Waiting 2 Speak

"The Time Has Come," the Walrus said

2009-06-03T17:59:00.004-04:00

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

~"The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found there (1872)

I love this poem. When I graduated from Young Chicago Authors, a senior in high school and the only young Chicago author then who identified herself as a science-fiction and fantasy writer, the Executive Director Bob Boone gave me a box set of Lewis Carroll's famous work. Two volumes of Alice skipping across Wonderland. I still have them of course. I used this poem often with my better half in college...but those are other stories...stories that wait for boiling seas and flying pigs.

Another poem, passed along to me by Nunez Mom years and years ago, is probably more relevant:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

The time has come and gone gente. K.Iris has already departed to parts beyond the nether. It is time for Kismet to move on as well.

No worries. If there is anything I've learned to do here it is to stop WAITING to speak up and speak out. As a result, my digital footprint is now gigantor. To pare it down:

You can find my most random thoughts here.
Find me trying to stay alive here.
Tweet me @kismetfour.

And because I truly believe in the the power of radical woman of color publishing, alternative media, transformative writing and witnessing--

--Waiting 2 Speak will remain live...an archive of my growth as an intellectual, an artist, a scholar, a student, a community member, and a woman of color.

I hope that any faults and flaws will be forgiven. They are my own. And I hope for myself that I have learned from them and will take what I've learned into future.

Browse, comment, share, etc. I'll still be following along and I look forward to continuing to engage in conversation with you in other times, spaces and places.

Biz familia,

Kismet

Is Poetry Audiovisual?

2009-05-11T09:00:00.003-04:00

I completely missed National Poetry Month (April) but in cleaning out my aggregator I came across this lovely lady Bassey Ikpi (H/T WriteBlack):

Which reminded me of this, passed along to me by Littlest Sis a few weeks ago. Embedding is disabled but her name is Zora Howard, she is performing at the Urban Word NYC Teen Poetry Slam and you can also find here here in this short film by Lisa Russell.

To me these are two interesting and different examples of how poetry can speak. Bassey's poem is powerful spoken. But I would have also liked the time and private space to read it on the page, digest it with my eyes, ruminate and return to this line, or sit back and reflect on how that word fits into the entire stanza and the page. Whereas Zora's poem could possibly be read. But then you lose the power of this little dynamo, the energy of her breath, the movement of her body and the physicality of her "bi-racial hair." Just as reading Bassey on the page you could remove her--slight, black, roundly and delightfully pregnant and singular on the stage--from sight.

If read, the audience/reader stops being confronted with Bassey's body and the immediacy of the poem, the black baby boy soon to be born, recedes. Or at least, our assumption of immediacy--because, of course, that poem could be old, that boy could already be born, he could already be grown, that could actually be a daughter, or it could even be a baby suit which would make it a complete farce and the visual becomes just another prop, a part of the performance of the poem.

If spoken, we lose the opportunity to consider Zora's historical anecdotes. She deserves footnotes.

I love both versions--page and stage.

Still, what do we (the audience) gain and lose in each version? Are there poems that work well in both forms regardless? Are there forms that work better for women (of color) than for men? And how should we (the artist) navigate the intricacies of whichever form we choose?

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T09:46:00.006-04:00

Because I was born of a matriarchy.....

...because I have bi-racial hair and while Nunez Mom is a non-violent mujer, Nunez Matriarch definitely gave me a swat or two with her chinelas get me to sit for its combing....

...because they are the reason for my being....

Happy Mother's Day...to Nunez Mom...and to Cuqui, Ma-ma...to Premonition who is a momi-to-be (in a matter of days)...and to all the other querida blogging and real world mommies, too many to mention.

(Picture Credit: "Hija de Yemaya y Ochun" by Yasmin Hernandez, a super bad, political, activist, rooted in raices y la tierra Boricua artista. Read about her here and support her site here.)

ETA: Took out the italics on my Puerto Rican. So I guess I'll owe a post about why soon. (Evolving Boricua Latina Caribeana mindset is the short answer...)

Video: Mara Triangle Maasai Villages Association

2009-05-09T09:00:00.002-04:00

Mara Triangle Maasai Villages Association from Joseph Kimojino on Vimeo.

For more information and how to help.

H/T Global Voices Online

Link Love Live: Week of May 6th

2009-05-08T12:45:00.006-04:00

I'll start slow and I'll try something new. It's called Link Love Live. Below are some of my favorite links for the week of May 6, 2009 (sorry for the hump day start). All you have to do is keep checking in all week for updates....

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

First Lady Michelle Obama speech at the Time 100 Most Influential People Awards. Grab it here. (JJP)

So there is a link between sexual assault and colonization? Finally acknowledged. (BFP)

Binyavanga Wainaina teaches us How to write about Africa.

"Until," Julie Wallace's Queer Renaissance film-making debut, breaks ground in Atlanta this summer. Read the review by Alexis Pauline Gumbs of BrokenBeautiful Press here.

The best of Vlogging While Black. Pick someone new to subscribe to today. (I'm following TonyaTKO now)

Friday, May 8th, 2009

THIS, a protest by students at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, uses space, art, the internet and general youthful insurgency to make a point about the marginalization of people of color at UM's campus. Check out their blog as they work to create safe spaces. Check out BFP's rethinking and support of the protest here.

New Black Man (Mark Anthony Neal) breaks down the power and problem of today's HBCUs as only a man truly in love with them and the black community can.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

My favorite vlogger, Jay-Smooth of The Illdoctrine, comments on Asher Roth's adorably racist tweet--yes, I call it racism, and yes a post is coming on what the heck we mean when we call someone, anyone racist and why not using that word may be less helpful than using it--about "nappy headed hoes." Kismet is not the biggest fan of his latest album Asleep in the Bread Isle (ETA: Name change - Because I clearly had the less than legal copy) and not just because of his pseudo-date-rape anthem "I Love College." After all, if I can sway with Weezy every once in awhile I can handle Roth's self-deprecating whiteness. I just honestly wasn't that impressed with the wordflow. Or the beats. Or the concept. Or...yeah, you get the picture.

Anyway:

(ETA: Apparently others have strong opinions on Asher Roth but I think Ian Cohen over at Pitchfork really pust his finger on why I was so underwhelmed--and implies hwy there is so much damn hype over him. Huge H/T to Feministe)

In honor of Mother's Day, Lori Gottlieb considers the less warm-and-fuzzy side of writers writing about their mothers.

What is Social Justice to a Slave?

2009-05-08T10:04:00.003-04:00

"For those living with some comfort in the First World, the future no longer exists as a common reference point. Yet for human beings, being sane depends on the acknowledgment of a continuity between the long since dead and those waiting to be born. The richer societies are being increasingly deprived of a temporal dimension essential to any spiritual life." --John Berger, “Foreword: To Try and Understand,” in The Algebra of Infinite Justice, by Arundhati Roy (London: Flamingo, 2002), xvii

In the U.S., we've fallen into the dangerous habit of speaking of slavery and segregation as though the words represent some Time Long Past. Slavery as that Troubling Matter of whips and cotton and bent backs and Roots which is thankfully behind us now. Segregation as those hoses, dogs and embarrassing Southern ignorance we finally got rid of (as though Jim Crow was purely a Mississippi Delta phenomenon and racism existed solely below the Mason-Dixon line).

We hardly speak of chattel slavery as the foundation of our economic system, social inequalities, and political radicalism. Of slaves as the first freedom fighters, activists, and community organizers. Of Freedom Riders as part of the legacy of that activism. Of Rosa and Coretta, Etta and Fannie. And these are the well-known names.

We've moved on to More Important Things. Our histories have become stories have become myths mumbled out of obligation to our predecessors instead of out of a recognition that the ghost of the plantation (and the workshop, and the mill, and the kitchen) sits right over our shoulder. We invoke Ann Nixon Cooper as a symbol of a life lived and then ignore those who question the very role and relevance of what that life might mean. We seat a Sojourner in our Capital and celebrate our journey from slaves to citizens, but ask the welfare queen to put her tiara back on because this stimulus is only for "those who did everything right" and you ran your credit card balance just a little too high.

As the recession deepens, words and statues should accompany public policies that consider a legacy of unequal distribution of resources and acknowledge a history of violence and of resilience. But few economists extend their analysis of the current crisis further back than the last decade. Which means the importance of houses--of land itself--to a long since distressed African-American community is dismissed in the scramble for better credit plans and harder stress tests. Which means that black farmers--yes there are still black farmers--continue to clamor for change they can believe in.

Our forgetting extends with each monument and each moment because we desperately want to believe a page has turned and the past is finally presenting us with a clean slate.

But even our blank sheets of paper are bloodstained.

In the meantime, the past roars in the silence.

....

The UN Special Focus Report on the demolition of Palestian neighborhoods in East Jersualem begins simply:

"In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and unilaterally
annexed to its territory 70.5 km2 of the occupied area, which
were subsequently integrated within the Jersualem municipality. This annexation contravenes international law..."

Appropriation of land for "green areas," exorbitant legal fees and fines on Palestinan men and women attempting to block the demolition of their homes or plan construction of new ones, and re-re-zonings of pre-1967 neighborhoods all amount to a systematic effort to displace Palestinan landowners.

The report reads like a lesson in 1930s urban redlining. (Or perhaps "predatory lending in reverse").

...

"In 1979, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the CIA and Pakistan's ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) launched the largest covert operation in the history of the CIA. Their purpose was to harness the energy of Afghan resistance to the Soviets and expand it into a holy war, an Islamic jihad, which would turn Muslim countries within the Soviet Union against the communist regime and eventually destabilise it."

The birth of the Taliban as we know it today.

...

On June 12, 1967, Chief Justice Warren delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia:

"This case presents a constitutional question never addressed by this Court: whether a statutory scheme adopted by the State of Virginia to prevent marriages between persons solely on the basis of racial classifications violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. For reasons which seem to us to reflect the central meaning of those constitutional commands, we conclude that these statutes cannot stand consistently with the Fourteenth Amendment."

Overturning the original trial judge's contention that:

"Almight God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with this arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

An uncomfortably familiar argument. And yes...he said malay.

...

This should not even be up for debate (you're a Jack Bauer kind of girl?)

....

It is our responsibility to remember, to research, to honor and re-honor our own dead. But the forgetting? That part isn't entirely our fault. Revisionist history is as American as fried chicken and apple pie. Black people in the U.S. manifest the best and worst of what this country has to offer. Its determined hope, drive and ambition for the future. Its self-centered and viral xenophobia. Its radical love and sense of global citizenship. And its selective amnesia to any and all facts that might restate, reshape, reimagine the case--whatever the case of the moment might be.

This existence, with all of its contradictions, has galvanized us but also threaten to tear us apart by blinding us to the truth.

And what is the truth?

What is social justice to a slave?

To struggle on a daily basis--

to love who we wanted when we wanted, to claim family despite the caprice of market prices, to love the land and hate the lash, to love our children and hate their father, to worship fire-breathing gods and goddesses whose power screamed through our skin that we were the chosen ones

--to live "while we are alive" not after we are dead.

It is our responsibility to remember our dead and to shape a politics that honors the struggles
of our ancestors. Only we can teach our children how to move forward because only we best recognize the potholes our labor pains left behind.

We can't learn from our experience if we are consistently forgetting it.

We can move forward human, sane and full-bodied if instead of relying on ideology or the caprice of this theoryexpertcounselorpoliticianacademic who happens to be center stage right now (yes, even Barack; yes, even little ole me) we rely on the whole of our experience in the modern world. All fraught and fragile 400+ years and of it. And conduct ourselves accordingly.

Because I Dream in Technicolor

2008-12-18T19:36:00.002-05:00

Link Love for 12.1.08

2008-12-01T13:54:00.004-05:00

NPR's News and Views blog reports that researchers discovered a lost slave ship. The Spanish ship, Trouvadore, is "the only known wreck of a ship engaged in the illegal slave trade." And several residents of the Turks and Caicos islands, where the wreck occured, are descendants of the 192 slaves who survived. Read more about this fascinating story here and here. When I think of this story I think of "No One Knows the Mysteries at the Bottom of the Ocean," by Katherine McKittrick and Clyde Woods, which is also the introduction to Black Geographies and the Politics of Place, their edited volume. What do we learn when we do know? Or what do we think we know when know? What can a submerged, centuries old slave ship tell us about slavery in the Atlantic world? And what can't it tell us about the experience of Africans caught in its knot?

The Undercover Black Man introduces us to Navajo woman Radmilla Cody. The daughter of a Navajo woman and an African American man, she was slso Miss Navajo 1997. Also an activist against domestic violence. Go be a fan here.

While looking back through some fun videos (I still get a kick out of Mos Def's "If I Were President") I came across Majora Carter. I am probably late in the game, but Majora is a Macarthur "genius" and is doing green activism in the South Bronx, where my people come from. I collect inspiration and I am adding her to the collection. Listen to her IIWP:

Yonmei at Feminist SF-The Blog! has insightful things to say about why she writes science-fiction and fantasy and why the genre is especially conducive to subverting and resisting gender roles but at the same time finds itself caught in the bind of privilege, power and oppression. At least that is what I take away from it. And I love it. Take what you will from it here.

Ever wonder about that oh so famous Obama logo? An interview with the designers is here.

Blackwell Compass is having an online, social sciences and humanities conference. This is the first of the virtual conference experiments that I think I will attend. It helps that it is free. Check out the call for papers here.

Happy Birthday to Identity Crisis!!!

