Safe Havens of DialogueThe last few weeks this has been a topic between my circle of friends. A good number of them run study groups, book clubs, investment groups, and building sessions of all sorts. For those that know me, they know I love a good build on every level. As a teacher and student (Sou mestre que aprende, sou disciplo que de liciao), I enjoy engaging folks in any intellectual discourse. Steel sharpens steel right? A healthy debate is good for the mind and helps mature our temperments.
Oftentimes, we find that several of our acquaintances enter these ciphers to discuss personal matters. Some even border needing a mental health physician. Unfortunately, many of us are ill equipped to provide counsel or even provide advice. For some of us who organize these groups or who come expecting the group to stay on topic, it is extremely frustrating. Let's be honest if I come to discuss a book or the history of black intellectualism, I really don't want to hear about someone's girlfriend cutting up one's clothes. I didn't sign up for that. However, it's something that we must sit down and look at.
I take for granted the idea that if I have a personal issue, I have a long string of family members and friends who I can talk to. If I got a problem, I can always speak to my wife. If she is not available, I have siblings. If I can't reach them, I have my mother. If I don't have them at the moment, I have several elders I can talk to. I have several friends I can talk to if I don't want to involve my family. Cell phones are a wonderful thing. Because I take them for granted, I forget that a good number of people don't feel safe enough to talk to their mates, family members, or have friends they trust enough to confide in. It sounds sad but it's true.
It's one of the reasons why you might go somewhere and a total stranger might spill their guts to you. It happens all the time. I used to wonder why would a total stranger confide in me especially about stories that are so personal? Yet these strangers might not have anyone to turn to.
When it comes to children, I always explain how we should always provide safe havens of dialogue for them (that is a post for another day). Children that don't have these safe havens grow into adults who have no one to turn to.
It's important that as organizers, we try to help folks as much as possible. At times, this can be overwhelming but we should use our social circles to help as well. Let's be honest, as soon you put something together whether it's a study group, a martial arts class, or even a party, people look at you as a leader. Helping people out is part of that responsibility. Maybe all you have to do is speak to that person after the function or provide them with a few phone numbers.
I refrain from asking people to recommend church groups. The thing about churches is that they still work on old modes of communication. Usually one person is dictating to the group. The response is usually done as a group and church groups tend to apply old world agrarian ideas to issues that affect us today. Let's be real, a good number of people who have issues are already in church groups so it is obvious that those institutions don't help on an individual level.
People might say that most issues are universal and are those that people have had over the ages. While this is true, I want to point out a few things. First, we live in a society where people change careers several times over. Back in the day, most people followed the occupations of their parents. If you're father was a farmer, chances are you would become a farmer. Today, people change careers like shoes. We also live in a society where people tend to migrate several miles away from family and social networks they might have grown up in. Where as, fifty years ago this was not true. I recall living near family for most of my childhood. I remember having friends who lived within walking distance of their grandparents and other extended family members. Nowadays people move around often to different cities and states.
Finally, we have more choices. Some of us have more options for dating, making friends, attending places of worships, where we shop, etc. Folks nowadays have more choices to make than their parents did. We also have more opportunities to be more content or more depressed with those choices. As intellectuals, organizers, and leaders we have to take those factors into consideration.
Most of all, we have to be open to help out. Oftentimes, we step into the spotlight and people gravitate towards us. Let's be honest, we all look at organizers as people who got it together. We look at them as people who know their way around and expect them to have all the answers. While this is not true, it is something that can't be helped. Yet we should also realize that we do know a bit more and that we should be able to help in some way.
Labels: depression, groups, organizers, safe havens of dialogue
The Good Book:The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the BibleBy David PlotzBook Review by
Dan Tres OMiAfter reading
The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs, someone recommended The Good Book by David Plotz. As usual, it took me a second to actually sit down and read it. At first, I didn't see the point. If you wanted to read the Bible, just read it. Unfortunately most of us, including those Bible thumping evangelical fundies, never read the Bible in it's entirety. Ironically when we do read those bits and pieces of the Bible, we tend to read it with rose colored lenses or through the eyes of someone else (most likely a preacher).
