blueprint" to hold police accountable (which had already been attempted during the unrest in several cities across America, most notably, Ferguson and Baltimore, even though it has become common knowledge that one must be able to trust the officials in power in order for accountability to take place, and it had become painfully clear that Ferguson's government is completely rotten to the core, right up through the entire state of Missouri. 

That's why I can't fault people for being mad at them for donating to DeRay and Company like that either. Yes, Jay Z and Beyonce are in the music industry, but she did use her platform for positive Blackness as well as clean up the gossip for their family. They also bailed out the kid in Baltimore who was being held for five hundred thousand dollars as well as some Ferguson protesters with no thanks to Talib Kweli after he raised $112,600 through the Ferguson Defense Fund through Indegogo even though $35,000 was donated to MORE, which left $77,600 unaccounted for. He went on to say, 

“We gave $35,000. That still leaves a lot of money. So you all know what happened with the rest of the money, we gave $3,800 to Fellowship Of Reconciliation. We’re in the process of funding several youth organizations on the ground. We’re going to vote on the rest of the funds very shortly.” 

I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but after subtracting $3,800 from $77,600, that still leaves $73,800.  That's still a lot of money. Where did it go? Hmmm.

That being said, I don't consider  myself a longtime fan of Beyonce's music like that. I don't even own any of her albums, and I haven't listened to her music since Destiny's Child.  But she did what she was supposed to do with Formation. No mainstream Black artist has even dared to bring up what she brought up, especially on nationwide television during a time where the most people would be watching the same event. That takes some serious ovaries.

At the very least, in Beyonce's defense, you can't win for losing and vice versa.  Just ask Cam Newton. The media did him so wrong, and people still showed him love. There was no mention about Cam being a bad team player on my feed unless it was people going to bat for him. Men and women went to bat for Cam, but Beyonce was a whole different story. The women were there for her, but men... not so much. I fake wonder why that is. Anyway, that's another topic for a different time. 

She still slayed though. 

Cartergate: The whole Solange vs Jay- Z Debacle

I know I'm late with writing this. As a matter of fact, so many things have happened since I wrote a blog that I could safely say that everybody went home from the party already and I'm just getting to it.
Anyway, I've had some serious things I had to tend to and some of my own punches to roll with as of late, so I had to give them my undivided attention. Now I'm here, so here goes:

Apparently Jay-Z done messed up. He done messed up so much that his wife's sister had to break her foot off in his a$$. Not only did she do it once, but she did it multiple times as indicated in the full-length video .  People have been saying that it was because Solange was taken off of the Rockafella Record label. They are even saying it was because Jay-Z wanted to go by himself to a Rhianna concert. What's crazy is that everybody is believing this mess. To those who agree with that I have to tell them to GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH THAT MESS!  Here's why:

The last time I checked, Solange created Saint Records in 2013. She was releasing her own stuff through that label as well. Why would she feel the need to cling to Rockafella Records?

Also, why would she be mad about Jay-Z going to a Rhianna concert by himself? Maybe somebody could help me out with that one because it doesn't make any sense to me.

Upon looking closer at this, I think domestic violence may be at play. Here's why:
Many of us have seen Jay-Z and Beyonce in public. Check her mannerisms. As a woman, I can't help but notice, she may exhibit some tendencies toward being abused. Now abuse doesn't always have to be physical, in fact the most appealing kind of abuse to an abuser is the mental kind because there are no scars. As someone who grew up in that kind of environment, I happen to know what it looks like firsthand. All her life she had been groomed by her father to exude a particular image, to build a brand, and that means she had to have been molded since day one. Is it no surprise that she married someone who had the ability to do the same for her?  I mean, Jay-Z is incredibly rich, and he is no stranger to making profitable business decisions. Maybe it's just the hater in me, but I've always thought that Beyonce was something like that for Jay-Z. He gets the beautiful woman, they make a whole bunch of money together, I mean, it's a match made in heaven, and a great deal for both of them, right?

Now before folks get all up in my blog talking that, "Maybe they love each other, and they married out of love because, love makes a good quality marriage" they can GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH THAT!  Several decades ago, marriage was just a transaction, as presented in the last paragraph of one of my previous blogs.  I strongly think Jay-Z's marriage was a great example of the marriage equals financial transaction kind of thinking. In this case, love is more of a contractual agreement, where the wife has to perform such "duties" to her husband. Keep in mind, those duties are subjective, and depending on the person, they could be dehumanizing.