Have you played in The Common Room yet? If you thought I was uncensored before, check me around these ladies. It is potty mouth central. (Now don't go telling on me!)

That is all for now.

If you can, say your prayers to your deity(s) for those killed in Mumbai--and the terrorists involved who are lost themselves--for those living with or living with someone living with AIDS, and for all those who did not have somewhere to go, food to eat, or someone to share their Thanksgiving holiday with.

InaDWriMo: Success!

2008-12-01T13:12:00.004-05:00

Success!

InaDWriMo is over and I can officially say I hit my goal of 20,000 words and then some. I didn't even bother to count because with several fellowship and grant applications in, at about 8000 words each, there was no point. I smashed InaDWriMo!!!!

::bowing to roaring aplauso::

Of course, I'm not really a success because of the special month. It is a recession, I need funding, and the applications just needed to get done. InaDWriMo did get me started though. And setting a monthly goal was a good way to get research done, get reading, and get writing at the same time. Public accountability is the spice of life.

So I'm going to try to keep it going. I'm going to call it Kismet's Push It, because "Push It" is the word I think in my head whenever I want to stop reading what I'm reading and watch Tivo'd re-runs of True Blood instead.

Push it.

Push it I will.

My Push it goal for the month of December--20,000 words again. Several new applications are due the coming months. And same deal as before: follow the progress (or lack of) at Nunez Daughter.

As an aside, I'm going for three blog posts a week here at W2S. I think I leave you guys alone too long. Gotta feed the people.

Feel free to knock on my door and remind me that I owe you goodness: kismetfour[nospam]@gmail.com.

And CONGRATULATIONS to K.Iris for finishing the first draft of her novel! She did her own NanoWriMo and didn't even try :) Yay!!!!!!!!!!!

Dec. 1: World Aids Day 2008

2008-12-01T09:51:00.003-05:00

I'll be in the Common Room with the Bad Black Girls commenting, and maybe blogging, about the issue.
Click the image above to pop through. Share stories. Vent. Cry. Laugh. We do it all.

See you there.

Late (for me) but Hilarious

2008-11-30T08:20:00.000-05:00

Happy

2008-11-27T23:41:00.003-05:00

\
Hobbled over quickly to thank you for your support! Enjoy your meal!

More Prop 8 Bullet Points

2008-11-20T11:40:00.004-05:00

I am engaging in the discussion on Prop 8 featured here, here, and here because I don't want to copy and paste comments and I don't know of any other way to get everyone's attention.

::waving frantically from the blogaround crowd to be heard::

And just like identitycrisis and T, right now I can only think about this issue in bullet points:

1.

I wrote that this happens through challenging and conversation, but really how do people come to change their minds about these things? When did /what would it take for you to change your mind about a certain group or type of people?

I have no idea. In planning a black women in the civil rights movement workshop and I was sent back to square one when my ED (Executive Director) reminded me that no one likes to admit when they are oppressed and the young women may not take well to being told so. How do you change someone's mind? When did my mind change? When I was pushed to the wall. But I was lucky--young girls getting pushed to the wall are losing their lives. Sorry....that is for another post....

2.

Did anyone notice that the President-Elect does not support same-sex marriage? (I know it's too soon to start criticizing, so I'll tread lightly.) I watched his speech at the DNC at an ...and marriage for all event. When he mentioned something about all couples being able to see their loved ones in the hospital, the crowd erupted in cheers. I was thinking "did they hear him say he supported same-sex marriage, because I didn't." The VP-Elect explicitly stated in the VP debate that the ticket did not support same-sex marriage. So I'm wondering how they got a pass but the average black and Latino voter was supposed to take a stand for human rights. Reporters were acting suprised that people could vote for Obama and Prop 8. Really?

Not my most proud Obama moment. I saw that too. And I was honestly shocked with Biden stated so explicitely that they did not favor gay marriage. I want to think there are political reasons for this but I think I am giving the Os too much credit. Their support for civil unions in lieu of gay marriage may have a religious edge to it. And this leads me to the meat of my issue with Prop 8, the organizing around it (both for and against), and the Blame the Coloreds rhetoric that followed.....

3.

I saw a sign that says "Marriage is a human right not a heterosexual privilege." Is that true? Is this a legal matter? Is this a religious matter? Is this a moral matter? As a person who has a different moral and/or religious belief than another person what is my legal obligation to that person as a citizen of the United States and a human being? What is my legal obligation to vote for or against something that is in contra to my religious and/or moral obligations?

Dude.

First of, Jasmyne Cannick said it better than I could (sorry for the link, I couldn't find the original LA Times link):

The way I see it, the white gay community is banging its head against the glass ceiling of a room called equality, believing that a breakthrough on marriage will bestow on it parity with heterosexuals. But the right to marry does nothing to address the problems faced by both black gays and black straights. Does someone who is homeless or suffering from HIV but has no healthcare, or newly out of prison and unemployed, really benefit from the right to marry someone of the same sex?

With all of the issues that black and Latina/o communities are dealing with (our women getting killed on the daily, mothers and fathers deported and separated from their children in ICE raids on the daily, our sons funnelled into the prison industrial complex-gang complex-drug complex on the daily, gentrification, public schools getting shat on by indifferent politicians) when and why did marriage become the issue we should fight for?

::pause for disclaimer::

I am absolutely ambivalent about marriage. And as a gender conforming woman who is sexually attracted primarily to men, I have sexual privilege. For this, and a variety of other reasons, I absolutely support gay marriage.

But I have yet to meet anyone--gay, straight or otherwise--who can convince me WHY it is a civil right. And I am perfectly willing to be convinced. On the surface, Loving v. Virginia (1967) doesn't appear to be a civil rights case. Only when you place the matter of black-white marriage in the context of black men being lynched for the illusory crime of white female rape while white men remained unpunished for the same, in the context of black men and women fighting against a system of segregation whose purpose was not to separate the races but to ensure that EVERY SINGLE CONTACT between the races placed people of color in a subordinate position to whites, only when you flip it and consider how race following the mother means that the entire system of racial prejudice (for all brown, red, yellow people) was based on related system of gender oppression--well, now you can begin to see how black-white marriage would not just be a nice thing to have but an actual dig at the system.

Show me that. And I don't mean show me that because I can't find it for myself. Sure I can. But show me that because you need my help. Because you don't assume that because I'm young, black, Puerto Rican and female that I somehow feel your oppression and will respond. Because you--white gay mainstream community--understand that, even though I may have a homophobia ism, your WHITE PRIVILEGE is an ism as well. Show me how you are fighting it. Show me that you understand that there is no justifiable reason for me--mainstream black and Latina/o community--to trust YOU--mainstream white gay community--anymore than there is a reason for me--Kismet--to trust you--white women. Show me because we could use your help making changes in our communities of color--which, by the way, include many, many, many gay and lesbian people of color--and because you want us to build together.

Show me because you understand that we could go back and forth with Oppression Olympics all day but that only helps...well it doesn't help us. Show me because you know how to organize.

At T's spot, Paris commented:

I think one of the issues that I'm concerned with regarding Prop. 8 is why we didn't hear anything about it before Election Day. If the homosexual community wanted to ensure that Prop. 8 did not pass, then why wasn't there more educating their local residents about this law, and rallying and marching before hand. I'm wondering if they were too 'lax and thought there was no way "the state that allows gay marriage will now vote against it."

And identitycrisis mentioned this as well:

How do we teach our children not to even start drawing those lines of division? I read somewhere that people in the No on 8 campaign were told not to go to polling places in churches and schools. How then does the message get to those places that are so critical in shaping people's minds and hearts?

I don't OWE you my vote. I give you my vote (at least in theory, as I am not a California resident) because I understand that all oppression is connected and that my own freedom relies on your being free too. And I understand that making marriage a heterosexual-only institution only feeds into homophobic tendencies already latent in our culture. And if you think I owe you my vote you are playing not into any offended civil rights solidarity you think you and I may have--you are playing into your own white privilege which is what pisses me off most. You must press everyone, all races, all classes, all religions to believe the same way. You must engage with them. Recognizing oppression and privilege isn't automatic, and it is a daily--hourly!--battle to not fall back int the boxes and roles society has set out for us. You want to get stuff done--then get in my face and get stuff done. THAT'S how emancipation occured, that's how Jim Crow fell, hell, that is how Obama got elected.

Now, I can say of sort of understand the sentiment. It sucks to think that just because I'm one religions or one sexual preference or one [insert descriptive adjective here] that I'm oppressing everyone who isn't like me

This is a recent revelation for me--Judeo-Christian religions and their practice are a privilege. I never would have thought of it that way before. I am still unpacking how to speak on that much less how to think. But you tell someone you don't believe in God and 4 times out of 5 you will get into a big debate because the other person does. You tell someone that you practice Wicca and 3 times out of 5 you lose a friend. You try to engage someone on Regla Ocha, Candomble, Santeria or any other variation of the Afro-Atlantic Yoruba religion, and you may be called a member of a cult, told you worship Satan, or simply not taken seriously.

I've been in settings where people bowed their head to say grace--without asking anyone around the table if they were comfortable with that. I've been pressured to say prayers over food when no one knew whether I was Catholic, Muslim or a santera. I've been invited to more churches than I can count and in difficult situations have had a Christian God THRUST in my direction as justification for this difficult time, or that difficult time. I've been asked for prayers--but you don't know who I am praying to. I've seen my Muslim friends have to justify in various conversations why they supposedly don't believe in God. I am currently in an online book group and when the discussion turned to religion it was immediately couched in terms of God, the Old Testament, the New Testament, Job, etc. On an African diaspora piece of literature, among similarly diasporic women, not one considered--yet--couching the religious analysis in terms of Ibo, Islam, Ocha, or even to throw in some of Zora's voodoo and hoodoo.

The point is not whether or not I am Catholic, Protestant, or pagan. I simply point the assumption behind what people in this Judeo-Christian country do without thinking. It is absolutely engrained in us. Just like heterosexuality is. Just like gender conformity--act like a lady! bossy black b*tch!--is. Just like whiteness = political, economic, and social power is. And it can feel just as oppressive as the others if you are even remotely not of the same faith, even if you are questioning, or skeptical. How could you not believe in God/Jesus? The question is posed to us in a million ways every day, even if it is not being asked in those terms.

So--again--I am leery when we say that Judeo-Christian marriage is a civil right. Because now, not only are we back to why I should care about that over attrition rates in schools, but why is it a civil right to play right back into a system of religious privilege? Why isn't it a civil right to have a civil union with a partner and NOT be married? And...unfortunately...if we make it an issue in the context of Judeo-Christian marriage, then don't we have to recognize that churches do actually have the right to say what they want about marriage? Don't we then have towork on organizing not at the state level but at the parish level (which should have been going on all along, but I already spoke on that)?

I have no intelligent conclusion for all of these thoughts. So I will leave it at that.

Ayo - "Life is Real"

2008-11-15T00:03:00.000-05:00

Beautiful.

Survival, Violence and Fear

2008-11-10T05:44:00.001-05:00

Early in the course I presented “A Litany for Survival” to the students and slowly but surely they began writing their own poems, testifying to and hoping for their own survival in the face of violence. I realized that teaching on a campus that condoned and ignored sexual violence enacted upon and by its students made the act of standing to lead a lecture or sitting to lead a seminar discussion even more scary than my fear of public speaking provided for. And though Audre Lorde’s poetry and essays are often read in isolation (like the rest of literature in the academy) as brilliant products of a brilliant mind, it changed everything for me when I realized that while Audre Lorde was writing the poems that I needed about violence and difference and survival and fear she was a teacher. And she wasn’t teaching just anyone. Audre Lorde was the first black teacher in the English department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the City University of New York from 1970-1979. This meant she was teaching police officers in full uniform including loaded guns during the most visible period of racist police violence in the history of New York City. No wonder she was an expert in the permutations of fear. Reading Audre Lorde and teaching about trauma at Duke University during the lacrosse “scandal” taught me that teaching, being accountable to a volatile and vulnerable audience of students changes everything. Honesty in that setting requires a poetic act of faith every single time.

UBUNTU focused a large amount of energy on nurturing the stories of women and especially women of color at the colleges in our areas. After all, this entire movement was sparked by the bravery of a black college student who was brave enough to speak out against the violence she had experienced. At the same time, it was very clear to us, that while college classrooms and programming could make a difference in the lives of individual women, the college campus was not a non-violent space nor was it conducive to sustained healing.

Read ALL of it (please!) here.

Only the Prez #1

2008-11-07T21:34:00.004-05:00

Welcome to the first issue of "Only the Prez."

Also known as, "Things Only Obama Can Do Lest You Be Wrecked by the Kis."

After all, he is the first black President. People of all backgrounds and ignorance levels will make silly mistakes and try to justify them because, "Heck, Obama did it."

I am just trying to help YOU out.

This installment will be short, sweet, and is meant to forestall the ridiculous that may follow a certain press conference remark made today:

1. Only the Prez can call himself a "mutt."

2. You may not arbitrarily call the mixed-race people around you, including Kismet, mutts.

3. #2 applies no matter your racial or ethnic background (i.e. There is no "Ghetto Pass" on this one. Black folks you are barred too)

Any questions?

