Fundraiser for Potato Salad Raised over Forty Thousand Dollars.

Hol up...what?
Yes. You read right. Apparently a guy wanted to make potato salad so he started a kickstarter program to raise funds. No big deal, right? Maybe he had a family recipe that he wanted to share with the world.  Maybe it was so good that all of his friends had been begging him to mass produce it. I was hoping that was the case, but once I found the original kickstarter, I was surprised to find out that his maximum goal was one hundred dollars.  He could have gone to friends, family members, gone through his couch cushions, looked around in his car, and rolled up some pennies,and (insert any type of bootstrap pulling behavior here) to get the money for it. But nope, he enlisted the whole internet to help him reach his goal. The goal was that if he made one hundred dollars, he would try to make 2 different versions of potato salad.  

This mofo right here was able to raise over forty thousand dollars. That's right!  Forty. Thousand. Dollars.  I'm trying to find out how the hell could someone raise that much for making potato salad that isn't going to be consumed by the masses. This is something for him and his friends.  And when the money started rolling in, he upped the ante. Here's his big stretch goal Word. For. Word.:  


A BIG STRETCH GOAL: 

We're really tearing through these stretch goals. I honestly don't know what is realistic anymore. So, I thought maybe we try to double the current number? 

$3000: My kitchen is too small! I will rent out a party hall and invite the whole internet to the potato salad party (only $10 and above will be allowed in the kitchen)! The internet loves potato salad! Let's show them that potato salad loves the internet!!

Now, in an age where Levar Burton raised millions on the very first day of his kickstarter in order to bring back Reading rainbow while Washingon Post tried to smear the effort by saying it was 'bullshit' because Reading Rainbow was a "failed endevor" is killing me. This fool gets funded for a chance to make potato salad and "invite the internet to the potato salad party" doesn't get called "bullshit"  by any media outlets? They need to GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH THAT MESS. For those who still don't see why, I'll break it down for you. Levar Burton was trying to bring back the joy of Reading Rainbow for the next generation of kids. I loved that show so much that when it was time for the kickstarter to happen, I jumped at the chance for supporting it by donating what I could. I still don't understand how somebody could crap on the idea and a successful attempt of making something positive for the kids.  Who does that and says it's okay to do so? Meanwhile, the potato salad fundraiser is called "bizarre" by the same establishment.  Something's strange here indeed.

Meanwhile, somebody decided to test the rest of the internet by starting her own kickstarter by asking for white privilege as a joke. She's getting money from it and her rewards are hilarious as well.  Needless to say, I'll be watching for the outcome of this. I'm not going to lie. I hope she gets that money because it'll open up a discussion that a whole lot of folks just don't want to talk about. Until then, I'll be waiting and watching.




Anyway, shoutout to the Miles Ahead campaign that Don Cheadle started.  He made his goal 8 hours before the deadline. I'll be honest. I was really nervous about this movie. I didn't think they'd make the goal in time. I'll be looking forward to seeing this film, purchasing it and receiving my reward for donating. 

Random Encounters While Black

Why come (and I have to say it like that), every so often, I encounter a White person who feels the need to speak to me in a really fake impression of what they think is African-American vernacular? They either do it among their friends whenever they see a Black person, or when they speak to me. Who told them that this was necessary? Where did they get the idea that this was okay? I've stopped them on several occasions and I asked them about it. They say something to the effect of, "I'm getting on your lev-el." as if I would have no way of understanding them if they didn't talk like that. On several instances, I had to straight up tell them that they look really dumb when they do that because they are implying that Black people can't possibly understand what they say unless they talk "like that". I told them that I find it patronizing, and if they want to say "Hi" to me or have a conversation, then they should just do it instead of hiding behind racist tropes and acting like something they saw on the television. Besides, talking to Black people like that is sooo dated and tired. Learn to communicate with people and do it without attempting to mock them.

