Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from January, 2015

Internalized Racism & White Supremacy

Within sociology there isn’t a unique term for when white people enact white supremacy; we might just call it “white racism”. However we use the term Internalized Racism to denote the ways people of color adopt white supremacy. The idea here is that when people of color internalize white supremacy this often whittles at their self-esteem and may lead them to dislike the aspects of themselves that they feel are part of their non-white raci al-ethnic identity. Many people of color can easily think of times in their life where they felt shame or felt shamed by others for the non-white aspects of their identity. For instance an African American student recently said to me, “I hate my name [because it sounds Afrocentric], people hear it and immediately assume I’m loud or… you know, ’stereotypically black’.” People of color are also just as capable of using white supremacy to stereotype or discriminate against other people of color and themselves. Nathan Palmer

Angelo Soliman

(1721 - 1796)  Angelo Soliman  is historically recognized as the "First Moorish Freemason." Born in the Congo (Cameroon), at  age seven he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. In Europe, he was the slave (child toy) of a prominent Sicilian lady. Later, at age 16,  he was sold to a royal  family in Vienna, Austria. There, he so impressed his masters with his remarkable intelligence, they chose to educate him. I n his mid twenties , Soliman distinguished himself as a studious and honorable subject with his masters, and actually won his freedom through his high moral character and education. As a free citizen of Vienna, the world's citadel of culture and enlightenment at the time, Soliman, now a member of the royal Hapsburg household, continued to pursue a personal course of erudite and moral excellence. He spoke six languages fluently and could write three of them fluently as well. He was also a master swordsman, war hero,  chess specialist,...

Brief history of Jamaica

Brief history of Jamaica before, doing and after the Europeans invaded, occupied, colonized and enslaved the Island by the way of Christopher Columbus. You might call this the testing ground for the enslavement of Africans in what we now call the USA. Pre-Colombian Jamaica Prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1494, Jamaica was inhabited by Arawaks, living in simple communities based on fishing, hunting, and small scale cultivation of cassava. The impact of the contact with the Spanish was traumatic, and these communities disappeared in 70-80 years. Plunder, disruption of economic activities, new diseases, and migration decimated the indigenous population. Only a few artifacts-facts, examples of which are on display at the small museum at White Marl, and a few Spanish corruptions of place names (such as Ocho Rios) remain from this period. Otherwise, there is no Arawak influence on the subsequent development of life on the island. The Spanish Occupation, 1494-1655 Disappointed...

Mark Curry: Dancing with the Devil, How Puff Burned the Bad Boys of Hip- Hop

As an artist signed to Bad Boy records, Mark Curry rapped on songs with the Notorious B.I.G., appeared in big-budget music videos and rubbed shoulders with hip-hop's elite. His ultimate goal: a chance to write and debut his own album. But when a combination of bad business agreements with label owner Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and personal choices got in the way of that, he turned to a different type of writing. The result was  Dancing with the Devil, How Puff Burned the Bad Boys of Hip- Hop. In the explosive cautionary tell-all, Curry, 39, delves into the hip-hop beef that ultimately resulted in the deaths of rappers Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. and exposes Combs — one of the most powerful people in hip-hop — as an economic opportunist with little interest in helping his artist get ahead. When you first signed to Bad Boy, where did you see your music career going? All the way to the top as an entertainer and rapper. I saw me being able to feed my f...

Michelle Alexander on Neo Slavery (The Prison Industrial Complex)

Dr. Molefi Kete Asante

"In one instance the spread of Africans and Europeans to continents other than Europe and Africa helped to produce a world order that has reigned supreme in technology, science, economics, law, and sociology for five hundred years. It was, however, a racist construction created out of stolen land, broken treaties, stolen labor and broken backs. Any interpretation of the post modern views of the present world has to take into consideration that the entire discourse on the fluidity of cultures, the notion of subjective identities, the instability of social and cultural space, and the interaction and interpenetration of peoples is a direct result of the most massive forced movement of people the world has ever known (Cohen, l982). It becomes impossible to speak of the Americas or Caribbean without Africans or indeed Europe without Africa. One cannot speak intelligently about Portugal and its history without Brazil or without Angola and Mozambique; this is an incredibly interco...

John S. Rock

John S. Rock was born to free black parents in Salem, New Jersey in 1825. He attended public schools in New Jersey until he was 19 and then worked as a teacher between 1844 and 1848.  During this period Rock began his medical studies with two white doctors. Although he was initially denied entry, Rock was finally accepted into the American Medical College in Philadelphia.  He graduated in 1852 with a medical degree. While in medical school Rock practiced dentistry and taught classes at a night school for African Americans.  In 1851 he received a silver medal for the creation of an improved variety of artificial teeth and another for a prize essay on temperance.    At the age of 27, Rock, a teacher, doctor and dentist, moved to Boston in 1852 to open a medical and dental office. He was commissioned by the Vigilance Committee, an organization of abolitionists, to treat fugitive slaves’ medical needs. During this period Dr. Rock increasingly identified with t...

Pío de Jesus Pico

During the period that Los Angeles was part of Mexico (1821-1840), blacks were fairly integrated into society at all levels. Mexico abolished slavery much earlier than the US, in 1820. In 1831, Emanuel Victoria served as California's first black governor. Alta, California's last governor, Pío de Jesus Pico, was also of mixed black ancestry. The US won the Mexican-American War and in 1850 California was admitted to the United States. Although one of America's so-called "free states," discriminatory legislation was quickly enacted to restrict and remove the civil rights of blacks, Chinese, and Native Americans. For example, blacks (and other minorities) couldn't testify in court against white people. Pío de Jesus Pico is one of California’s most remarkable historical figures. He witnessed, shaped and influenced nearly a century of California history in the 1800’s. Pío Pico was the governor of California in 1832 and again in 1846 before and during the ...