Prop 8 Organizing

2008-11-07T07:38:00.002-05:00

From the Daily Dish:

One of the most brilliant things about the Obama campaign was that they didn't expect callers and canvassers to be policy wonks. They just said "tell your story, let people know why you're voting for him. Connect with people." I can't help but feel at this point that if the gloves were taken off we could've helped people get a grip on the real issues at stake here, which I happen to think is a matter of soiling the state constitution.
What was even more confounding was the No on 8 campaign's decision to stay away form polling places at churches and schools. First of all, most polling places are at churches and schools, and second, that mentality buys right into the Yes on 8 brainwashing campaign that same sex marriage is going to corrupt our morals and our children. This idiocy was obvious to everyone that I worked with on the campaign. What was going on with the leadership upstairs?!!!

Interesting.

Sidenote: I plan to educate myself on Proposition 8 and 2008 election measures passed. It's a new world folks (I can't get enough of saying that) and we need to fight back when civil rights are denied. Looking here at home (whether home is yourself or your community or your church) is critical.

Because "if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night."

The Travesty of Prop 8 & the Blame the Black Person Game

2008-11-06T15:29:00.004-05:00

Dan Savage on "Black Homophobia" in response to the passing of Proposition 8. When you're done there, go here and follow the comments. Don't forget to leave some.

More on Blacks, Latina/os and Proposition 8:

VivirLatino: More Prop 8 Black and Latino Blaming
WOC, Ph.D.: Propositioning Privilege
elle, phd: WTF is Wrong With Us
The Kitchen Table: Blacks and the Passage of Prop 8

A New World brings new struggles and old ones to the fore. Roll up your sleeves, tuck up your skirt, and let's get to work.

[ETA: More commentary. From elle, Kevin, and AJ, plus a Racialicious roundtable here]

The New World

2008-11-06T08:58:00.011-05:00

I'm still unsure how to think about what happened yesterday. I'm excited, hopeful, terrified, and overwhelmed. I have finally, I think, stopped crying at every CNN recap, but I still feel so full with all of the historic things that happened. Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States. Wow. Whew!!!!!! It is so hard to believe.

Yesterday, like most people I know, I woke up and I ran to the TV because I was afraid it was a dream. And I was afraid that something terrible happened in the wee hours of the morning. But everything on Good Morning America was celebratory. In fact, come to find out, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio went blue for the first time in years. Today, Missouri is still up for grabs by about 6,000 votes, but that only amazes me more. If I ever believed my vote didn't count--and who hasn't?--I am assured now. Every single vote does count. Democracy can work. A black man can be elected President of one of the most virulently racist countries in the world and do so without widespread violence, without riots, without burning crosses on the White House lawn. At least not yet.

I was skeptical, up until the end. Oh, I drink the Koolaid, I don't sip. I supported with money every time I could, and, in the end, with time (which was only a fraction of the time other volunteers spent). I blogged. But I was never fully convinced it would work. I am a student of history. History has said it was possible but never that it was probable. History has never said that when democracy works it is magic, it is not self-evident, and that magic is beautiful but rare.

I was skeptical most of the night. Even when he won Ohio and the volunteers around me erupted in triumph because no Republican candidate has ever won the election without Ohio. As we walked to a post-volunteer election watch party, I remained skeptical. The jubilation around me appeared misplaced, didn't they know what could happen? Didn't they remember 2000 and 2004? Didn't they follow history? ANYTHING could happen.

CNN announced it at eleven o'clock. Barack Obama is projected to be the next President of the United States. And a wave of emotion flooded me. The same wave I am still riding. The same wave I started this post with. I keep cycling back to that moment, that feeling. Wow. Whew! Wow. Wow.

I never believed it could happen. When it did, I damn near lost my mind.

And now what?

Entering Day #2 of election aftermath, the news is still flooded with Obamamania. Obama tapped Rahm Emanuel to be his Chief of Staff. An Appoint Jesse Jackson, Jr. to the Senate Facebook group has started.

On a more personal level, I couldn't stay away from NPR, CNN or C-SPAN. Still can't. I've never been very involved in the nitty-gritty of what some might call formal or traditional politics. But I can't keep away now, and I know how much I'm changed on that level. My involvement, my surprise that the political structure can be used, the knowledge that it is only because of THE PEOPLE PUSHING HARD that it could be used.

Then there was a minor fight with Mr. over the meaning (or respectability) of Jesse Jackson's tears. And a moment of awkwardness at my youth organizing program when my Executive Director noted he'd voted for Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente. Awkwardness for both of us because what did our different choices say about our politics, our radicalism, our ability to, and our willingness to fight for social justice all around?

Then Proposition 8 passed with a majority of African American and Latina/o voters supporting the bill, and similar measures passed in Florida and Arizona. Measures banning gay couples from adopting passed in Arkansas.

Then CNN spoke with young, African American leaders, including South Carolina's Bakari Sellers, but not a woman to be found amongst those tapped.

And it took me two hours to get a cab on Tuesday night. Why? Because cabs were passing black fares for white ones, literally passing black fares and pulling up ten feet away in front of white ones. Over and over--because there were plenty of white ones around and plenty of cabs around. With so many young, excited, presumably monied white people in the streets that night, the economics of racial profiling went into overdrive. Don't believe me? I wouldn't either if I were you. You almost had to see it to believe it. I got home by getting in the way of a cab dropping off his (white) passengers, letting him know I'd been waiting for two hours, and begging him to take me to my destination. He seemed surprised that I'd been waiting so long. Yeah, well so was I.

Is racism dead?

I can see why someone might think so. Talking to Littlest Sis on the phone, absolutely hysterical over the win, barely able to choke out my words, it took me a moment to realize she wasn't nearly so fazed as I was. "Yeah," she finally asked at one point, "We are going to party tonight! What are you doing?"

Me? I'm still trying to breathe.

Right then, I couldn't even imagine partying. And for a moment I was disappointed at her lack of enthusiasm--but it was only a moment. A second of a second actually. Because I started to get excited. I started to see how amazing it must be twenty-something in college with only your dreams ahead of you and the inability to imagine that a more dangerous, sinister, hateful, and violent world ever existed. And I hope it is amazing for my Puerto Rican mother to see me so overwhelmed and excited, but in disbelief and not with a memory of mourning for friends lost, dreams broken, leaders killed.

I can imagine what the world was like for her. I can't even fathom the world my grandmothers lived in. And Littlest Sis will never understand the world I live in. I am B.B. Before Barack. From here on out, the young people in my life--youth organizers, siblings of a certain age, scholar of color mentees, and undergraduate students--are A.B. After Barack.

45 years. Two generations maybe. That close.

Wow. Whew! Wow.

But is racism dead?

No. Anyone who believes that has lost and/or forgotten something in this election. And since other bloggers are outlining the history of this campaign, let's keep it simple and speak from lived experience.

When the youth organizers came into work yesterday, one expressed frustration that her prinicpal got on the loudspeaker to announce Obama's win. Not because she wasn't excited. But because he emphasized how anything is now possible, how now there are no excuses for not achieving.

She understood intrinsically--attending a predominantly black school but enrolled in Advanced Placement courses that are majority white, a youth organizer in the "continent" of southeast DC (the reputed hood of DC hoods)--she understood that racism didn't disappear because Obama navigated its many quandries and secured a victory.

Nothing can diminish the success and power of this moment. We elected a black President, a self-identified black President (not self-identified mixed or Kenyan-American, despite the best efforts of the pundits over the last two years) who is married to a self-identified and accomplished African American woman and has (absolutely gorgeous) African-American daughters.

Now, the way we speak of and think of "race" will have to evolve. The way we understand organizing, politics, elections, and policy in general will have to evolve. The way we understand oppression will have to evolve. Racism and racist structures of oppression haven't disappeared. You can bet a $150,000 wardrobe they are evolving as well, right now, and the battles they wage against us will be subtle. Republicans are the new Klan, Latina/os are the new targets, and the gay community is the new offended. Oppression is the new racism.

But intersectionality is the new social justice. The internet is the new grassroots. Young people are the new electorate.

Welcome to the New World.

X-Posted at YBP

----------------
Now playing: J*Davey - Cowboys & Indians
via FoxyTunes

Hysterical

2008-11-05T03:58:00.004-05:00

Barack Obama is our President. 44th. Black.

Wow.

Michelle Obama is our First Lady.

The White House needs a name change.

And I can't seem to stop crying.

Yes We Can.

Waiting for the Results....

2008-11-04T15:05:00.002-05:00

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Extroverted, Progressive, and Intelligent

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It revolutionized European art and inspired changes in music and literature. The first branch of cubism, known as Analytic Cubism. It was both radical and influential as a short but highly significant art movement between 1908 and 1911 mainly in France. In its second phase, Synthetic Cubism, (using synthetic materials in the art) the movement spread and remained vital until around 1919.

People that chose Cubist paintings as their favorite art form tend to be very individualized people. They are more extroverted and less afraid of speaking their opinions then other people. They tend to be progressive and are very forward thinking. As the cubist painting is like looking into a shattered mirror where you can see different angles of the images, the people that prefer these paintings like looking at all angles of a problem. These people are intelligent and they are the transformers of our generation. They look beyond what is seen into what things could become. They are ready to leave the ideas of the past behind and look at what the future has to offer.

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy

I Voted.

2008-11-04T12:04:00.001-05:00

Eso es todo.

Ready for the Global House Party?

2008-11-03T23:39:00.004-05:00

My prayers to the Obamas. For all of the obvious reasons, but at this particular moment in honor of Madelyn Dunham, Obama's grandmother. She raised him. She almost made it. En respeto.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Gratuitious Geek Moment for you:

There is a scene at the end of the revamped and re-released Star Wars Episode VI, better known as Star Wars 3 before the infamous Sith appeared and George Lucas blessed us with a sexy young fellow named Hayden Christiansen...

I digress.

There is a scene at the end of that movie where fireworks are going off all around the galaxy because the Death Star has been destroyed. Music is blasting, little writing blurs of people (aliens, animals, etc.) are dancing, and it is basically a universe-wide house party.

(Are you done snickering at me now? Can I continue? Anyway....)

That is what it will be like if Obama wins.

A global house party.

I am nervous. Anxious. I feel like I want to cry one minute and vomit the next. I am volunteering tomorrow after work because if I sit still and watch the numbers roll in without doing stuff, I may lose my mind.

But I want to dance in a global house party. I am hoping tomorrow is the day.

Either way, this campaign has done amazing things. The people who have volunteered on the phones, who have canvassed, who have traveled miles from home, and who have founded local organizations, who have given money because they didn't have time, who have registered voters, who have endured long lines, racial slurs, cold and rain--they are phenomenal. This is their campaign and, hopefully, their victory.

Whichever candidate is elected president, watching this unfold has restored my faith in people. I needed this campaign even more than I need the future president.

This election season awakened something amazing in the people of this country, and the world, which they will have to contend with in January. And if it is you, Barack, then know that we support you, rock with you, and have your back--but we are ON your back as well. We are holding you accountable. You talk good game. Bring it.

I can't wait to tell my daughter where I was when.....

InaDWriMo 2008

2008-11-02T19:30:00.004-05:00

I, Kismet, will be participating in InaDWriMo 2008. It actually started November 1st, which makes me a couple of days late on this post but not on starting because...well...not much was accomplished the last two days. At least not in the realm of academic writing.

Participate by registering here (which basically means leaving a comment). Or cheer me on as I go. I will leave occasional updates at W2S but for quality writing/procrastination updates, hop on over to Nuñez Daughter and RSS/email subscribe.

If you aren't comfortable joining in on the fun after the party has started, leave a comment here or there. We can support each other!

My goal is 20,000 words.

::twirling:: Ok, so here we go!

ps. In case you want to nurse your literary side instead of your academic side, Tayari's got links to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and her custom creation NaFinWriNoMo. So no excuses! Get to writing--whichever way fits you best!

This Makes Me Feel Good

2008-11-02T11:29:00.001-05:00

Class: What I Learned This Year

2008-10-29T22:17:00.005-04:00

I found this in my mail stack this afternoon:

Dear [Kismet],

Congratulations on earning a distinctive academic honor. By placing in the top 15% of your class at University of [Hard Knocks], you are invited to join [Privilege, Status, and Class] Honour Society...

[PSC Honour Society] members are entitled to exclusive career and recruiting opportunities at a global level. Your one-time $70 student membership fee includes...

Hmm. (emphasis mine)

So if I can't pay the $70 fee, does that now mean my "outstanding academic achievement" is bullocks? Or just "this distinct honor"?

(Sorry, I've been watching BBC America lately)

Class privilege is an amazing--and invisible--thing. I never would have seen this five years ago, or even one year ago.

Interesting.

And let's not forget....

"It is important for you to accept this invitation by November 21, 2008 as we cannot guarantee this invitation will remain open after the deadline."

Nice to know I am outstanding, distinctive and honored--but only for a limited time.

I Love You

2008-10-27T21:47:00.004-04:00

Maybe it is the holidays (or the holiday commercials), maybe it is the stress from work, maybe it is being so far from home, but I just about burst into tears when I read this.

Read it first over at the Anxious Black Woman's house then searched the compadres in my blog reader for a credible link. The Culture Kitchen delivered.

The medical examiner positively identified the body found in the Chevrolet Suburban as Julian King, Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said Monday afternoon.
Police are collecting evidence from the Suburban and reviewing surveillance tapes from all over the city as the investigation continues, Weis told reporters.
"There's a lot of work to be done. We'll be sure we go through this thoroughly," he said.
Asked about possible motives, Weis said, "We don't know what the motive really was at this time. But, clearly you have people who do know each other, so it wasn't a case of a stranger-type homicide."
Earlier Monday Deputy Chief Cmdr. Wayne Gulliford said police had responding to "a call about a suspicious auto" in the west side of Chicago at approximately 7 a.m. when they found the body inside a parked white Chevy Suburban, which had a license plate matching the description in the child's Amber Alert.

