Monday, November 19, 2007

One Hundred Jay-Z's.

TwitThis



I had such problems with Skip Gates piece in The Times about
Black people, poverty and achievement. My rationale is that if
you are talking about us as a people,
and you have limited or
non existent economic analysis
AND limited or non existent
analysis of White Soft Bigotry then you need to go back to the lab.

When I read sh*t like that, I ask myself, "Who are you writing this for?"

I read the following passage and thought, man if I didn't know any
better I would think Negros were shiftless, low down, good for
nothings who just couldn't get it right.


But see. I know better.

WE KNOW BETTER.

The historical basis for the gap between the black middle class and underclass shows that ending discrimination, by itself, would not eradicate black poverty and dysfunction. We also need intervention to promulgate a middle-class ethic of success among the poor, while expanding opportunities for economic betterment.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Because Negros in the country NEVER had they sh*t together.
Never prospered prior to integration.

I know that not ONE but TWO OF OUR BLACK WALL STREETS
HAVE been burned to the ground.

The problem with THIS article and for that matter, Cosby's pieces
is that there is NO CRITICISM OF POWER STRUCTURE that
we all exist within.

Saggy Pants are being outlawed and rendered illegal.
Popo is using Black men with brushes, q-tips, cell phones
for target practice.
AND, the sentencing commission has finally decided
that there was a problem with the sentencing discrepancy
between crack and coke,

Since 1988, possession of five grams of crack cocaine – an amount equal to five packets of sugar substitute – landed a person in jail for five years. But people caught with cocaine powder would have to possess 100 times that amount, or 500 grams, to get the same five-year stint behind bars.
My favorite part of the article is when he waxes poetic about Al Sharpton
handing out books in the hood. Books for, about and BY White Folks.
Imagine Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson distributing free copies of Virginia Hamilton’s collection of folktales “The People Could Fly” or Dr. Seuss, and demanding that black parents sign pledges to read to their children. What would it take to make inner-city schools havens of learning?
Here is what I think. How about using your post at Harvard to teach
low income parents how to be advocate for themselves and their families.
Instead of outsourcing that shit to Sharpton, and complaining in The Times.

These cats will have you believing that the same issues that affect low
income Whites DON'T affect low income Blacks. Trill talk. Until we
have that discussion, this bullsh*t is moot.


In addition, today The Times was unprintable rhymes with
speculating about Jay-Z's worth and the fact that he displays Euros in his
new videos.

I could practically hear Mike Nizza foaming at the mouth
saying,
"That Jay-Z is one smart negro, just the way he used
his drug money to build
an empire. Downright genius."

Man. Listen. If we were allowed to keep just ONE of our TWO Black Wall Streets instead of having them torched to a f*cking crisp Rosewood
style we would have, or at least it would be MORE likely that we would have,
4, Jay Z's
3, Oprah's
6, Magic's
2, Baby Bill Gates
5, Madam CJ's
3, Maya Angelou's
1, FEMALE Spike Lee

You get my drift?

And while we are on poverty and Black Achievement
peep this.

I was browsing Jawanza Junjufu's book Think about it.
If poverty were the reason for "low Black achievement"
then why do children in affluent suburbs do SO F*CKING
POORLY at school.

COULD it be because they are the Model Minority in
class and that shit HURTS?

Being in a school system where all your Black friends
are in the regular classes and you are one of two in the
ap/ib/ bullsh*t advanced track.

Kunjufu's rationale is that African centered educational
philosophy would rendered "reading is white" moot, because
students who know that the first Doctor was Egyptian would
naturally infer that BLACK has meant and
continues to mean being educated.

Could it be that they are not taught about their history, who they are in
respect to the majority.
And that is why I am a problem.

Versatile in Insider Trading 14-e-3 deliciousness AND ebonic's, when I
learned about Dubois's theory of double consciousness,
I knew that I had found the explanation for my affinity for
Norman Mailer & Ice Cube, Rita Dove & MC Lyte and Fridah & Marvin.


========
========

Is Dr. Kunjunfu onto something?

What would it take to create more Black Male Teachers?

What were Black people thinking when they decided that
to stop teaching
en mass AFTER integration?


Do you get irritated when you read mainstream sh*t about J
and they treat him like some capitalistic D-Boy Magic Negro
(yes
sj, I stole ya sh*t)

How do you deal with the double consciousness
?

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14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Imagine Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson distributing free copies of Virginia Hamilton’s collection of folktales “The People Could Fly” or Dr. Seuss, and demanding that black parents sign pledges to read to their children. What would it take to make inner-city schools havens of learning?
------------

Something about that just pissed me the fuck off.

I've felt for some time now that one of the biggest fuckovers in American history was when white people began convincing blacks that we were equals.

Really contemplate that shit.

Before integration, we regulated our own success. We established our own businesses, schools, dentistries, churches, restaurants, barbershops, salons, law firms; all without the help of "the man".
As soon as the white man began allowing the black man to eat at his table and eat his food, that somehow became good enough for us.
We no longer strived to be better than, only just as good.
And that's where we fucked up.
We abandoned our own businesses because we adopted the idea that "if white folk is usin' that, then hog dammit, it must be quality". We began to evaluate our success according to the success of the white men around us.

And another thing, can you explain to me why in a school where 70% of the students are minority and 50% of the students are black, European World Affairs/History is taught for two years, while African-American History is taught only a Semester?

Anonymous said...

I've felt for some time now that one of the biggest fuckovers in American history was when white people began convincing blacks that we were equals.
------------------

Swear. The myth of 'equality' hides so much. The thing is the veneer of egalitarianism is just that, a thin coating that comes off under your fingernails when you scratch at the walls.