When one does read the entire book from cover to cover, without those rose colored lenses, one ends the book feeling like he or she has been duped. After reading it for the first time, I was literally shaken. I learned that much of what I was told about what is in the Bible is hogwash. After reading it a second time, I realized that Christianity/Judaism was not something I wanted to be a part of.
I will admit that if one reads The Good Book by Plotz, one is reading the Old Testament (like Jacobs, he only messes with the OT) through the eyes of an agnostic who happens be to Jewish by culture. Thus Plotz digs into the OT with no holds barred.
At times, I found myself laughing out loud around strangers. Plotz is humorous, but the stories he outlines make for better comedy sketches. Other times, I am outraged at the idea that some people take the Bible as something that actually happened. At times, I can't believe I actually thought that this stuff was true.
Despite the ill stories of genocide, sexism, ethnocentrism, and treachery on the part of Yahweh and his chosen people, Plotz does find bits and pieces of hope and triumph. I guess if one has close to 40 books in one volume (depending on which "translation" you read), there is bound to be some happy endings right?
Is the book a must read? I don't think so. Again, if you want to read the Bible just do it without the middle man/woman. One can find enough humor and heartache on your own. Not to mention the fact that you can get a copy of the Bible for free almost anywhere. However, if you want to see what someone else read then you might want to pick up this tome.
Labels: A.J. Jacobs, agnostic, David Plotz, the Bible, The Good Book
Medicine for MelancholyDirected by
Barry JenkinsReview by Dan Tres OMi
As usual, the Omi's are always late when it comes to watching a movie. With babysitters, work, and volunteer time, we just can't catch a break. Which is why we are careful when it comes to a movie selection. Thankfully, we found a gem in
Medicine for Melancholy, a nice indie joint filmed in San Francisco directed by Barry Jenkins and starring
The Colbert Reports Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins.
The story is simple. Two twenty somethings meet at a party and have a one night stand. The catch is that they don't even know one another's name and Micah (Cenac) finds 'Jo (Heggins) very interesting. It gets complicated at Micah learns that 'Jo lives with her boyfriend while 'Jo learns that Micah just came out of a bad relationship. Over a weekend, they get to know one another.
I enjoy the fact that the movie takes place in a city that is quickly gentrifying. Jenkins, a Bay Area native himself, carefully weaves this issue into the storyline. Eventually, the issue of race and gentrification seeps into the dialogue between the protagonist. Jenkins' style is worth the price of admission.
Micah sees life through a black nationalist lens while 'Jo does not. This adds to the conflict between the two as their feelings for one on another grow stronger while both are inwardly debating the choice of their actions.
The cinematography is dope. The score is definitely google material. Jenkins puts it all together even though the movies starts off very slow. The viewer is pretty much dropped into the situation from the first frame. After the first 15 minutes however, the plot thickens and the viewer is allowed to pick up. This would turn off many viewers but I urge the reader to be patient. Jenkins compensates for this lag and cleans it up towards the end.
I enjoyed this movie tremendously. It is one of those movies that one will have to watch more than once to pick up all of the themes. I hope to see more movies from Jenkins. I also hope that I see more and more indie movies that show more facets to black life than what Hollywood dishes out.
Labels: Barry Jenkins, gentrification, Medicine for Melancholy, San Francisco, Tracey Heggins, Wyatt Cenac
Who we should really be thanking...It seems as if every year I write about Thankstaking. Yes, I said it. Usually I rail against the fallacies of a corporate sponsored, hollowed out celebration. It bothers me that we continue to believe in racist, eurocentric fables of pilgrims singing Kumbaya with indigenous people. It is also a shame that due to our toils in a profit driven post industrial economy in which people treat people like widgets that can be discarded like so, that the holidays are the only time we can spend real quality time with our families. Those are the reoccuring themes in my Thankstaking post.
This time I would like to discuss something different.
Again, I have to say something about how we are only "thankful" maybe once or twice a year. I take issue with the fact that someone else dictates to us when and where to be thankful. Even if we choose to accept this order with good intentions, our thanks are usually very misguided.