Read the rest. Apparently it was a domestic violence situation.

I love Chicago. And I love my family and my friends. At the moment I have been lucky to keep everyone I know. They remain on this planet, on this plane, however you want to think of it--they are right here with me. Only a phone call away.

I don't know what I would do if...

My prayers are with Jennifer Hudson and her family. And with my own.

And because I am slightly frantic and typing this at the same time, I want to send a call out not to the sisters but to the gentlemen. This is going to get fairly heterosexist, but bear with me. I'm a work in progress.

That said--Men. Check yourselves. And your fathers, brothers, cousins, nephews, sons, godsons, grandsons, best friends and frenemies (yeah dudes have them too).

When your boy hits a female, it isn't a game. When he hides her money, when he disrespects her in public or humiliates her in private, it isn't funny. And it isn't JUST their business. You need to make it your own. Women, well, we do a lot. But YOU NEED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR EACH OTHER AS WELL.

Maybe, if we work together, we can create a society where this ISN'T OKAY.

And then, maybe, one day stuff like this won't happen.

Check out WOC PhD's post for info. Or check out this page for ways to help yourself or someone else who is abusing. Support October 30: Be Bold, Be Red! events in your area. Or start your own project.

If there is any way Waiting 2 Speak can help, give the Kis a shout.

~all blessings and praise to you and yours Jennifer...I'm so sorry this happened~

I Am Your Sister (March 2009)

2008-10-26T11:00:00.000-04:00

Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnetta B. Cole, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, eds. I AM Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Audre Lorde was not only a famous black poet; she was also one of the most important radical black feminists of the past half century. I Am Your Sister collects her non-fiction prose from 1976 to 1990, and it is the first volume to provide a full picture of Lorde's political work (as opposed to her aesthetic work). The essays cover an impressive variety of topics: sexuality, race, gender, culture, class, parenting, disease, resistance, and power--both within the United States and across the African diaspora. While Lorde is best known as a progenitor of black feminist studies, I Am Your Sister stresses her signal influence in the creation of gay and lesbian studies. Lorde's work presaged the late 1980s shift in the academy toward the emphasis on the tight connections between race, class, gender, and sexuality--and later disability. Accordingly, the breadth of topics Lorde tackles in the various essays in I Am Your Sister capture the spirit of intersectionality that now dominates analysis in the humanities and critical social sciences.

Nice.

The Afro-Latina Experience

2008-10-25T20:13:00.003-04:00

Note: I hear this essay has been around the world a few times. It came to me via the Facebook gods and with no other citation than what is below. If you have an original for me to link and/or give credit to I would appreciate it! I am posting it exactly as I received it. ~Kis

By Ria Richardson, Page Editor
10/02/2003

Puedes leer la traducción de este artículo aqui: La experiencia Afro-Latina

As I enter the small bodega, I feel a little nervous because a lot of people start to look at me in a funny way. I go up to pay and the cashier begins to talk to me in English with much difficulty. I answer the young woman in Spanish to make to conversation easier on her and her facial expression turns to shock. There is no noticeable difference between the other shoppers and I that would cause such discomfort except that I am a Latina of African descent.

To me, this incident is nothing out of the ordinary. Even though there are many Afro-Latinos like me, some people are unable to comprehend that a black person can be Latino as well. There are numerous Blair students that have had similar experiences to me.

Between two worlds

Hispanics of color are descendents of African slaves brought to Latin America. Since we are both black and Hispanic, we pertain to both cultures. "I can be in the two races; in the black and in the Hispanic," says freshman Leonel Caro, who is from the Dominican Republic. We can rap like Juelz Santana or dance salsa like the Venezuelan Oscar de Leon.

On the other hand, some Latinos believe that problems have emerged with the relationship between African Americans and Afro-Latinos. "I have felt that African Americans do not look at me in the same way, there is no unity," comments Maria Yordan-Torres, an Afro-Puerto Rican Spanish teacher.

Luis Murillo, an Afro-Colombian and a former mayor in Colombia, has experienced what Yordan-Torres feels. "There were some African American young men and they said to me, 'hey, an African American speaking Spanish ,' and they began to laugh," states Murillo.

Why is it?

Javiela Evangelista, a Dominican doing her masters in Latin American and African American studies believes that the hierarchy system is to blame for the denial. "Generally, those who have had power have been of European descent. I believe that because of this, some try to neglect everything African," says Evangelista.

There are many reasons for the ignorance about Afro-Latinos. "I have noticed that people from Central America look at me weird maybe because there is not much African presence in their countries," states junior Tracey Davis.

Others feel that the lack of knowledge is a result of U.S. presence in the region. Evangelista believes that the United States has created this mentality of ignoring African culture. She gave the example of the U.S. invasion in the Dominican Republic where they gave power to the dictator of the country, Rafael Trujillo, who tried to "purify" and "lighten" the Dominican population. In this way, a division was created within the population, says Evangelista.

Problems caused

Most people do not believe that I have Latino blood. "I was very surprised because you are so dark that you gave me the impression of being from here," says junior Andrea Sempertegui, a Bolivian.

I can't speak Spanish in many places without feeling uncomfortable. One time when I was buying tickets to see the salsero Gilberto Santa Rosa, I entered the store along with my mother and everyone's eyes were glued on us. We finally reached the front of the line and the cashier never attended us and continued on with customers behind us, like we were invisible.

Problems in the Afro-Latino population

The problem of negating the African presence has gotten worse. In the Dominican
Republic, it is evident that the majority of the population are of African descent, but many avoid their African identity. I went to Santo Domingo and there were people darker than me telling met that there was no way I could beDominican because I am so dark.

It is a shame that some Afro-Latinos deny their true roots and identity. I hope that we can abandon prejudices in order to form a more united Latino community.

Two by Two: A Touch of Nerdy Link Love

2008-10-24T22:45:00.004-04:00

GPhoto: Patrick "Pato" Hebert

WOC PhD has links to a plenary with Cherríe Moraga at the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Joto Caucus.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Wole Soyinka discuss the Future of Africa on the Vine (video) at the Root.

McCain Campaign Worker Lied About Attack

2008-10-24T15:14:00.003-04:00

Police say a campaign volunteer confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.

At a news conference this afternoon, officials said they believe that Ashley Todd's injuries were self-inflicted.

Todd, 20, of Texas, is now facing charges for filing a false report to police.

Todd initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.

Read the rest here.

Yeah, she's crazy. Crazy like a fox.

Because her claim, though a lie, was coded with race and images of race. Because she hoped that, upon hearing she was mugged and assault and that a "B" was carved on her face, people would assume that it must have been a black man who did it. (Never mind that my first thought was that it was one of the crazy white people who are doing things like this, this, and ALL of this this. Never mind what my frame of reference is.)

Because such an attack, perpetrated on a young white woman of the Josie the Plumber persuasion could bring to the national mind dark and dangerous specters of black male criminality which would find their way back to the doorstep of Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. Which would implicate him simply because he is who is he is.

Crazy like a fox, because these images of black male criminality are very real for her and for others, men and women, white, Latina/o and--yes, tis true--black, this election season. So real that a foolhardy and movie worthy stunt like this (as T would say: You can't MAKE this stuff up!) might work to sway voters in the direction of McCain.

*sigh. Sad. But once upon a time this might have worked.

I Need to Write

2008-10-24T15:06:00.002-04:00

"First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice."

Octavia E. Butler. “Furor Scribendi.” In Bloodchild and Other Stories, 137-144. New York, NY: Seven Stories Press, 2005. (emphasis mine)

Of Saving, Bell Jars, and Mental Health

2008-10-23T20:31:00.004-04:00

"I can only speak for myself. But what I write and how I write is done in order to save my own life. And I mean that literally. For me, literature is a way of knowing that I am not hallucinating, that whatever I feel/know is. It is an affirmation that sensuality is intelligence, that sensual language is language that makes sense."
Barbara Christian, “The Race for Theory" (1987)

I was caught in the bell jar once.

It was a very difficult place for me. I spent months buzzing in a smoky glass prison. I was haunted by spirits. I don't know where they came from or what it meant that they lingered, cold and white, over my shoulder, cobwebbed like gum in the corners of my room.

I couldn't see very well inside the bell jar. I knew two of my best friends were out there. Somewhere. I know one of them called out to me once. But I wasn't aware of anything beyond the Buzz, a quiet but heavy hum that shook the bed when I sat on it. The Buzz made the ground rumble inside my jar--which of course went with me wherever I went. So that when I sat at a desk, the pencils would jump and twitch, the computer keys would click with the force of the keyboard rocking. So that when I stepped away, all was normal. My jar, my cloud, my Buzz and my quiet little earthquake would cocoon around me, ready to travel with me anywhere. Patient, faithful and frighteningly timeless.

I think I lost a year of my life stuck in the bell jar. I was somewhere deep inside myself, banging on the glass and unable to find a way out.

And then I woke up one day and I was outside. Of the jar. Looking in at it, completely bewildered.

Around the same time I fell upon the women I began to research. I am still researching these same women today. At the time, I didn't realize I was so focused on the women. I thought I was interested in race, frontier/borderland communities, people of African descent who spoke Spanish and French, people of mixed-race who were able to navigate several worlds at once despite and because of their polymorphous identities.

What I was really interested, turns out, was how do women--how do mothers--pass on to their children a faith, love and strength in themselves that transcends society's demands.

What I was really interested in, and still am, is the complex and soulful relationship between mothers and daughters.

Using these women as a springboard, I entered a community of young scholars who were determined to make their experiences the focus of their academic interest even though our liberal arts education refused our say so. We, dammit, were going to the reading and writing that would bring our selves. We grasped for voices that were up to the challenge, but when we found our voices, the words poured out of us. On paper. Or on the seminar table.

All we needed was permission. All we needed was the space. And each other.

It is not a coincidence that my escape from the bell jar came at the same time as my quick and surprising tumble into historical research.

I was lucky enough to save my own life. I was lucky enough to have help. The individual and the collective worked together and worked a cure on me. And the haunts went away. Never to return, at least not yet. If the two events were simultaneous, then I think they never will--a voice once found can't be silenced. Not even in death.

How do women and girls become themselves? How do they come to life for themselves? How do move beyond society's demands of them and embrace whoever they are and how do they even know what that is?

I write. I read and research. I create history and I create fiction and I create poetry. Sometimes I play with multimedia. I dance. And I teach. These are the ways I begin to know myself Beyond. To affirm myself in ways that a liberal arts education, Western civ concepts, "modernity" and race theory just can't help me with. The sensual, the dark, the feminine, the warm, the wet, the blue, and the burden that is just....me.

So when women like Christian wrote that they were saving their own lives by reading, writing and researching women of color; when Cherrie Moraga, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, bell hooks, and others continued along that same theme; when Deborah Gray White, Stephanie M. H. Camp, Jennifer Morgan, Nell Irvin Painter and Darlene Clark Hine scream into history that there is more than the 500th biograhy of Abraham Lincoln; when Lex, Mamita Mala, Noemi, Elle, Sudy, BFP and so many others are saving their lives and saving others lives right now, we should all listen.

When I say death was around the corner...until I opened the right book one night...and began to read...and picked up the pen...and began to write...

You should listen.

Now go play.

Discipline

2008-10-23T18:18:00.002-04:00

"And one soon learned that the wild, transcendent moments which occurred at dances or "battles of music," moments in which memorable improvisations were ignited, depended upon a dedication to a discipline which was observed even when rehearsals had to take place in the crowded quarters of Halley Richardson's shoeshine parlor. It was not the place which counted, although a large hall with good acoustics was preferred, but what one did to perfect one's performance."

Ralph Ellison, "Hidden Name and Complex Fate" (1964)

More Multimedia Spoken Word: Kelly Tsai

2008-10-23T14:40:00.002-04:00

I really love what technology is doing for our art. And our activism.

H/T: JJP

La Pasion De La Decision

2008-10-23T13:53:00.002-04:00

LOL! And I love that Rosario Dawson and Wilmer Valderrama ("Fez") are in it!

From VivirLatino.

Books that Rock

2008-10-23T05:45:00.001-04:00

Because, like Lex, I like to share reading lists...

Ralph Ellison, Shadow and Act (1953, 1964) As an African and African American Studies major, I skimmed Ellison's work when I should have read deeply. I am making up some of that time now with Shadow and Act, a collection of essays and speeches published (mostly) in the 1950s. Through his prose I am rediscovering the kind of writer and historian I want to be:

"The real question seems to be: How does the Negro writer participate as a writer in the struggle for human freedom? To whom does he address his work? What values emerging from Negro experience does he try to affirm?"

You could easily replace "as a writer" with "as a historian." You could even replace "Negro" with an Afrodescendiente "Negra" and change the pronouns to "she." Which is exactly what I did in my personal journal when I rewrote the quote.

In prose as direct and intricate as his fiction, Ellison manages to capture how I feel about the academic profession. And my place in it. For Ellison, literature is a discipline, and is only one piece of a multi-layered, multi-focal quilt of activity meant to move all of us toward a more equitable society. Art is inherently social and is meant to create some kind of change in the world not by standing on some political ideology but by revealing us to ourselves. For me, Kismet the Radical Woman of Color Educator, history is the same. It is a discipline, it is inherently social, and it is only one piece. Moreover, for me, Kismet the Radical Woman of Color Writer, history is also an art, a creative unrolling of narrative based upon primary sources, personal experience, and investment in the society we live in.