Long story short, if anybody who isn't Black decides to read this, I have a public service announcement for you. If you feel the urge to "talk Black" around a bunch of Black people or one whom you think is "cool", please Get The Fuck Outta Here With That Mess. It is not "cool", "comforting" or acceptable to anybody. Also, if you are reading this while Black and you are involved in a situation like this, you especially need to Get The Fuck Outta Here With That Mess. don't let that mess slide. It will never be cute or endearing. 

That is all.

Happy Juneteenth

Here's something interesting for you: Last weekend, the Juneteenth Festival took place. The festival had no alcohol, they even had an anti smoking booth that gave out information on quitting smoking, a booth where one could register to vote alongside various other informative booths. There was gospel music that was being sung by a local church, and various food kiosks were selling plates of food. But the police were EVERYWHERE. They were on bikes, in cars, and walking around. Now, last time I checked, I don't think they need that many police for a small gathering of people listening to Gospel music and eating food. That being said, this is why Juneteenth kind of pisses me off. I love it because I get to see more Black people in my town. I hate it because of the police.

Across town, there was an art festival with alcohol, and a lot of the prices of the artwork were pretty expensive.   I think I saw ONE officer and he was near the beer vendor area.  I think there were more people at the Art Festival than there was at the Junteenth Festival. You'd think there would be more police at the art festival to prevent theft. Nope, they were mostly at the Juneteenth Festival.

This sort of thing reminds me of a conversation on Facebook about profiling.  I asked the following: Why is it that when a bunch of Black people get together to have fun, the police have to show up in droves? Maybe they were making sure nobody stole an $8.00 catfish dinner plate because, you know that food MUST be valuable or something. :p

This was a drug free, alcohol free zone with GOSPEL Music that took place at the local college.  What the hell did they think was going to go on? Were they expecting somebody to say Hallelujah too loud? Did they think we were going to celebrate it wrong?

See this is what gets on my nerves. People in this country like to act brand new when it comes to racial issues and pretend they don't exist. They say things like, "I don't see color," "We're all human," "My (insert relative/friend, or significant other here) is (insert any race other than the so-called majority here) so I/we can't be racist. Talking about it is divisive, and the only way to 'get over it' is to ignore it, just like Morgan Freeman said."

I say that hiding and pretending it doesn't exist is divisive. This country is abysmal when it comes to race relations because hiding from all of it is what started this mess in the first place. They were too busy inventing band-aids to tie people over or keep them from discussing them and dealing with them.  That right there is complete bald faced bullshit.  It's such an easy  cop out to say, "If you don't like it, then LEAVE!"  because I guarantee  if someone told them the same thing when they were discussing an issue that affected them in a negative way, they would be up in arms.  The difference between race and any other issue was that I was born Black and it's the first thing everyone will see no matter what I do, wear or how 'well' I speak. Contrary to popular belief,  I can't change my wardrobe to appear "less black".   If they truly had some love for this country, they would discuss these issues and stop hiding behind everything under the sun in order to justify their privilege to NOT understand what's going on. Maybe it's just me, but I see that as the ultimate form of treason right there.

Happy Juneteenth.

On Accountability and Parenting

I'm sure you guys have heard about that youtube video called "Blatent Racism in Cheektowaga NY", also known as Racism is Alive and Well.  Basically an angry mother cusses out a Black guy and calls him a "N*gger " for startling her kids while they were in a parking lot.  Here's the video for those who may not want to click on the link:

After seeing this video, people want to ask me the following,  "If starting his car frightened her kids then why didn't he simply apologize and put the issue to rest?"

To them, I say GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH THAT MESS!!!  Here's why:

She cussed him out. Why wasn't she watching her kids? Everybody knows that when you are in a parking lot with children, the children need to be near their parents. They need to be careful. Sure he started his car, but I hardly believe she needed to act the way she did. I bet all of that could have been avoided if she paid attention to what her kids were doing and where they were. Cars start and move in parking lots. If she was worried about the welfare of her children, she should teach them to be careful when walking in parking lots. It's a parking lot. There are cars. The atmosphere is very unpredictable. She shouldn't put the welfare of her children in someone else's hands. Those are HER kids. SHE is responsible for them. I get tired of people acting like the world is responsible for their offspring. This is a classic example of that kind of thinking.