Same goes for women. You're equal, but only -you- have to worry about what time it is when you're walking home from the spot after-hours.

The truth is that believing we're all equal shifts the burden from white capitalist patriarchy to the individual.

I'm really not feeling Henry Louis Gates, Jr. when he's pining for the 'numbers' of the Moynihan's day and age. He dances around the term 'female-headed households' by saying '45 percent of black households with children are headed by women', but the effect is the same. Pushing the nuclear family as the ideal centers his argument around 'middle-class' (read: white) values.

At the same time, he's spot on about owning property. It doesn't do anybody any fucking help to be an apologist in seeing how the wealth gap is -extremely- important to understanding power relations in capitalist America. Land is collateral, leverage that can be applied for individual's advantages, and until an equitable number of African-Americans are getting that reverse-mortgage cake, James Baldwin will still be laughing/sneering at us.

Buy some land, buy some land
Fuck spinning rims

A.u.n.t. Jackie said...

My family landed in Oklahoma after the Trail of Tears, and my Great Great Grandfather was apart of Black Wall Street. Not only was he a home owner but owned rental property, my Great Grandmother was college educated and got a baby Grand Piano for her 16th birthday..


But what folks don't know is that after they burnt Black Wall Street Oklahoma was a noted hub for crack distribution and there has been evidence of Federal involvement in deliberate placement of drugs into a community with far reaching arms.

that's what pisses me off about Bill Cosby's drunken rants, not for one minute can we ever forget that we have been prisoners of war!

M.Dot. said...

Something about that just pissed me the fuck off.
========

MEEEEEEEEEEEEE TOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I almost wanted to CALL skip gates and be like DUDE are you FA REALS?

M.Dot. said...

Pushing the nuclear family as the ideal centers his argument around 'middle-class' (read: white) values.
=========


I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE IT.

I ACTUALLY SAID THAT OUTLOUD WHILE READING THIS.

M.Dot. said...

My family landed in Oklahoma after the Trail of Tears, and my Great Great Grandfather was apart of Black Wall Street.
======

Dude.

Your family tree is bananas!

BeautyinBaltimore said...

You need better pay to lure in more black male teachers.

What up mdot.

What you are witnessing now is the begining of a seperation of African-Americans into two groups.

African-Americans and the black untouchables.

I think Cosby has many points. Just because you are poor,you should not lose your dignity. You must admit Mdot, we got issues.

Black women today are dealing with n doing things our grandmothers would of never gone for or done.

BeautyinBaltimore said...

Pushing the nuclear family as the ideal centers his argument around 'middle-class' (read: white) values.
=========

Actually a family which includes two parents(at least) can also be pulled straight from Africa. Can you name a society in tradtional Africa in which it was normal/accepted for women to have children out of wedlock?

BeautyinBaltimore said...

"We abandoned our own businesses because we adopted the idea that "if white folk is usin' that, then hog dammit, it must be quality". We began to evaluate our success according to the success of the white men around us."

N that is real talk.

I think we need to follow the modow(sp) of other minorities in this country(especially Asians).

Deal with mainstream, but have our own shit too READ: CHINA TOWN, anywhere in the world

Anonymous said...

1. the crack cocaine disparity laws came into effect after the death of Len Bias. It was spearheaded by democrat Tip O'neill with the backing of the majority of the black congressional caucus including Ron Dellums as one of 300 co-sponsers.

2. That ebonics book, which i read a while back was mostly lame. The original Oakland "ebonics" proposal was written by a nutcase based on the embarrassingly ignorant premise like black english is something black people are genetically predisposed too. While Black English (or AAVE) is 100% legitimate ENGLISH dialect, Perry is an enabler for a bunch of educational nonsense.

M.Dot. said...

African-Americans and the black untouchables.
=======

Holy f*cking canoly.

A.u.n.t. Jackie said...

Ebonics was actually based on the premise that the oral language of black people was based on the west african dialectic interpretation of English...and if you have any friends from Kenya or up and around there I can say in all honesty they invented that shit...

for real though.

M.Dot. said...

1. the crack cocaine disparity laws came into effect after the death of Len Bias.
=======

And your point being?

So, the CGC cosigned n*ggas w/ getting screwed with Vanilla Vaseline and that sh*t suppose to be cool?

2. That ebonics book, which i read a while back was mostly lame.
===========

The original Oakland "ebonics" proposal was written by a nutcase based on the embarrassingly ignorant premise like black english is something black people are genetically predisposed too.
===========
Many Black and White Public School Administrator's would rather Smoke Crack than admit that Black students come to preschool speaking a language DIFFERENT than standard english.

However it is only WHEN they do that will they know how to teach OUR children how to read.


http://www.google.com/search?q=gullah&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

To talk about the way a 4 year old speaks is to talk about HIS/HER MOMMA.

Black children understand that.

We came her speaking a language different from english.

We came here SPEAKING HELLA LANGUAGES.

SO it stands to reason that the descendants of Enslaved Africans would speak a different version of their native & acquired tongues.

Sh*t. Its a wonder that there arn't for our 5 Ebonic Dialects.

While Black English (or AAVE) is 100% legitimate ENGLISH dialect, Perry is an enabler for a bunch of educational nonsense.
=====
Why IS she an enabler of non sense?
Her premise is the same as yours.

James Manning said...

I would like to challenge to notion that black children are speaking a different language. We are not speaking a different language, we are speaking the language differently. I taught my daughter to read and it didn't require learning Ebonics. I see no educational value in teaching Ebonics.

As for black people and the black community, I think it is time that we take action. I know the Greeks ripped off the Egyptians and Africa made great contributions to the advancement of civilization. And that we should acknowledge. But we also have to understand that some issues in our community will require more than raising black fist and paying remember the black Wall Streets.

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