If this is the case, as a historian what is my role? Who is my audience? What are the values of Afro-diasporic experience I am trying to affirm? Where do I draw my inspiration? Whose story am I telling?

Ellison emphasizes the individual as an artist, the individual as a person (man) of color growing and creating in this world. As a woman of color that doesn't apply to me. (I would argue it doesn't apply to men either. Mr.'s favorite argument with me is that I haven't influenced him because he's gotten to where he's gotten to on his own. Word? If I had a dollar for every late night phone call of moral support I could pay my own tuition. Privilege works in the silences, but male privilege is still amazing to me.) It doesn't apply to the women I am researching, women who survived slavery not by standing alone in their unique experience but because they drew on networks and knowledge of their mothers, aunts, and sisters (and fathers, brothers, and lovers) before them. And alongside them. And passed those resources on, which were worth more than money, because a wealth in people* replenishes itself.

But how do my particular experiences play a role in the kind of history I want to tell?

*sigh. I'll let you know if I come up with any profound answers to that question.

Other goodies....

Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mother's Gardens (1983) Intensely womanist (of course) and inspires me to read Zora Neale Hurston over and over and over. Again.

Moraga, Cherríe, and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1983). This work still leaves me speechless. One day I will write a fabulous blog post on it. Until then my love will have to rest in the silence.

Related stuff (I am taking after elle in adding asterisks to my posts!):
*Guyer, Jane I., and Samuel M. Eno Belinga. “Wealth in People as Wealth in Knowledge: Accumulation and Composition in Equatorial Africa.” Journal of African History 36 (1995): 91-120.

TechnoAfroCats Read Wild Seed

2008-10-23T02:46:00.001-04:00

Hear ye, Hear ye:

A message to all members of Quirky Black Girls

Hey all,
Just a quick note to let everyone know that the fabulous long-distance sci-fi reading group at Quirky Black Girls will be reading Octavia Butler's Wildseed and discussing it in a forum right here on qbg!

So go get the book from your public library or independent bookseller or half.com or whatever and look for details on the main site.

Also If you haven't copped the new Muhsinah or The Foreign Exchange you are missing out! To check out her sound, see qbg Jah's video post of "construction" in the videos section.

Also shouts out to our growing international qbg contingent!

love,
QBG

Visit Quirky Black Girls at: http://quirkyblackgirls.ning.com

Game on, Bitches.

2008-10-20T22:48:00.000-04:00

H/T: rikyrah of J&JP

Eclectic Goodness 10.20.08

2008-10-20T03:18:00.002-04:00

Linking you up to:

io9 wants Common to be the Green Lantern. According to them, Common "already has an affinity for science fiction." Yes sur--anyone ever hear of a little album called Electric Circus? (Hate if you want to, that album was fire)

Blackademics has an interview with poet, anthropologist and essayist Dr. Ifi Amadiume. Discuss centers around her book, Daughters of the Goddess, Daughters of Imperialism, women's movements in Ghana, and the dynamic relationship between African Americans (particularly young, black activists) and Africa.

Lex, a sister in the academic struggle, is shouting to the world that all our love matters--and posting transformative reading that proves it.

Jack and Jill Politics has the goods on the election. Colin Powell endorsing Obama, the $150,000 million raised in the month of September, and two new endorsements that prove that Republicans switching to the Obama camp is not just a rally gimmick.

Blacktino.net reports back from BomPlenazo 2008 at Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture (Bronx, NY). Bomba!

Eric Foner writes on the first black U.S. Congressman...and their impact. I'd like to say he was inspired by Obama, but the man has been doing Reconstruction since I was six years old. Longer. Go Foner.

In Case You Live Under a Rock....

2008-10-20T00:41:00.001-04:00

Rape Fantasy Fantasy

2008-10-20T00:19:00.002-04:00

I try to browse the scifi/fantasy sites when I get a chance. I don't always stay. With some exceptions, white hyper-masculinity is the norm in much of the mainstream speculative fiction net world. Big turn-off (although, at times, it can work; a lá Lord of the Rings).

I was still surprised when this popped up in my blog reader:

“Give me a girl,” the king said to me the night he caught me, the wizard-woman of the wood, by trickery and might.
I said no, I mustn’t.

::cringes immediately and backs away from the computer::

{{trigger warning}}} but if you want, read the rest here. And full disclosure that I'm not a survivor, but I was still triggered, if that is the right word, in the vicarious trauma sense.

I mean...

...whoa.

Scifi/fantasy/horror already suffers from heavy doses of homophobia, racism, sexism and has Eurocentric colonizing tendencies.

We're adding rape fantasies to the mix now too?

I managed to read (very lightly) the rest of the story. It didn't get much better. And although the ending was supposed to be redemptive....

I'm not impressed.

There wasn't anything empowering in it for me.

But I'm me. And you are you.

Read it (heed the trigger warning) and let Waiting 2 Speak know what you think.

Cyber-Quilting Experiment: Stiching Movement Together

2008-10-19T07:15:00.001-04:00

The Cyber Quilting Experiment is
a project examining how the internet can be used as a resource for
social justice work and movement building activities. As with the
Highlander Folk School in the Civil Rights Movement, the cyber quilting
experiment is to be a space where activism, cognitive engagement, and
skill development intersect, equipping women of color activist and
organizations with the cyber tools needed to bring about radical social
change. The experiment is composed of three spatial internet
components: (1) A Space to End Violence against Women of Color; (2) A
Space to Envision a Better Day; and (3) A Space to do Media Justice
work. Each internet space will “quilt” together artist, scholars, and
activists to either create new projects or to collaborate on existing
projects…

Go quilt.

What I Did Tonight

2008-10-19T07:14:00.002-04:00

(Sidenote: These are representative. I'm not actually in any of these videos.)

Because I Lust for Spaces to Create....

2008-10-16T00:15:00.003-04:00

Enjoy the debate? Great. If you are like me, you have seen all three debates, you have made your campaign contributions, you have made your phone calls and attended your rallies. You have blogged or at least left comments on political blogs. You've early voted.

Today is October 16, 2008. If you are like me you have chosen. And you are done.

I am quite tired of the vitriolic tone of the last week or so. And there are bigger and better political bloggers than me.

So I am changing gears. Shall we put the fall design on the blog? Coming soon. New posts on a variety of topics? Coming soon. Maybe as early as tomorrow. Let me digest my arroz con camarones first.

In the meantime, find me in a few other places. Hopefully these places will help me survive this last year and a half (knock on wood) of graduate school:

Twitter. I am twitter-pated as bfp so gleefully pointed out one tweet ever so long ago. I am not on as regularly as I used to be because I found it was not conducive to that sweet, deep thought that a dissertation writer needs. Still, I pop in. And say hi. So pop in. And say hi to me.

Nuñez Daughter. Alice Walker wrote: "How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers' names." Nuñez Daughter is a space for me to know and explore that. It is for the reflective, historian, theorist in me. In the tradition of This Bridge Called My Back. Posts will be fairly sporadic and long. Explore away.

Self Care: Revise, Revise, Revise. Behind Frederick Douglass' home in SE Washington, DC. is a tiny little hut. Calling it a cottage is too much and a room is too little, although it wasn't much more than that. He called it the Growlery. It was where he did some of his writing and thinking. I like to imagine it was where he went to vent, scream, and growl at the ridiculousness of the world. Self Care is my internet Growlery. Posts on it are even more sporadic than Nuñez Daughter; not because there hasn't been absolute foolishness in the world to discuss of late, but because when the b.s. level gets to a certain level, I tend to just Check Out. Still, if you ever want to see me rage, storm, throw pots at the wall, punch holes in mirrors, or otherwise temper tantrum my way back to sanity, go there.

African Diaspora, Ph.D. Great blog that will highlight new scholarship in the field of African Diaspora history, share thoughts on trends, and facilitate exchange of classroom, workshop and research materials. For the stuffy academic in me.

Young Black Professional. Headed by the young Frederic Mitchell. I am not there as often as I should be. I need to get back into the fray. And I plan to. Whether I am there or not, jump on in. Hey, maybe you can help me find my way. What should my main subjects be? Politics? Race and Gender? Black Latinidad? Books and history? Afrofuturism? So much deliciousness to choose from.

Quirky Black Girls and Firewalkers: Black Women Doing Women Studies. Jump on in. Mix it up. Debate with us. Love us for being just who we need to be. Find my note to a bus rider in the QBG mag. Buy me L.A. Banks new edited volume. Write me a love letter.

Choices

2008-10-12T08:58:00.005-04:00

I wanted to go to church today.

But the car's transmission is fried.

And the only Catholic Church in the area is rabidly Anti-Choice.

I know. That is the stance of the Roman Catholic Church right?

Except that the beauty of Catholicism, for me at least, is that while the Vatican can dictate all it wants to, the real action is in the churches and the faithful on the ground. In the tradition of syncretic and insurgent parishioners the world over, and throughout history, I feel as though there are rules that I need to take and rules that I need to leave behind when I kneel before the altar. The so-called evil of abortion is one of them. My total subservience as a woman is another (ha! Mr. would laugh if he read that).

And I need a Catholic church that is cool with me doing that. They don't necessarily have to endorse a pro-choice stance or say, that "hey! divorce is cool!" But they do need to back up off my values a bit and let me reflect on the mysteries of the faith in a way that fits me best.

After all, ain't no glass house like the Catholic one. And their stone throw trumps my stone throw any day. (Would you like a slave with your child sexual abuse?)

Today, I choose to stay home and reflect. Until the car is fixed.

And my question to you, if you care to share, is: When do you choose to follow and when do you choose not to follow your faith? And how? Any and all faiths are welcome, and atheists too. Throw down in the comments. (No trolls please.)

Elect Obama!!!

2008-10-06T04:36:00.004-04:00

There is so much Chicago love in this video, I had to post it.

Will it go viral? Only the people can decide that....

If you are in Illinois, your deadline to register to vote is Tuesday, October 7th!!!!

Get an application form here.
Get information on absentee ballots and whatnot here.

2008-10-04T11:58:00.001-04:00

Shy'M "Femme de Couleur"

2008-09-30T01:10:00.001-04:00

It's like Alicia Keys and Ciara rolled into one. In French.

I know some American boy is going to give this one a thumbs up. What say you?

Monday White Girl Magic

2008-09-29T22:34:00.004-04:00

Waiting for the bus in Georgetown. In a line.

Asian man in a suit in front. A young, blond female behind him. Me and my 'fro behind her.

Bus pulls up.

Asian guy steps forward, shakes his head and seems to think again, then steps back. Motions for the blond female to proceed before him.

I step forward.

Asian man in a business suit steps back into line in front of me and behind her.

He gets on the bus.

I get on the bus behind him.

*crickets*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**

This racialicious moment brought to you by White Girl Magic: The Elixir that Makes the World Go 'Round! Available in three delicious flavors: "White Girl Tears"; "Blond, Buxom, and Barely Legal"; and "Lost and Missing Save Me From the Third World!"

Email From a Good Friend

2008-09-29T22:32:00.002-04:00

"its 3 am...

watching black in america again...

and yep...

its still wack...."

Yeah.

AfroGenius: Janelle Monae Interview with Afro-Punk

2008-09-28T14:01:00.002-04:00

She's so cool.

Find more videos like this on Afro-punk

WoW.

2008-09-27T13:42:00.001-04:00

H/T

Barack the Vote

2008-09-27T10:03:00.003-04:00

Email I sent Littlest Sis today. Are you in contact with your relatives on how to vote?

Here is the absentee ballot. This is what you do. Do it ASAP because the deadline is next week.

Pass this on to anyone who is registered to vote in the city of Chicago. These instructions only work for the city of Chicago. But not for the suburbs or elsewhere in the state. If you are registered elsewhere in the state, call 312.269.7960 to find out if you can use this ballot and/or how to get the one you need!

If you are not registered in Illinois go to VoteforChange.com to find out how to get registered, get your absentee ballot and find your election information.

Where this information comes from: http://www.chicagoelections.com/ and http://www.elections.il.gov/Default.aspx

Where to find the page on absentee voting: http://www.chicagoelections.com/page.php?id=15

Absentee Voting has 1 - 2 - 3 steps: The Ballot Request, the Ballot, and Mailing the Ballot in.

1. Fill out the attached application in to get an absentee ballot.

2. At the bottom of the page, where it says "address to be mailed if different than home," put your current address.

3. Mail the application NOW. The ballot request must be made by mail, by October 28th.

But it will take time to get the ballot, and no matter what, you will need to mail the ballot in and the ballot must be RECEIVED by the Board of Elections by November 3rd. So mail the ballot request in NOW.

4. Get your absentee ballot in the mail and follow the instructions to vote.

5. When you get the ballot in the mail, just do it there in the post office and mail it back. It will take all of five seconds and once it is in, it is in and done.

5. Sit back and watch the results roll in :)

I also attached instructions for absentee voting and the election/registration schedule.

Last day for Illinois residents to register to vote is October 7th, 2008! So if you aren't registered, get registered. If you are doing registration tabling for an organization, get on your hustle because your time is running out. You have less than two weeks. Make copies of this form if you need to and get people signed up. Pass this on to folks. There is an English and Spanish one so don't be limited by language.