See? This is why things are so messed up. People want to blame everything on everybody else and never ever take accountability for anything. It's to the point where people are blaming inanimate objects on a person's behavior.  It's straight up trash, careless and ugly, just like this person.

Come to find out, she's a stripper by the name of Janelle Ambrosia.  First off, why would you tell the world you are a stripper while around your children. I mean, work is work, but really though? She just opened up a can of worms for her children. The mothers of their friends are going to find out, and all of a sudden, they'll have NO playmates. The children are going to wonder why all of their friends are gone. And guess what? Mom will say something along the lines of " Well, you would have friends, but that N*GGER in the parking lot ruined all of that by his Youtube video".

As expected, the kids will grow to hate Black people because they 'took away our friends'. They wouldn't be able to understand that their mother was the one who killed all of their potential friendships by acting like a straight up idiot in public and on the internet. Everyone already knows what town she was in, all they have to do is connect the dots. Unfortunately, she was so high on herself that she forgot about what happens next.  She called her husband after the fiasco happened, and guess what? Maybe her husband could lose his job. I'm sure he'll not only be shamed for having a stripper as a wife while he is at work, but he could either get fired for her antics, meaning that she could jeopardize his place of employment since people have the ability of finding that out online, and blowing it waaaay up to the point where the company's brand could be at stake.  To make a long story short, this bitch is sacrificing her children and everybody around her so she could look 'good" in her eyes.

And we must not forget about that comment she made about stripping for cops.  Man oh man, did she throw her city under the bus. Now the cops are going to be looked at.  Will names of the cops pop up all of a sudden? Who knows, only time can tell. I'll keep this story on my radar in the mean time.

Oh, Hold up. I can't forget the fact she tried to redeem herself by saying that she had a Black cousin and that means she couldn't be racist.  She can GET THE FUCK ALL THE WAY OUTTA HERE WITH THAT RACIAL BODYGUARDING BULLSHIT.  Why do people feel the need to say things like that by putting another race in front of them in order to not appear racist? To be honest, anybody who believes this argument has to be incredibly ignorant. Just because you are or were tied to  a friend, cousin, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle, boyfriend, girlfriend, grandma, grandpa, etc who doesn't match your race doesn't automatically disqualify you as a racist. In fact, it seems that racists keep these "other" people around just in case they feel the need to downplay their racist diatribes or acts.  People are so preoccupied with trying to front about not being racist, that they are willing to stand their grown asses up and look incredibly stupid. I mean, they are sacrificing their intelligence just to appear not racist. All it does is make them look really racist, and not very smart. I mean, they are looking like some old people with the minds of very small children. And we all know the exact definition of that behavior equals.

Pick-Up Artist Site On Mass Shooting: ‘More People Will Die Unless You Give Men Sexual Options’ << The Side Eye is Strong With This One

Last weekend a guy by the name of Elliott Roger decided to take revenge on all of the "hot blonds" who never gave him any play. Because of them, he spent his college years as a lonely 22 year old virgin who never even kissed a girl. They were the cause of all of his suffering, as listed in his manifesto:

To make a long story short, he called all of the girls in the sorority "sluts" because they weren't interested in him even though he was interested. He said he'd pay retribution to them because they would go with the other men and never pay attention to him, considering how much of an "alpha male" and a "true gentleman" he was. He was going to enter the sorority and kill these girls. He killed a total of seven people before he took his own life.


This prompted a popular web site geared towards pick up artists  (or men who spend their time learning how to manipulate women in hopes to have sex) to say that more women will die unless they provide more men with sexual options.  I must tell them all and anyone who aspires to become such a person to GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE AND SIT YOUR ASSES AAAAAALLLLL THE WAY DOWN WITH THAT. I'll tell you why:
  

That dude is gross and so are those who think like him. So according to pick up artists, and folks of this ilk, women are meant to be possessed or owned by men. Seriously?! People like that are narcissistic and have a warped sense of entitlement. Nobody owes them sex. If he can't get it then, maybe it's HIS fault. Instead of killing a bunch of women or hurting them by using whatever means they see fit, maybe they should take a look at themselves and figure out what's wrong with them, and stop blaming other people for their low self-esteem. Katt Williams said it best, "It's called SELF esteem. It's esteem of your mother-fuckin' SELF". This guy had money, and decent looks, but he was a spoiled asshole who couldn't get what he wanted. He had everything given to him and thought he had the magic formula. When it didn't work out, he killed all of the women who were smart enough to not take his shit. That dude is sorry and extra lame for real and that is the real reason why he couldn't get any.