Let's be real. A lot of people think they could lord over their spouses in whatever way they see fit. Sometimes, people believe that it's easy to see as with physical abuse. Some people don't see mental abuse.  In the Carter's case, it appears to be a case of both.  Notice in the full video, Bey was wearing house clothes, meaning, it looks like she was wearing clothes that look like a woman would wear around the house, you know, the kind she would wear strictly for her husband. Jay was wearing a suit, Solange is wearing a dress. Based on the clothes, it appears that maybe Solange popped over for a visit, and they all were hanging out at one point. Something popped off and they went to the elevator to escort Solange from the building. Solange argued with Jay and started attacking him.

And Bey just watches it all go down.

Why would she just watch her husband get beaten up like that?  My guess is that he did something wrong and she was not trying to defend it. Now in my experience, this is an instance where a sibling would take up for the other sibling if they had been in some sort of trouble. This is an instance where people want to act like they don't know about this kind of scenario. They want to discuss blood being thicker than water but, want to distance themselves when it comes to situations being in the limelight. This is why I took the time to shine some light on this situation.  I noticed that Solange tweet indicated what I suspected, but disappeared quick causing people to say it was fake:

Is it just me, or does this tweet indicate there was all kinds of underlying tension and animosity in the Carter relationship? 

Then all of a sudden, there was only one picture of Bey on Solange's instagram.  Afterwards, Jay-Z decided to spend money on Bey's sister. Usually something like that would be done to keep somebody quiet.

But wait, there's more. In the extended video, Jay was attacked multiple times. One of the times, Bey got between her sister and husband, as if she was trying to tell her sister to stop it and back down.

Now, I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, and I don't know their lives like that, but all of those actions look exactly like domestic violence to me. Are there any ladies out there who see what I'm looking at because I can't just sit back and say it isn't. All of their body language indicates something of the sort. I can't imagine Solange getting that worked up about not being on Jay's record label a year after she created her own.  From the looks of it, it seems she has her own money. 

Again, maybe I'm on to something, but that's just me. However, if that's the case I hope Beyonce could get help one day. So many people chose to stay in abusive relationships because that's all they know. It could be a gradual process a person could sink into and once they sink into it, there's no way out.  If I was a praying person, I'd pray for her. Since I'm not, I'll keep her in my thoughts. The same goes to all and any abused women out there, physically and or mentally.

Let's Go Shopping! NOT

In the past week. we have had a bunch of incidents where Blacks have been denied the ability to purchase high end goods. The first incident was when a 19 year old Black engineering student who went to purchase a $350.00 belt at Barneys of New York. A second incident at the same store involved a 21 year old Black nursing student who wanted to purchase a $2500.00 purse at the same location. Then a third incident involving an actor who went to Macey's in order to purchase a $1350.00 watch for his mother. The first incident involved the 19 year old getting detained at the police station for 45 minutes and then he was released after the police were able to verify his ID. Later he ended up returning the belt and getting his money back. The second incident involving her making the transaction without incident, but she was later attacked and pinned up against the turnstile in the subway station three blocks away by four plain clothed cops. The third incident caused the actor to be automatically cuffed even after he told them to check his ID. He had several pieces of identification on him, but the officers insisted that his ID was fake. He was held for 45 minutes and then released without charges.

To shake things up, Jay Z happens to have a clothing line with Barneys.  In fact, he issued a statement regarding the incidents at the location.

I honestly don't know how to feel about Hova's statement.  On one hand, his clothing line helps Black kids get the chance to go to college. On the other hand, he's partners with a place that doesn't like 'his kind' shopping there. Again, I can't tell rich people how to spend their money, but why couldn't he house his clothing line in it's own building? Why doesn't he have his own storefront? Why did he partner with these guys?