While listening to an old Farrakhan tape while in the Navy (oh yeah, the irony in all of that is not missed), I remember him saying "...How can you love god whom you never seen, but hate your brother who you see every day." I know it's a Bible quote in which for the life of me, I can't remember where to find, but bear with me.
My point is this: we are quick to thank a mystery god day in and day out but forget to thank those who stood by us and supported us even when the chips were down. Now if you worship a deity, that's cool. My beef is not with that. It just bothers me that we tend to forget who to thank when it comes down to it.
What about all of those teachers who were persistent? What about those tutors and yes, even those sunday school teachers who went above and beyond? What about those supervisors who stuck their neck out for us when their jobs were on the line? What about those who offered to watch our bad children at no charge? What about those people who volunteer to work at those soup kitchens every day? What about those people who take strangers in and treat them like family? What about the people in our lives who made the difference when we needed them?
I am sure that many of us can fill books with the names of people who we know that helped people out and asked for nothing in return. It was those random acts of kindness that helped us get to where we need to be today. Unfortunately, some of those people are not with us today and many of us never had the opportunity to thank them.
So I urge people that every opportunity they get, they should praise those who have helped us in so many ways when you see them. Trust, even a thank you note goes a long way...
Labels: thankfulness, Thankstaking
Victim BlamingWhile studying Sexism, Feminism, and Privilege, I learned about victim blaming. Yes, it means exactly what those two words are defined as. I realized that like everyone else, I do a large amount of victim blaming not just on other people but as myself as well.
It is an unfortunate state of affairs when you sit down and think about it. When someone is hurt in anyway, we immediately see what that victim may have done to have that crime or transgression made against this person. It is so bad that when something happens to us, we quickly blame ourselves.
Example:A few years back while living in Norfolk, Virginia, our apartment got broken in to. Our stereo and TV were taken. My immediate response after sending two armed brothers to look for the culprits?: "Man, I shouldn't have left that bag window open." I quickly blamed myself. I never even remembered that the back windows were not visible from the street and there was a huge building behind our apartment. However despite those two items, I still blamed myself. It took me several years to look back and see who flawed that approach is. I remember coming up in NYC and gotten a bike stolen from me by two armed assailants. Guess who I blamed? Me. Victims of crimes do it all the time.
Like most people, criminals are creatures of opportunity. Instead of blaming myself, I should have said "gee, those guys had guns and saw my bike, there was absolutely nothing I could have done."
Unfortunately in doing so, we neglect the structural issues that need to be dealt with: Unemployment, a terrible education system, poor policing AND police brutality, easy access to illegal weapons, etc. Those are the things we should be blaming and trying to fix.
What makes it worse is that we extend victim blaming to other people. A young lady gets raped. We immediately check her sex history and what kind of clothes she wears. A young lady is beaten by her husband we quickly say she should leave him and refuse to place any blame on the abuser. That is a tragedy.
In the workplace when someone is mistreated or discriminated against, they are made to feel like the criminal even by those who have suffered similarly to them.This happens to women of color most of the time.
When discussing a particular subject or incident, we must think critically. We must get all the facts together. We must approach it from a wholistic standpoint and understand the dynamics at work here. Again, this means we have to be taught or teach ourselves how to think critically (notice a pattern here?). We have to study, interact, and know who the experts are and do the knowledge, plain and simple.
Victim blaming only shuns the victim, releases the accused and the guilty of all responsibility, and convinces others that silence and full compliance is the only safe wayto do things.
Labels: crime, male privilege, sexism, unemployment, victim blaming
Language: Our Tool boxdef. the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community...
One thing I enjoy about the Obama Administration is that like the proverbial cockroaches that plagued us in the inner city, the ignoramuses and magical pundits on both sides of the political spectrum keep coming out. I don't mean folks like Glenn Beck. It seems that everywhere I go, there is always someone or a handful of folks who are just flapping their gums.
