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.
So far, there have been five churches in the Ferguson area that have been burned*, and they've declared that arson is the culprit. That's a good thing, right? But most of the media has been silent on the matter. This doesn't exactly surprise me due to how the media has been as of lately, however I have a few questions:
Why don't these churches have security cameras? Churches are sprinkled throughout Black communities all across the country, but the ones that got burned don't seem to have any video footage of the folks who burned them. One would think that they would want their patrons and their buildings to be safe. However, I get the fact that churches are supposed to be open, sacred and safe on their own because of "Jesus" and whatnot, but these church burnings are proof that Jesus isn't really looking out for them like that. Now I can understand why the church buildings in the 50s and 60s not having any because they didn't actually have the technology for video cameras and such, but now?
I know I sound like an asshole right now, but I'm serious. All that money devoted to Jesus and they don't have the ability to provide security for their buildings?! This raises a question I've been asking since 1992, when I was first invited (read as 'forced') to go to church as a kid: Where is all of the money going? When I was going to church, I noticed some of these pastors and their wives show up to service decked out in stuff I know my family couldn't afford.And some of these church members have to choose between Jesus, food, and medicine after all the bills are "caught up". What kind of bullshit is that?! They mean to tell me that the church can't help those members? After all of the money they gave, they can't extend a hand back to the people they serve? No matter how you slice it, these are some serious and grave failings. The church is supposed to serve the people. They're supposed to be able to help members who fall on hard times. They're supposed to care for the elderly, the sick, and alleviate impoverished conditions of the neighborhood in which they serve. But no. Like many Christian organizations in the United States, they want to retrieve revenue, and lead people into giving it to them. That being said, I don't exactly know the status of these particular churches, all I know is that none of them have presented any video evidence of the churches in the process of being burned.
I know what you're thinking... How can they show video if the building had been burned down? Well, there are many security options that would allow a person to view their property while away from the building. It could be viewed by using software on a computer, and they could be viewed using a cell phone. In fact many have services where you could log into a website designated for your security system and you could view the information any time, day or night. I wonder if anybody had anything like that set up, I mean after all that happened in the 50s and 60s, you'd think that would have been the route they would have taken in order to protect those particular Houses of God. Now I understand what good comes out of the churches, and all churches aren't corrupt. And I know the majority of church members aren't using them for personal luxuries. BUT I'm just saying the churches should have some sort of video surveillance in order to make sure the churches continue to be safe havens for the people at the very least.As for me, I'll be waiting to see if there is any actual video footage. If not, then I can't really feel bad for the churches because they've bilked so many dollars from poor Black people only to finance themselves that I just don't have the energy to give a damn about the churches like that. If anything, this should cause a lot of Black people to drop out of Christianity all together because Jesus really isn't on their side if he doesn't want them to be safe, in good health, and spirit while worshiping him. I'm just saying...
*Update. The number of church burnings has increased to seven since this blog entry was written.
I keep seeing articles about how (insert Black person was treated/discriminated against/killed by cops/media slanting, etc) and I don't feel anything anymore. If anything, all of these situations tell me the following: where not to buy from where not to live how we really need our own media outlets how we need to change our standards regarding what makes a quality product/where my money should go how we need our own schools so we could change our own learning requirements how we need to stop looking for jobs through White controlled companies so on and so forth. I have learned the following. These "rage porn" articles only keep us angry and frazzled because as long as a people are angered and frazzled, we can only be reactionary. If we stay in reactionary mode, nothing could get done in an organized fashion. Real change can't happen. All we'll keep doing is the same thing that has proven ineffective. We need to look at this in a logical manner and apply our tactics as such. Don't get me wrong. We have every right to be angry, but what good is straight and constant anger going to do for us? It only baits us into behaving accordingly. I could see why people choose to look away from all of this. It is exhausting, infuriating, depressing and dehumanizing all around. However, I don't want people to keep their head out of it. I mean that it inspires me to find solutions in order to counter all of the bad, such as learning to keep your money and spend it where it counts,watching what you've learned and knowing how to constructively teach those lessons. Changing standards regarding what we've been taught and how to re-direct what mainstream has suggested. I seriously believe we've got this, and this is just the beginning. The future is blindingly bright for us, and they know it, which is why they spend so much time worrying about us. We are doing beautiful things. All of us.
I know what you're thinking. Here come this Negro ready to hate on all this Unity without having a plan their damn self. I understand that sentiment.