Get registration applications here: http://www.chicagoelections.com/page.php?id=18

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO SEND IN THE APPLICATION ON TIME, you should still be able to cast your absentee vote at any time in the office of the Board of Election Commissioners--if ballots are available. There are specific hours for this (and maybe even specific days) so call 312-269-7967 for the hours of your local Illinois office. This can be done 3 weeks before the election (so starting in mid-October).

Sis, if any of this is unclear, send me an email and I will try to clear it up. Use those websites and numbers for any other details not mentioned because I probably don't know the answer to those. And print this out and put it in the mail today!

And get your friends registered!

I love you sis.

Absentee Ballot for Illinois voters registered in Chicago
Instructions for Absentee voting (Chicago, IL)
Deadlines for Election 08 and voter registration

The Audacity of Hip Hop

2008-09-26T11:31:00.002-04:00

When superstar lyricist Nas declared, "Hip-hop is dead!" in 2006, he reignited a long-running debate among artists and observers in the rap community. While the money-guns-girls wing of commercial rap is certainly here to stay, many fans insist that hip hop's political roots are rotting. But on the eve of an election in which a presidential candidate is a professed Jay-Z fan who brushes off his shoulders in speeches and fist-bumps his wife, it appears that the political soul of hip hop is primed for a reawakening.

Read the rest here.

X-Posted @ YBP

Links to Love (with a couple Random Thoughts Thrown in)

2008-09-22T20:17:00.002-04:00

Dr. Yolanda Pierce wrote a heartfelt piece on the frustrations of being of African descent in the U.S. at the Kitchen Table. As A.D. Nix commented on this post at Racialicious, mainstream white America wants everything but the burden.

Alisa Valdes-Rodrigues has an equally heartfelt piece on the pleasures and burdens of being pro-life and pro-Obama.

Really confused by this blog. You hate misogyny, gay-bashing, and other such violence...and you would vote for Bush Part Two? Hmm. Are you part of that AP/Yahoo poll we keep hearing so much about? Never mind....

First Daddy Yankee, and now this? Come on gente! Come on!!!!

I need skinny jeans. I am not skinny. Where can I find some?

Margaret Cho throws down. Don't question her Christianity. (H/T Bitch, Ph.D.)

A straight-forward and interesting re-view of A Time to Kill @ Religion in American History. Interesting because I love that movie for all of the complicated subjects it tackles and the climax which is as simple and powerful as it gets ("Imagine she is white." Yes. Do that.) Anyone who does African American history, African diaspora history or Southern history is familiar with the violence religious fundamentalism breeds. The Ku Klux Klan just happens to be the U.S.'s version of it.

Books and Politics. Does it get much better?

Single mothers choosing to be single mothers. "Can you relate to their experience?" Can you?

What IS this '60s soul fetish? I dunno. I like it though.

You and your baggy pants are safe. Congratulations.

M.Dot's got a zinger on what is and is not political. Not sure I totally agree, but what say you?

The Villager breaks down the educational background of our November contenders. I say, damn. No contest. Call me uppity if you wanna. I don't give a fuck. I admire excellence.

And that, kiddos, is the purge of my Google Reader for Monday, September 22, 2008.

Last, but not least, happy birthday to my co-blogger, K-Iris!

YES!

2008-09-22T19:21:00.002-04:00

Oh My GAWD. I just about had an orgasm when I found this in my blog reader. Sweet Jesus. Amen. Holy Spirit. Etc.

Only thing that could have made this collection look better than it already does is if some astute researcher came upon more of Octavia Butler's unpublished works and added a few to the mix. I just finished Bloodchild and Other Stories (2005) and my heart is still pounding. The woman was genius incarnate. Her stories are timeless.

If for nothing else but in her honor, indulge yourself in some delicious, fantastic, fabulous and (damn right) woman-centered Afrofuturism. To be released December 2008.

The Black Male Privileges Checklist

2008-09-22T11:01:00.003-04:00

Via GrupoAfrodescendiente Listserv:

Thoughts?

The Black Male Privileges Checklist
By Jewel Woods
© Renaissance Male Project (2008)

What does "privilege" have to do with Black men? We understand some kinds of privilege. The privilege to call a black man "Boy", even if that black man happens to be 60 years old or older. The privilege to drive a car and never have to worry that the police will racially profile you. Privileges that have nothing to do with what a person has earned, but rather are based entirely on who a person is, or what color they are.

The items represented on the Black Male Privileges Checklist reflect aspects of Black men's lives that we take for granted, which appear to be "double standards," but in fact are male privileges that come at the expense of women in general and African American women in particular.

I offer this checklist based on years of experience working with men, and with the faith that we as men have far more to gain than we have to lose by challenging the privileges that we take for granted.

I believe that there are more similarities between men than there are differences. Therefore, many items on the Black Male Privilege Checklist apply to men generally. However, because of the specific privileges that black men have in relationship to black women; there are specific items that apply only to black men. I will leave it up to you to determine which items apply only to black men, and which items apply to men in general.

The Black Male Privileges Checklist

Leadership & Politics

1. I don't have to choose my race over my sex in political matters.
2. When I read African American History textbooks, I will learn mainly about black men.
3. When I learn about the Civil Rights Movement & the Black Power Movements, most of the leaders that I will learn about will be black men.
4. I can rely on the fact that in the near 100-year history of national civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and the Urban League, virtually all of the executive directors have been male.
5. I will be taken more seriously as a political leader than black women.
6. Despite the substantial role that black women played in the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement, currently there is no black female that is considered a "race leader".
7. I can live my life without ever having read black feminist authors, or knowing about black women's history, or black women's issues.
8. I can be a part of a black liberation organization like the Black Panther Party where an "out" rapist Eldridge Cleaver can assume leadership position.
9. I will make more money than black women at equal levels of education and occupation.
10. Most of the national "opinion framers" in Black America including talk show hosts and politicians are men.

Beauty
11. I have the ability to define black women's beauty by European standards in terms of skin tone, hair, and body size. In comparison, black women rarely define me by European standards of beauty in terms of skin tone, hair, or body size.
12. I do not have to worry about the daily hassles of having my hair conforming to any standard image of beauty the way black women do.
13. I do not have to worry about the daily hassles of being terrorized by the fear of gaining weight. In fact, in many instances bigger is better for my sex.
14. My looks will not be the central standard by which my worth is valued by members of the opposite sex.

Sex & Sexuality
15. I can purchase pornography that typically shows men defile women by the common practice of the "money shot."
16. I can believe that causing pain during sex is connected with a woman's pleasure without ever asking her.
17. I have the privilege of not wanting to be a virgin, but preferring that my wife or significant other be a virgin.
18. When it comes to sex if I say "No", chances are that it will not be mistaken for "Yes".
19. If I am raped, no one will assume that "I should have known better" or suggest that my being raped had something to do with how I was dressed.
20. I can use sexist language like bonin', laying the pipe, hittin-it, and banging that convey images of sexual acts based on dominance and performance.
21. I can live in a world where polygamy is still an option for men in the United States as well as around the world.
22. In general, I prefer being involved with younger women socially and sexually
23. In general, the more sexual partners that I have the more stature I receive among my peers.
24. I have easy access to pornography that involves virtually any category of sex where men degrade women, often young women.
25. I have the privilege of being a part of a sex where "purity balls" apply to girls but not to boys.
26. When I consume pornography, I can gain pleasure from images and sounds of men causing women pain.

Popular Culture
27. I come from a tradition of humor that is based largely on insulting and disrespecting women; especially mothers.
28. I have the privilege of not having black women, dress up and play funny characters- often overweight- that are supposed to look like me for the entire nation to laugh.
29. When I go to the movies, I know that most of the leads in black films are men. I also know that all of the action heroes in black film are men.
30. I can easily imagine that most of the artists in Hip Hop are members of my sex.
31. I can easily imagine that most of the women that appear in Hip Hop videos are there solely to please men
32. Most of lyrics I listen to in hip-hop perpetuate the ideas of males dominating women, sexually and socially.
33. I have the privilege of consuming and popularizing the word pimp, which is based on the exploitation of women with virtually no opposition from other men.
34. I can hear and use language bitches and hoes that demean women, with virtually no opposition from men.
35. I can wear a shirt that others and I commonly refer to as a "wife beater" and never have the language challenged.
36. Many of my favorite movies include images of strength that do not include members of the opposite sex and often are based on violence.
37. Many of my favorite genres of films, such as martial arts, are based on violence.
38. I have the privilege of popularizing or consuming the idea of a thug, which is based on the violence and victimization of others with virtually no opposition from other men.

Attitudes/Ideology
39. I have the privilege to define black women as having "an attitude" without referencing the range of attitudes that black women have.
40. I have the privilege of defining black women's attitudes without defining my attitudes as a black man.
41. I can believe that the success of the black family is dependent on returning men to their historical place within the family, rather than in promoting policies that strengthen black women's independence, or that provide social benefits to black children.
42. I have the privilege of believing that a woman cannot raise a son to be a man.
43. I have the privilege of believing that a woman must submit to her man.
44. I have the privilege of believing that before slavery gender relationships between black men and women were perfect.
45. I have the privilege of believing that feminism is anti-black.
46. I have the privilege of believing that the failure of the black family is due to the black matriarchy.
47. I have the privilege of believing that household responsibilities are women's roles.
48. I have the privilege of believing that black women are different sexually than other women and judging them negatively based on this belief.

Sports
49. I will make significantly more money as a professional athlete than members of the opposite sex will.
50. In school, girls are cheerleaders for male athletes, but there is no such role for males to cheerlead for women athletes.
51. My financial success or popularity as a professional athlete will not be associated with my looks.
52. I can talk about sports or spend large portions of the day playing video games while women are most likely involved with household or childcare duties.
53. I can spend endless hours watching sports TV and have it considered natural.
54. I can touch, hug, or be emotionally expressive with other men while watching sports without observers perceiving this behavior as sexual.
55. I know that most sports analysts are male.
56. If I am a coach, I can motivate, punish, or embarrass a player by saying that the player plays like a girl.
57. Most sports talk show hosts that are members of my race are men.
58. I can rest assured that most of the coaches -even in predominately-female sports within my race are male.
59. I am able to play sports outside without my shirt on and it not be considered a problem.
60. I am essentially able to do anything inside or outside without my shirt on, whereas women are always required to cover up.

Diaspora/Global
61. I have the privilege of being a part of a sex where the mutilation and disfigurement of a girl's genitalia is used to deny her sexual sensations or to protect her virginity for males.
62. I have the privilege of not having rape be used as a primary tactic or tool to terrorize my sex during war and times of conflict.
63. I have the privilege of not being able to name one female leader in Africa or Asia, past or present, that I pay homage to the way I do male leaders in Africa and/or Asia.
64. I have the ability to travel around the world and have access to women in developing countries both sexually and socially.
65. I have the privilege of being a part of the sex that starts wars and that wields control of almost all the existing weapons of war and mass destruction.
College
66. In college, I will have the opportunity to date outside of the race at a much higher rate than black women will.
67. I have the privilege of having the phrase "sewing my wild oats" apply to my sex as if it were natural.
68. I know that the further I go in education the more success I will have with women.
69. In college, black male professors will be involved in interracial marriages at much higher rates than members of the opposite sex will.
70. By the time I enter college, and even through college, I have the privilege of not having to worry whether I will be able to marry a black woman.
71. In college, I will experience a level of status and prestige that is not offered to black women even though black women may outnumber me and out perform me academically.
72. If I go to an HBCU, I will have incredible opportunities to exploit black women

Communication/Language
73. What is defined as "News" in Black America is defined by men.
74. I can choose to be emotionally withdrawn and not communicate in a relationships and it be considered unfortunate but normal.
75. I can dismissively refer to another persons grievances as ^*ing.
76. I have the privilege of not knowing what words and concepts like patriarchy, phallocentric, complicity, colluding, and obfuscation mean.

Relationships
77. I have the privilege of marrying outside of the race at a much higher rate than black women marry.
78. My "strength" as a man is never connected with the failure of the black family, whereas the strength of black women is routinely associated with the failure of the black family.
79. If I am considering a divorce, I know that I have substantially more marriage, and cohabitation options than my spouse.
80. Chances are I will be defined as a "good man" by things I do not do as much as what I do. If I don't beat, cheat, or lie, then I am a considered a "good man". In comparison, women are rarely defined as "good women" based on what they do not do.
81. I have the privilege of not having to assume most of the household or child-care responsibilities.
82. I have the privilege of having not been raised with domestic responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, and washing that takes up disproportionately more time as adults.

Church & Religious Traditions
83. In the Black Church, the majority of the pastoral leadership is male.
84. In the Black Church Tradition, most of the theology has a male point of view. For example, most will assume that the man is the head of household.

Physical Safety
85. I do not have to worry about being considered a traitor to my race if I call the police on a member of the opposite sex.
86. I have the privilege of knowing men who are physically or sexually abusive to women and yet I still call them friends.
87. I can video tape women in public- often without their consent - with male complicity.
88. I can be courteous to a person of the opposite sex that I do not know and say "Hello" or "Hi" and not fear that it will be taken as a come-on or fear being stalked because of it.
89. I can use physical violence or the threat of physical violence to get what I want when other tactics fail in a relationship.
90. If I get into a physical altercation with a person of the opposite sex, I will most likely be able to impose my will physically on that person
91. I can go to parades or other public events and not worry about being physically and sexually molested by persons of the opposite sex.
92. I can touch and physically grope women's bodies in public- often without their consent- with male complicity.
93. In general, I have the freedom to travel in the night without fear.
94. I am able to be out in public without fear of being sexually harassed by individuals or groups of the opposite sex.