See, some of these guys want to act like pimps and try to spit game at women in hopes they could add another notch to their belt, and when the woman looks at them sideways, they want to get all mad and cuss her out for it. Maybe, just maybe women are people and shouldn't have to worry about having somebody telling them how they want to "do something (to put it lightly)" to them in so many words and at any given time or place. How would they feel if somebody said some of the mess they say to their mothers, aunts, little sisters, cousins, etc?  Something tells me either they wouldn't like it, or they'd turn their heads sideways like it never happened.  That needs to stop, and this behavior needs to be addressed head on. 


That being said, I strongly feel this is why rape gets overlooked. I'm not just speaking about women being raped either. I'm talking about men being raped as well. If a man or boy gets raped by a woman, he has to hide it and treat it as an early conquest. If he doesn't, he risks being ostracized by his friends, and any potential male role model he may come across. If a woman or girl gets raped it's her fault because she wore revealing clothes, or looked a little too hot in the summertime, or she was just there at the time, or she was walking by herself at night, or she was on a date with a guy and since he paid, she is supposed to return the favor by putting out, or she has to return the favor anyway just for going on the date with him in the first place, or because that's what male and female friends will eventually do, or he helped her fix her car, or he did "insert favor here" so she has to "repay him". If she doesn't, she's gay or there's something wrong with her, or she's a bitch, or selfish, or in Elliott Roger's case, she's a slut.


Now help me out y'all, because the last time I checked, a woman would be classified as a slut by a man if she was busy having sex with everybody. Now I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but something tells me  those girls couldn't have been sluts because they were selective enough to not have sex with him in the first place. I better stop here because I already touched on that in the fourth paragraph. 

But anyway, to counter the argument, people also want to say things like "Well, women act like that too." I want to ask them, "Where did this behavior come from? According to you, why do women feel the need to act like that? Who told them to act like that in the first place? Most likely, they would say something along the lines of, "Society taught men that they needed to be like that, and that's what caused women to act like that." or vice versa. Well, guess what? If society taught them that, then at which point did they know it was wrong? Why do they let it continue? Why did they decide they needed to go along to get along? What would have happened if they didn't go along to get along? Was it worth it to them? And, most importantly, "When does it stop?"

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.

Not So Random Thought : A Re Introduction To This Blog

I figured I'd re post the introduction to this blog and remind everyone why I started doing it in the first place. That being said,

This blog is chock full of grammatical errors, sentence structure problems, punctuation issues and many other writing faux pas I didn't mention. I've found that writing like this serves as therapy, and gives me a concrete place to put my thoughts. They appear to be all over the place, and my paragraphs are long because I have so much in my head that I have to get it all out in some way. I mentioned in the introduction that I would rant about these things often. As we all know, ranting about things doesn't necessarily get them resolved. Instead of ranting at everybody over and over, I figured I'd put them here. Doing that gives me a sense of resolution, and reminds me that I have put the idea down for the time being. Otherwise, it would re circulate through my mind.

Please forgive me if my writing style bothers you. I definitely understand why it would. That being said, I am still open to constructive feedback. Since I started writing these, I have changed the look, the font is bigger, and the paragraph spacing was a LOT less than it is right now. I'm still working on the paragraph lengths, and the grammar has improved since my previous post.

If anybody sees this. Thank you for reading. I greatly appreciate the fact that people are checking out these thoughts of mine. I just wonder if anyone else out there is thinking of the same stuff in the same way I'm thinking about it in my little corner of the universe.