However, I am not that Negro. I like the idea of Black people coming together no matter which way. That's a good thing. BUT in the past, I've noticed these mass methods of coming together (as in being present and accounted for via marches,commissions, and groups,etc) can result in infiltration. And nothing's easier to infiltrate more than marches. Just look at the Civil Rights Movements, Occupy, Black Lives Matter, Ferguson and the current police brutality themed marches out there at this current moment. But the key difference lies in our current access to technology. It's easier to start a movement, gain momentum, and make things better. But it's also easier for people to infiltrate with the click of a button. As someone who has been active during all of this police brutality mess, I have seen what it looks like. I know how people move try to gain influence. I've mentioned several of the different ways throughout this blog. BUT there is one specific thing that I haven't really touched on. Apparently, people are texting "unity" to 99000 in order to follow the #JusticeOrElse movement. Let me repeat that."People are texting "unity" to 99000 in order to follow the #JusticeOrElse movement." Now to the average person, it looks like an attempt at solidarity and networking. But to the infiltrator, it's a paper trail. It could be used to tap into people's phone calls and keep track of them and what they are doing. Take a look at what happened with Ferguson. People were signing up to receive the Darren Wilson verdict before the rest of the people were to receive it. They were joining commissions and were putting their faces out there. Look at how many people have been arrested since then. They've started watching Black people more than before, to the point where a woman claiming she was a Black Lives Matter activist was arrested for threatening to kill White people on youtube. Please note where the author credits a website called No Thiefs Allowed for turning her in to the FBI at the end of the article.
I'm telling you... They aren't playing around. They are watching us. When I say "they" I'm not just including the random person. They have contacts with the FBI (as seen with Eye Empress's situation) as well as local politicians. Not only that, it is possible they've contacted Eric Holder, which could explain why the DOJ report only focused on traffic tickets and not the rampant corruption in the region.
You're probably thinking that this is nothing new. They've been watching us forever. Yes they have, and there isn't much we could do to stop them. BUT we can't keep marching like this.
We gave their airline and travel companies our money to finance the travel to Washington DC
We booked reservations in their hotels.
We spent good money in their establishments in order to "demand" justice or else we'll stop spending our money with them.
|Let me say that again. We spent good money in their establishments in order to demand justice or else we'll stop spending our money with them.
This took place after we gave it to them -_-
We've been "demanding" justice since the Civil Rights movement.
We flocked to Washington DC to hear Louis Farrakhan speak to us again. This could have been done without financing flight and bus rides. This should have been done using our own media outlets. I believe we should continue creating and building among each other as we have been doing. These mass conference calls through their companies which are designed to handle said calls (who knows if people could have these lines tapped) , and these get togethers are tired. And expensive, and costly to the psyche as well as our well being. It's as if we are marching right back into the system at every turn. And the interesting thing is that even though Louis Farrakhan is correct on a lot of things, he also subscribes to respectability politics and supremacy. Supremacy and respectability politics are killing us.
As for me. I've been building. I've also marched and I've come to a conclusion on the purpose of marching and why. Please don't get me wrong. Marching and gathering in large public groups raises awareness to a certain point. That's it. After awareness is raised, something else should be brought to the table. Something different. Marching is looking like the elixir that soothes the elderly and "God fearing" right now. It gets the elderly and those subscribing to supremacy to sit down somewhere by giving them jobs or something to do within a framework that was never designed for us in the first place (which is exactly what the Civil Rights movement did for some people). And adding your personal information to these things is not okay. That means we should always see subscriptions from outside sources and anything required to put our personal information into something as a red flag. This is not limited to reserving a flight, bus ticket , hotel accommodation and/or car rental to a high profile event that's being watched and viewed as terrorist activity with such intensity like this.
That being said, I am not trying to shame people for marching. I'm just trying to say that marching alone doesn't cut it. At least some of us should be doing other things like creating our own (insert empowering,uplifting thing here) and the intent should benefit US and only us because if we don't do that, then we will never have any power. We'll just be begging those who have no real interest in us for it. And marching alone actually takes us away from doing what we need to do by occupying precious time (and money) that could be used to further our causes when the funds could have been re-located to the outlets we've already started and are working to maintain. That's it.
TL;DR Watch what you say on the internet. Watch what you do, and watch what they do. Keep grinding and do what you do with finesse. Make it foolproof and airtight. They are waiting with baited breath for you to slip up. They are itching to lock you up for anything and everything. And they are not above infiltrating your attempts to better yourself and your people. They killed Sandra Bland for being "uppity" and the whole 'thief' narrative is used to justify our deaths by the hands of the various branches of highly influential people they keep in touch with. They will not rest until everybody involved in wanting accountability for the corruption in St. Louis (as well as the rest of the country) is locked up and or killed for attempting to 'destroy our American way of life' (as noted in the mission statement of no thiefs dot com) ).
You have every right to be angry. But anger alone keeps us running and vulnerable. We have to learn and stay focused. Why do you think they spend so much time, effort and money into keeping us in the place they designated for us? They do it because they fear of losing their "American way of life." And what is their American way of life might I ask? Supremacy. Supremacy is their way of life and it is threatened. If they could lock us all up, they will definitely try.
Stay safe. And please. Find a counsellor and or someone to speak to that has your best interests in mind. Don't listen to anybody who tries to trip you up in some foolishness. Eye Empress and Palmetto Star didn't get that, and it caused them to get caught up. Don't let anger manipulate you anymore. Swallow your pride and talk to someone so you can get that anger out of the way so you can make (or continue to make) something beautiful.
*updated and edited: the picture of the document was taken by Heather to prove lies about not showing up to court.