I know that we enjoy joking about this. It's funny but the sad part is that even the intellectuals don't get it. All of these conspiracy theories, mystery gods, and end of the world scenarios only demonstrate one thing: the sad state of affairs that our education system is in. Let's not even discuss critical thinking skills. I often hear people throw terms around like "reverse discrimination," "socialism," and "unions" without having a clue to what those things mean. Again, the history we are taught in schools is very white washed and often to a terrible injustice to certain topics.
Yet this post is for folks who want to challenge those who claim that racial injustice is a myth and that unions are bad. This post is for folks who want to challenge sexism. It doesn't bother me that the opposition is ignorant. What bothers me is that the opposition can drop a few words and shut everyone up.
If you disagree with the two wars, you are called unpatriotic. If you want universal health care, you are a communist. This name calling usually cancels out any argument one might have. I remember reading Antwone Fisher's "Finding Fish." In "Finding Fish," Fisher discusses how language is a tool box. Sometimes one has to find new tools and discard the old ones to convey one's thoughts. The language we use can help articulate what we want to say.
Yes, this means we have to use more dictionaries and thesauruses. This means we have read more. This means we have to read more journals and high brow magazines. Some might look at this as snobbish and elitist, but let's be real, our society while more literate than most nations seems to become more anti-intellectual than other industrialized nations.
It's funny because when I enter a debate, I too throw around words. Most of the time, my opponents listen (that's the whole point right? to get the other side to listen to you, remember that). If I hear someone say "reverse discrimination" I say "racial fantasy." A white dude can claim all day that he lost his job to a minority, but studies across the board show that white men on all economic levels have higher rates of employment then black men.
Terms like "white privilege" or "male privilege" get people to listen as well. When we define homophobia as fear of being outed, it gets people to listen.Yes we have to do the math. We have to study, digest, re-evaluate what we think, and then build on it. If we don't we will lose the battle on all fronts.
Labels: antwone fisher, language
Happy Anniversary to the Mighty, Mighty Universal Zulu Nation
Thirty Five Years, party people! Count them, treinty cinco (of course, I am missing the celebration in NYC yet again, but that is another post for another day, so bear with me, otra vez).
I have to give a shout out to my amazulu sistren and brethren from around the world (even though when it comes to our sisters, we have very, very few members -- I blame this on our leadership and our members but alas we must focus on the positive right?).
Like my born day, the date of November 12th always sneaks up on me. It's dope though. It gives me a moment to reflect on how the nation has grown and how much it has done for us. I can go on and on about how the nation has helped me however, this time I want to talk about what we have given to the nation.
Thirty five years in the grand scheme of things is not a long time. Yet there are a few things we should have done to raise our nation our a few levels. We, the members of this nation, have to accept full responsibility.
People inside and outside of our nation are quick to use up the privileges of membership but never want to put in the work. We enjoy coming into the spots for free and getting the VIP treatment but when it comes to contributing or organizing, no one shows up. There is a name for folks like that: free loaders. Every organization on the planet encounters this problem.
Let's take it a step further.
We don't own anything! At this point in our growth and development, we are wonderful teachers. We know our history. We do the knowledge. We add on. We pass it on. That's all well and good. Yet we don't do anything to produce anything. We don't own property. We don't even own intellectual property. No one from our nation has written an extensive history of our organization.
We have no cohesive infrastructure.
This is not to say that many have not tried. Quite a few have and have failed for reasons beyond his or her control. Even I have to accept blame for that.
One of the reasons why young people won't join is because of all I the jive we kick. Yes, it is jive if we don't apply that information. We should be producing and hosting our own hip hop honors. As many universities out there who have courses on our culture, we should be giving scholarships for our children to go to school. Where are our professors who teach at Ivy League universities. Were are the intellectuals in our nation. They should be on CNN. Where is our official merchandise by the Universal Zulu Nation?
I can go on and on, but i am sure you catch my drift. I do this out of love. I love the Universal Zulu Nation. My oldest son will soon be a member. I am sure my other children will join when they are old enough. Who knows he might be the one that will bring those things to fruition.
We have come a long, long way but have so much to go.
Labels: hip hop culture, Universal Zulu Nation