On a separate note, over the years, I have switched to online shopping because of my own instances like these. One in particular stands out the most. It took place back in 2000 at a small Sam Goody location in the local mall. As soon as I came in, the clerk made sure to ask if she could help me. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, so I said no and proceeded to visit the section I wanted to browse. At the time, I was looking to purchase Common's "One Day It'll All Make Sense" album, as I had been looking EVERYWHERE for that album and I was hoping to scoop it up. As I was browsing, two little girls (one blonde, and one brunette) around the age of 8 and 9 came into the location. The blonde girl had a big black duffel bag. The attendant kept her eyes on me and it started to make me nervous, so I milled around in the other sections just to see what she was going to do.  In the process, I managed to see the two little girls attempt to steal a CD. The shelf they were hiding behind was kind of short, and thin, meaning they weren't really hiding all that well. On top of that I was able to get close enough to see them handling a Limp Bizkit CD. I could tell which album it was and everything. I kept trying to get closer in hopes the clerk could see them trying to steal it. She didn't say anything to the girls. I watched them make a clumsy attempt to take off the plastic security barrier off the album with little success.  I went to the desk and told the clerk about what I was seeing. Do you know this dumb bitch proceeded to question me about it?!  I told her that some little girls are in the store trying to steal a Limp Bizkit CD while she was watching me.  She had the nerve to ask me where they were. All I could think of was, "This store is small and her ignorant ass can't see where they were?! They were still making an attempt (a very poor one at that) to hide behind the shelf with a big ass duffel bag. I pointed at them, and said they were "right there".  I told her that instead of watching the Black person, she needs to be paying attention to ALL of her customers. I left the store empty handed while the girls were still in the store.

Now before you guys start judging me and calling me a snitch, I'm going to have to stop you right there and tell you to GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH THAT BULLSHIT! Here's why:

I have told this story numerous times and I have said the following:

1. Why did I need to protect those girls? They don't give a damn about me, nor would they ever do so. Would you be willing to sacrifice yourself so some little girls could get away with stolen merchandise while unknowingly (or knowingly) using you as a decoy while there is no real gain for you?
2. What do I look like letting them take that CD and letting the clerk treat me any way she wants?   I could see it all unfold like this
   A. Lets say I stay in the store while the girls get away with the CD. They make their escape while I'm still in the store.  Chances are, they discard the plastic security thing around the CD they stole. The clerk confronts me about a missing CD, and produces the empty security mechanism. She calls her manager and the cops, and I try to tell them that I didn't steal the CD. They don't believe me, and I have to deal with getting searched, fingerprinted and booked for a damn CD that I didn't even steal.
  B. Lets say the kids get away with the CD, and I leave the store. The mall cops get called, and they follow me throughout the mall. More and more of them show up, and I get to enjoy being cornered by these guys plus a few actual cops and the clerk. EVERYBODY,their parents and babies get to see this mess unfold. Not only do I get embarrassed by everybody in the entire mall. The clerk gets to look all smug and righteous because "she caught one" and "knew it all along" as this ordeal unfolds.   She gets to crow about it, tell her friends, and maybe, just maybe get a promotion at the best case scenario. She gets to validate all of her racist bullshit that was probably passed down from several generations in her family, and stroke her ego, and everybody in the mall gets to do the same as well.  <<The fuck I look like!? Are they really serious!?

This kind of stuff has made me avoid stores all together for the most part. I have resorted to doing a lot of shopping online.  I don't even really like going to the grocery stores anymore in fear somebody will harass me. God forbid I actually want to purchase any food. I must not ever have any money because after all, all Blacks are lazy and don't have jobs. If I say I have a job, they have to ask where I work at and they expect me to tell them when I work, how much money I make and what's my job description, meanwhile they get offended if you ask them all of that information because according to 'them' if Blacks have money, they must be on welfare and are getting all kinds of benefits that Joe White Guy can't get because he was brave enough to work and pay taxes like a good American should.

I think it's long past the time for Blacks to stop patronizing these businesses that don't want us around. I think we should find all of the Black designers, and house any and all clothing brands started by Blacks and open up a bunch of Black owned locations. This way, if a Black person wants to buy a $350.00 belt or a $1300.00 watch or a $2500.00 purse, then it's Black money endorsing Black products and putting money in Black hands.

So far, I've found the following resources:

A Natural hair care product line for children with the option of setting up fundraisers
Facebook page with a lot of items of interest
Handmade hats for those with locs. They also have earrings
Lots of women's clothing. Some of the links are busted, but there are a lot of active ones to chose from.
Women's accessories