Blacks Can Not Be Racist

Blacks Can Not Be Racist Black People are not, in the Institutional Power Positions to Negatively Impact Whites, Asians or any other Ethnic Group, in Quality of Life matters. Whites systematically via government and private sector institutions Deny Black People as a Group, access to: 1) Equal Protection under the Law. Whites systematically deny Black People's 2) Right to Life A) a Black Man is Killed by Police every 28 hours B) Economic Terrorism systematically locks the Majority of Black People to Suffer in Sub-Standard Housing with little or no access to: a) upwardly mobile gainful employment. In these Detention Centers called Ghettos the White Power Structure systematically a) Gouges Black People's criminally low wages/resources by granting "free reign" to a Merciless Merchant Class (Arabs, Koreans, etc.) who routinely exploit Black People, by charging exorbitantly high prices for Sub-Standard goods and...

Pressure Points

Pressure points are vital points or weak points of the body where a blood vessel or a nerve is very close to the skin. Pressure on these points can cause pain, injury or even death if an atemi (blow) is applied. Only some martial arts as Hapkido, Aikido, Jujutsu, Karate, Kyusho Jutsu, and certain styles of Kung Fu include pressure points in their teachings. There are about 300 pressure points on the human body, but very few are used in martial arts. http:// www.martialartsdo.org/ articles/humanbody/ pressurepoints.php

The Black community

One of the Black community's biggest problems is that it has been inbred into us during slavery that upward mobility means distancing ourselves from everything Black. Other cultures don't suffer from that disability. Black people are the products of the very same racist environment as White people, so some of us are just as racist toward other Black people as any racist Hillbilly. So we've got to educate ourselves out of that mind-set just to get up to speed to where other cultures walk through the door. So yes, other cultures have issues that they need to overcome too, but Black people have a whole lot more issues to deal with than others. That makes it imperative that Black people begin a crash course in education NOW, because the way things are going, there's not much time left. .  I live in California, and as I'm sure you know, California is an entrance point for illegal immigrants from South of the border. So one would think that these people who come he...

What It Really Means!

The "Wizard of Oz", written by L. Frank Baum, is not a mere child's story. What is "Oz" a symbol for?   Ounces. What is measured in ounces?  Gold. What is the yellow brick road?  Bricks or ingot bars of gold. The character known as the Straw Man represents that fictitious, ALL CAPS, legal fiction  - a PERSON, the Federal U.S. Government created with the same spelling as your birth name. Remember what the Straw Man wanted from the Wizard of Oz?  A Brain! No juristic person - legal fiction - paper corporation has a brain because he/she has no breath of life. What did he get in place of a brain?  A certificate: a Birth Certificate for a new legal creation . He was proud of his new legal status, plus all the other legalisms he was granted. Now he becomes the epitome of the brainless sack of straw who was given a certificate in place of a grain of common sense. Now, what about the Tin Man?   Does Taxpayer Identif...

THE APOLOGY

They beat me and I called you to save me ... but you couldn't.. so I secretly resented you. They took our babies and sold them, I begged you to save us.. but you couldn't .. so I secretly blamed you.. They raped me, and I cried out for you to protect me... but you couldn't.....So I stopped trusting you...  You were supposed to be my man.. my provider.. my protector but when I needed you.. you couldn't be there... so I hated you... How could I let you tell me what to do. When massa could protect me more than you.. How could I submit to you when you are forced to submit to massa? So to protect myself I submitted to the one who could protect me and our children. I stopped trusting you.. I stopped loving you.. I stopped honoring you.. I stopped valuing you and in turn I became valueless to you. I didn't see the frustration in your eyes when our children were sold.. I didn't hear your silent cries when I was beaten. I didn't see your anger when I was ...

The Zebra Reminds Me Of Black People

Reading Off Whiteness IV wrote: The zebra reminds me of black people. The zebra thinks just because the lion has let the zebra drink side by side with it at the pond that not all lions think zebras are prey. Although that thinking by the zebra benefits the lions, it is certainly detrimental to the zebra. For if lions could get a few zebra to think in the same confused manner as the one drinking beside it, the lions hunting would be made easy. The lion will allow the zebra  to leave unharmed because there may be other zebra witnessing from a distance what has taken place believing they too can do the same. The moral of the story is the nature of the lion has not changed, the lion has simply refined its hunting tactics to make the zebra think that it has. Just because you are now able to drink water, eat, work, and play next to white people does not mean that their nature has changed, white people simply refined the system to make you think they have. ‪#‎ Racism_is_WAR‬ !...

David Banner's Message to America on Sway in the Morning

David Banner gives a very powerful interview on this edition of Sway In The Morning. Listen intently. For I promise you that you will gain something positive from it.

Food For Thought

As the sun rises. So should your thoughts & dreams. Your never to old to pursue your dreams. The world belongs to those who dream. While living out their dreams. Some have dreams Many are living out someone else's dreams. Instead of their own. While others have fears. In which become their living nightmares. Which one are you living. Ra-member you have the power to create your own reality. Based on what you choose to receive. Ra-member The Energy Flows Were The Mind Goes. Whose Dreams Are You Living Food For Thought