Background:

The Black Male Privileges Checklist was born out of years of organizing men's groups and the numerous -- often heated -- conversations I have had with men while utilizing Barry Deutsch's The Male Privilege Checklist. In my experiences, most men would object to at least some items on the Male Privilege Checklist. However, "men of color", and especially African American men, often had the sharpest criticisms of the Male Privilege Checklist and the most problems relating to the idea of male privilege.

There are many reasons why black men would be reluctant to identify with the concept of male privilege. One of the most important reasons is that our experience with privilege is based on a history of political, economic, and military power that whites have historically exercised over black life. This conceptualization of privilege has not allowed us to see ourselves with privilege because the focus has been placed largely on whites. Privilege is not restricted to economic, political, or military areas of life. Privilege is also social, cultural, sexual, institutional, and interpersonal in nature. Our inability to have a more expansive understanding of privilege and power has foreclosed important insights into virtually every aspect of black men's lives and other "men of color".

As black men, we have also been skeptical of pro-feminist males, most of whom were white and middle class. Black men who fought for freedom during the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movements were suspicious- to say the least- of the motives of white men who were requesting that black men give up the privilege they never felt they had. Given the timing of the pro-feminist male movement and the demographics of these men, it has not been easy to separate the message from the messenger. Black men had a similar reaction to the voices of black feminists, who we saw as being influenced by white middle class feminists. Alongside this, there has long been a belief among many black men that racism provides privileges to black women that are denied to black men.

In addition, many of the items on The Male Privilege Checklist simply did not to apply to black men and other men of color. As a result, many black men argued that the list should have been called The White Male Privilege Checklist. In light of these considerations, the Black Male Privileges Checklist differs from the Male Privilege Checklist in several respects.

First, It departs from an "either/or" view of privilege that suggests that an individual or a group can only be placed into one category. Therefore, the focus is on privileges and not privilege. It also highlights belief systems that often serve as the basis for justifications and rationalizations of exploitation and discrimination. Second, The Black Male Privilege Checklist takes a Life Course perspective, acknowledging the fact that privilege takes on different forms at various points in men's lives. Third, it takes a Global perspective to highlight the privilege that black males have as Americans, and the privileges black men share with other men of color. African American men rarely acknowledge the privilege we have in relationship to people in developing countries -- especially women. Too often, our conception of privilege is limited to white men and does not lead us to reflect on the power that men of color in Africa, Asia, and Latin America exercise over women. Finally, it calls for action and not just awareness. We need "men of color" to be actively involved in social welfare and social justice movements.

Invariably, the Black Male Privileges Checklist will inspire some men to create their own list describing the list of privileges they believe black women benefit from. What men need to understand is that paying attention to male privilege does not mean that women are without faults. Rather, it means that black men cannot be blind to the facts that black men earn more than black women do, black men continue to dominate most of the political, religious, and cultural institutions within the black community, and that black men continue to dominate black women in areas of physical and sexual abuse.

As "men of color", we have a responsibility to acknowledge that we participate in this system even though it offers us little rewards. Most African Americans, for example, take for granted the system of capitalism that we all participate in, even though we know that it does not offer us the same rewards that it does for whites. The sex-gender system, which privileges men over women, operates in similar way for all men. Black men and other "men of color" can participate in this system even though it does not offer similar rewards.

Finally, the Black Male Privileges Checklist is a tool that can be used by any individual, group, organization, family, or community that is interested in black males having greater insight into their individual lives and the collective lives of black women and girls. It is also a living tool that will grow and be amended as more discussion and dialogue occurs. This is the first edition of the Black Male Privileges Checklist and will be updated regularly. This checklist was created with black men in mind, and does not necessarily capture the experiences and cultural references of other ethnic males. I would welcome dialogue with others who are concerned about these constituencies as well.

Please visit our website at http://renaissancemaleproject.com/ to view our Teen & Male Youth Privileges Checklist. An historic tool for all young males, schools, community organizations, youth groups, sports teams, and families that can be used to assist our young males in becoming the type of adult men we want them to be.

Jewel Woods is a gender analyst specializing in men's issues and executive director of the Renaissance Male Project . He is also the co-author of 'Don't Blame it on Rio: The Real Deal Behind Why Men Go to Brazil for Sex.

Bartlett v Obama

2008-09-21T19:28:00.005-04:00

Makes me want to stand up and cheer.

H/T Puff

Read it here. Aaron Sorkin as told to (or written in to) Maureen Dowd:

Now that he’s finally fired up on the soup-line economy, Barack Obama knows he can’t fade out again. He was eager to talk privately to a Democratic ex-president who could offer more fatherly wisdom — not to mention a surreptitious smoke — and less fraternal rivalry. I called the “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin (yes, truly) to get a read-out of the meeting. This is what he wrote:

BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.

BARTLET Senator.

OBAMA Mr. President.

BARTLET You seem startled.

OBAMA I didn’t expect you to answer the door yourself.

BARTLET I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks “The Flintstones” was based on a true story, so let’s call it even.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET Come on in.

BARTLET leads OBAMA into his study.

BARTLET That was a hell of a convention.

OBAMA Thank you, I was proud of it.

BARTLET I meant the Republicans. The Us versus Them-a-thon. As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America. I’ve been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose —

OBAMA Look —

BARTLET — and selling Air Force Two on eBay?

OBAMA Joke all you want, Mr. President, but it worked.

BARTLET Imagine my surprise. What can I do for you, kid?

OBAMA I’m interested in your advice.

BARTLET I can’t give it to you.

OBAMA Why not?

BARTLET I’m supporting McCain.

OBAMA Why?

BARTLET He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my “to do” list.

OBAMA O.K. —

BARTLET And he’s surrounded himself, I think, with the best possible team to get us out of an economic crisis. Why, Sarah Palin just said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” Can you spot the error in that statement?

OBAMA Yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t funded by taxpayers.

BARTLET Well, at least they are now. Kind of reminds you of the time Bush said that Social Security wasn’t a government program. He was only off by a little — Social Security is the largest government program.

OBAMA I appreciate your sense of humor, sir, but I really could use your advice.

BARTLET Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.

OBAMA Which was?

BARTLET A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.

OBAMA And?

BARTLET I was.

OBAMA I mean, how did you overcome that?

BARTLET I won’t lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage.

OBAMA What do you mean?

BARTLET I’m a fictional president. You’re dreaming right now, Senator.

OBAMA I’m asleep?

BARTLET Yes, and you’re losing a ton of white women.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET I mean tons.

OBAMA I understand.

BARTLET I didn’t even think there were that many white women.

OBAMA I see the numbers, sir. What do they want from me?

BARTLET I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me.

OBAMA How did you do it?

BARTLET Well, I say I’m sorry a lot.

OBAMA I don’t mean your marriage, sir. I mean how did you get America on your side?

BARTLET There again, I didn’t have to be president of America, I just had to be president of the people who watched “The West Wing.”

OBAMA That would make it easier.

BARTLET You’d do very well on NBC. Thursday nights in the old “ER” time slot with “30 Rock” as your lead-in, you’d get seven, seven-five in the demo with a 20, 22 share — you’d be selling $450,000 minutes.

OBAMA What the hell does that mean?

BARTLET TV talk. I thought you’d be interested.

OBAMA I’m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?

BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —

OBAMA I have two.

BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with “Thug Life” inked across his chest, you’d come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.

OBAMA You’re not cheering me up.

BARTLET Is that what you came here for?

OBAMA No, but it wouldn’t kill you.

BARTLET Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?

OBAMA Sir —

BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?

OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?

BARTLET Am I keeping you from something?

OBAMA Well, it’s not as if I didn’t know all of that and it took you like 20 minutes to say.

BARTLET I know, I have a problem, but admitting it is the first step.

OBAMA What’s the second step?

BARTLET I don’t care.

OBAMA So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?

BARTLET No. You’re elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you’re still in a statistical dead heat. You’re a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren’t the same thing and you’re in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that’s what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.

OBAMA Wait, what is it you always used to say? When you hit a bump on the show and your people were down and frustrated? You’d give them a pep talk and then you’d always end it with something. What was it ...?

BARTLET “Break’s over.”

And while we're at it--and this has made the rounds so often I forget where the original H/T is, but--in my imagination, then Obama said:

"Hispanic" Heritage Month...

2008-09-15T22:02:00.003-04:00

...begins today. From another mujer "in the empire":

So what of this month? This month that includes “Columbus Day” of all things? This 15th to 15th “month” that derives its name from the Nixon Administration’s labeling of “Hispanic”? No se.

Read the rest at the Unapologetic Mexican.

Mariposa, "Diasporican"

2008-09-12T10:30:00.002-04:00

H/T Sofrito for Your Soul

Favorite line: "Yo no nacio en Puerto Rico/Puerto Rico nacio en mi." It's got a Julia de Burgos swag to it.

Diaspora Poetry: Rio, Salvador (Brazil)

2008-09-11T10:44:00.004-04:00

alchemy |ˈalkəmē|

i have sought
the secret ways
of turning water to wine,
iron to gold.

i found charred rust instead. Red and
blackened,
hot to touch.

i should have stopped to breathe
Yemaya and Erzulie
through both nostrils.

instead,
i tap my veins for
the clutch and cluster of breaks
and war dances;
i pepper the cracks of whips,
a horizon blackened by ships, onto formulas washed invisible
in the blood
of slaves.

yesterday, i spun on the accent.

today, technicolor drumbeats shiver,
but the clenched hands don’t fit.

still.
it still feels right.

**********
i'm not feeling like this poem is finished. but im posting it anyway. i will probably add a new one soon. feel free to sound off on it.

friendly reminder: this, like anything on this blog, is Creative Commons protected. don't make me get gangsta on you!

Possessed.

2008-09-11T10:32:00.002-04:00

This is one of those news items that appear in movies like the Exorcist, or Constantine or End of Days, or in TV shows like Supernatural, or some Stephen King novel as evidence that the end of days is imminent or that true evil just walked past/is in the room/is in their head.

Whoa.

I think the part that really kills me is his son.

Guess Bossip thought so too. Their post which I H/T to, is titled "Jesus Take the Wheel"

I Challenge You, K. Iris!!!!!!

2008-09-11T10:20:00.002-04:00

From SF Signal's Mind Meld series via Pat's Fantasy Hotlist (where I came across it):

As a reader, can you enjoy a story that is pushing an opposed viewpoint from one that you hold (religion/politics)? If the author is prone to holding, and writing about, views opposed to yours, can you enjoy their works or do you stop reading them?

Respond at your convenience.

A Win for Authors and Fans Everywhere

2008-09-09T23:55:00.006-04:00

Some of you may have heard several months ago about the much debated and discussed lawsuit between J. K. Rowling/Warner Bros. and RDR books. If you haven't, I'm shocked cause even I heard about it and sometimes I think I'm living under a rock I miss so much news. The entire issue came up last fall when RDR books and Steve Vander Ark, webmaster of the popular website the Harry Potter Lexicon(an awesome Harry Potter reference site which is of course free to everyone) decided to publish a book version of the website. In other words they were basically making an encyclopedia of sorts with nothing but J. K. Rowling's original words and work rearranged in a low quality format for the benefit of Steve Vander Ark and RDR Books.

As J.K. Rowling explains in her legal complaint:

"The seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series was only released less than six months ago on July 21, 2007. I was touring in support of the book, most recently in the United States and Canada, until December, 2007, after which, I took a much-needed break.

"I was thus sad and disappointed to learn while in the midst of touring in support of the last Harry Potter book that RDR Books and Mr. Vander Ark planned to release a Harry Potter "lexicon" directly contrary to my wishes. I understand that the prposed book is neither commentary nor criticism of the Harry Potter series -- either of which would be entirely legitimate -- but instead lists in alphabetical order the various fictional characters and things in the Harry Potter universe. It is as if I have been 'scooped' before I even had the chance to wind up the book tour for the final Harry Potter installment, much less to write and publish my own Harry Potter guide.

"Even worse, RDR Books and Mr. Vander Ark apparently are attempting to justify publication of the 'lexicon' based on the past praise I had given to the Harry Potter Lexicon fan site. As I have already explained, I have always supposed Harry Potter fans, even if it has meant allowing fan websites to reference copyrighted Harry Potter materials, but have drawn the line at selling such materials for commercial gain. By threatening to publish and sell the unauthorized 'lexicon,' RDR Books and Mr. Vander Ark have crossed that line.

"It is incomprehensible to me that this 'lexicon' should be allowed to be published simply because I encourage and support fan websites or because Mr. Vander Ark was able to finish his 'lexicon' while I was still touring in support of the last Harry Potter book. My fear is that if the 'lexicon' is published, authors like myself will be forced to restrict the use of their materials on fan websites or risk losing their right to restrict other unauthorized uses of those materials. Such a result benefits no one and hurts the fan community most of all.

"Contrary to assertions made by RDR Books and Mr. Vander Ark, there is an enormous difference between enjoying the free Harry Potter Lexicon fan site and allowing a book to be sold that directly competes with future Harry Potter works that I intend to author. Moreover, the website differs significantly from RDR Books' proposed book. The website, to which I gave a fan site award, features exciting graphics, user forums, and critical essays, whereas the proposed book simply repackages story lines and characters from the Harry Potter series in an alphabetical A-Z listing. Also, as I mentioned, the website is free whereas RDR Books plans to sell the book fro $24.95. Lastly, the 'lexicon' does not measure up to the standards that I have set for licensing derivative works. In short, I would never have approved of this 'lexicon.'
"To add insult to injury, I have learned that RDR Books intends to market the 'lexicon' in a way that suggests that I have endorsed it when, in fact, the opposite is true. The back cover of the proposed book contains a large and prominent quote by me that makes it look like I am endorsing the book. In fact, the quote was taken without my permission from a fan award I gave the Harry Potter Lexicon fan site in 2004, which as I explained above, is different in style, purpose and commercialism from the proposed book. Given the similarity between the names of both the website and the 'lexicon,' the book gives the false impression that I have approved of it and suggests to my fans that I am encouraging them to buy the book, when I am not.

"I feel as though my name and my works have been hijacked, against my wishes, for the personal gain and profit of others and diverted from the charities that I intended to benefit. Accordingly, I respectfully ask this Court to stop publication of RDR's Books' 'lexicon' and send a message to other would-be infringers that they may not capitalize on the fame and success of the Harry potter franchise in the future."

Well, after months of waiting the judgment has been made in favor of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. This reference book will not be published!!

News sources are reporting that the judge in the case of J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers vs. RDRBooks has issued a ruling. From WNBC NY:
“The small publisher was not contesting that the lexicon infringes upon Rowling’s copyright but argued that it was a fair use allowable by law for reference books. In his ruling, Patterson noted that reference materials are generally useful to the public but that in this case, Vander Ark went too far. “While the Lexicon, in its current state, is not a fair use of the Harry Potter works, reference works that share the Lexicon’s purpose of aiding readers of literature generally should be encouraged rather than stifled,” he said.
He added that he ruled in Rowling’s favor because the “Lexicon appropriates too much of Rowling’s creative work for its purposes as a reference guide.”
Reuters reports that JKR and WB were awarded $750 per book (seven novels plus the two companion books) in damages, for a total of $6750. The opinion said:
“Since the Lexicon has not been published and thus plaintiffs have suffered no harm beyond the fact of the infringement, the court awards plaintiffs the minimum awards for each work to which plaintiffs have established infringement.”
On the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, IP lawyer Ethan Horwitz summarizes the ruling:
“What Judge Patterson is saying is that when you look at fair use, one of the dominant issues is, are you providing commentary or taking the value of the work and selling it as your own? He decided that the value of the work was being taken, that [Rowling] had the ability to put out the kind of encyclopedia that [Vander Ark] was putting out, and that she’d indicated an intent to do so.”

Basically what this all means is that while anyone can write a commentary or companion book to an author's work they cannot rearrange the authors work for their own gain and publish it without adding other content such as commentary, essays, or discussions of the material. Why is this important? It means that authors still have the rights over their own work and to protect that work from people seeking to profit from it without doing any work of their own.

What would have happened if RDR Books and Steve Vander Ark had won? Well I suppose to say an influx of "reference" books of many popular literary works providing no original content would flood onto the market. Authors would constantly have to fight to protect their work. They would also have to constantly monitor the internet for fan sites, fan fiction, or anything that could lead to further infringement of their work.

In fact, say goodbye to fan websites in general. Say goodbye to online reference material for literary works such as the Lexicon. Say goodbye to fan fiction, and in the case of Harry Potter fans, Wizard Wrock (music and musical bands inspired by and centered around Harry Potter content). J.K. Rowling was not only protecting her rights as an author but our rights as fans to come together as a community and honor an author's work in a respectful manner.

I am a writer and a fan of Harry Potter and as a person in both positions I see the importance of J. K. Rowling's fight in this matter. This is one great win for authors and literary fans all over.

Fact & Fallacy

2008-09-09T01:37:00.004-04:00

Back at the crib. And what do I find in my inbox, courtesy of Littlest Sis!

Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press WriterWed Sep 3, 11:48 PM ET

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

Commentary forthcoming, once I get settled. But didn't want too much time to pass on this one.

Obrigada Littlest Sis and Yahoo News!

Think Hard

2008-08-30T22:07:00.005-04:00

I'm running out of computer battery and on my way to Brazil, so I'll be quick.

Obama's speech.

Beautiful. Eloquent. Centrist. He marked 232 years of struggle instead of +389. He spoke of a preacher from Georgia but did not speak his name. He spoke of environmental justice then littered the floor of Invesco Center with gazillions of little red, blue and white pieces of paper (trees, sir?)

It was like watching a movie. It was unreal. And from the moment he stepped off stage, I became part of the Obama Generation. And if he becomes the next president of the United States, my children will be post-Obama children. That's the reality, folks. Deal with it.

But he did not speak his name.

I know this is a problem for those who feel that the 45 year anniversary of the March on Washington should have been showcased and highlighted by the Democratic presidential nominee. And so now that he did not, is this moment less historic? Anyone watching the speech live would be a fool to say so. Anyone watching the speech at home with tears pouring down their cheeks knows better. I watched the speech standing, in heels, in a restaurant that muted its elevator music to broadcast his words from the windows to the wall, whose patrons clapped in time with the audience, and shouted as he entered and left the stage. Who took pictures of the image projected on a white screen.

Yeah. Historic is an understatement.

I myself am pleasantly surprised that he did not invoke King like everyone else does. It would have appeared trite. It would have appeared political. I personally think it would have alienated more voters (and not just white ones) than it would have won.

And it would have fed into our [insert any community you like here] messianic tendencies.

Obama is not going to save this country.

And he never said he was.

"This election is not about me. It is about you."

King was not going to save this country. And I say that as someone who sees Dr. King not as what-had-happened-was but as historic. I am too young. I am too close to the textbooks and the History Channel. My ancestors may or may not have walked with King. They may have been too busy trying to survive. I don't know.

But it is dangerous--DANGEROUS--to begin to treat Obama as the change that we wish to see in this world and in this country.

WE need to be the change we wish to see.

And it is unfair to ask him to stand up on the national stage and embody a black community that only has its roots in the civil rights movement. He embodies a much more complicated history, one that is about blackness, and immigrant status, and working class and single mom-dom.

I wish he'd said certain things, yes. I wish he'd been slightly less centrist, sure.

But wish him to invoke Dr. King? No. Not that.

And about Palin:

This election is about to be more historic--and harder to win if you are a Democrat--than any election we have ever seen.

And whether Obama or McCain wins, it has the potential to tear us--the Left--apart in a way that we haven't seen since Reagan.

Democrats, we have an opportunity here. That's what this is. An opportunity to rise about trashy, spiteful and painful identity politics and character-smashing. We have an opportunity to redeem ourselves from the vicious sniping at HRC that led us into accusations of misogyny. Our anger at each other is nothing at this point. As Audre Lorde wrote, and I wish I could remember the quote before I run out of computer battery, but the gist of it was that our anger at each other is nothing compared to their hatred of us.

We need to upgrade ourselves. We need to step up our analysis. And we need to think fast because the Republicans are used to using underhanded tactics to get what they want. And they would like for us, the party of Lincoln, liberals and gay rights, to get caught in gender/race/class tangles.

The motto for the next 60 days is Think Hard.

Manifest (A 24-Hour Post)

2008-08-29T15:52:00.011-04:00

manifest 1 |ˈmanəˌfest|

adjective
clear or obvious to the eye or mind.

verb [ trans. ]
display or show (a quality or feeling) by one's acts or appearance; demonstrate.

~*~*~*~

"For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."
~1 Corinthians 12:8-11

~*~*~*~

Photo Credit: Damon Winter/New York Times

"They do not measure themselves against black people or white people; if anything, they learn to walk and talk in the presence of DuBois, Hurston, Hughes, Toomer, Attaway, Wright, and others--when they bite their pillows at night these spirits comfort them."

~Alice Walker, on the correctness of the "incorrect," 1973

Am I using women to embody a man? Perhaps...but woman-spirits speak to me. It is the only experience I know. And it is apt, no? They remind me that there is power in the borderlands. "Only he could have, only now...."

DNC Quick Thoughts

2008-08-28T04:47:00.004-04:00

Since I am back on wireless courtesy of Airport Express...

Since it IS, after all, 4:45 am

Two quickies:

1)

Mamita Mala represents for WOC Boricua-ness (is that a word???) at the DNC. Read on, read on.

2)

I think that the many notes on Michelle Obama's softer, subtler, warmer image are on point. It sucks that we live in a racist, heterosexist world.

But I guess I just want to remind folks, and myself, that it is very likely that Michelle Obama is not getting "handled" in the particular way that people like to say.

As though all of a sudden, Barack had to get her in check for the good of the campaign.

Right.

Her public image is under construction, for better or for worse, yes. But Michelle Obama is a--excuse my français--grown, ass woman. She made it from the south side of Chicago, through Whitney Young Magnet High School (gratuitous shout out), Princeton, Harvard Law (in the 80s, dude!), and created a successful professional career for herself all on her own BEFORE she met Barack.

And she knows what image is. She knows how to use it. She would have to, after all, to GET that far.

So instead of saying Michelle Obama got handled, or is getting handled, or is being put in check, can we consider instead that

--like any professional woman of color who has had to fight tooth, nail, fist, elbow and sometimes by spiked heel to get to the top of her field--

can we consider that perhaps she is making very conscious choices about how she wants to portray herself in this race, is choosing her clothes, makeup, rhetoric, and appearances accordingly (yes, in that order, because it is still a sexist society that sees a woman in that order), and that this has more to do with her being the successful, brilliant, and fierce Michelle that we all fell in love months, years, ago.

That she has worked the system so far and so well without appearing to lose touch with the realities of life for most people of color, blacks in particular, is mind-boggling to me. I love it. I'm inspired by it.

I can't say the same for every professional woman of color I know.

Which is maybe some in-house work we have to do even while we decry the sexism and racism that forces us to play chameleon between home/office/class/communityservice/daycare/happyhour.

(See a slightly edited version over at YBP)

[Updated: The bloggers who wrote on Michelle Obama were linked to because they gave interesting perspectives that kept her changing image in mind. They were not linked to because they did or did not believe she was being "handled" in the way I am discussing. I was attempting to spread link love to those who were giving smart but varied opinions on her speech. Hope this clarifies!]

Erzulie & Oshun

2008-08-26T04:02:00.003-04:00

"Erzulie continues to articulate and embody a memory of slavery, intimacy, and revenge."

Joan Dayan, "Erzulie: A Women's History of Haiti" (2005)

I miss you guys. Lurkers and commentators alike. And once my wireless is fixed at home I will be back to regular blogging.

In the meantime, here's some Afro-Atlantic religion for your palate. I'm off to Brazil in a few days; I figure it is appropriate.

Catch the Twitter tag #DNC08 for Democratic National Convention updates. Or pop into your favorite DNC blogger and support.

And if you start school this week or next week, happy brand new pencil days to you!

[Update: Mean old picture geezers won't let me post the Erzulie image I found. Sorry, mujeres. But Oshun is just as lovely....]

MIchelle Obama @ DNC08

2008-08-26T03:42:00.002-04:00

I heart Michelle Obama. If there was a bumper sticker that said that, I'd buy it.

Wow.

2008-08-23T05:12:00.003-04:00

Even after many years, there is still something about track & field that gets me.

U.S. will just have to do better next time.

Although I can't withhold diaspora love. Congrats Jamaica!

(Sidenote: The women's 2008 4X100 relay team was too fly! If anyone has a link to a pic, linkie me so I can post it here! Next time ladies!)

Gratuitous Puerto Rican-ness

2008-08-22T21:32:00.000-04:00

Toma.

H/T LaToya @ Racialicious

R.I.P. Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones

2008-08-22T10:10:00.004-04:00

R.I.P. Soror.....
~abap~

The Official Release:

For Immediate Release

CONTACT: Nicole Y. Williams
(202) 225-7032
August 20, 2008
Statement on the Passing of Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones

Washington, D.C. - It is with deep sadness that we inform you of the passing of Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, beloved mother to Mervyn Jones II, sister to Barbara L. Walker, dear colleague, loyal servant and friend to all. Congresswoman Tubbs Jones passed after being admitted to Huron Hospital having suffered an aneurysm while driving her car in Cleveland Heights, Ohio on Tuesday evening. She was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. today. The official cause of death was an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Her death followed a full day of activities, including planning for an upcoming forum on electoral reform and other administrative duties yesterday. Congresswoman Tubbs Jones was scheduled to travel to Denver on August 24, 2008 to attend the Democratic National Convention as a superdelegate.

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones is the first African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives from Ohio. Congresswoman Jones is a lifelong resident of the 11th District, which encompasses most of the East Side of Cleveland and parts of the West Side of Cleveland and includes parts of 22 suburbs.

Currently in her fifth term in office, the Congresswoman was a strong advocate for many issues, and championed wealth building and economic development, access and delivery of health care, and quality education for all. The Congresswoman was the first African-American woman to chair the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (Ethics) and the first African-American woman to serve on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. She was an active member of numerous Congressional Caucuses, including the Congressional Black Caucus.

Congresswoman Tubbs Jones has made a number of historic achievements in her distinguished career as a public servant. Prior to her election to the House, Congresswoman Tubbs Jones served as the first African-American and the first female Cuyahoga County, Ohio Prosecutor. She was the first African-American woman to sit on the Common Pleas bench in the State of Ohio and was a Municipal Court Judge in the City of Cleveland.

Congresswoman Tubbs Jones has received numerous honors throughout her lifetime including the National Bible Association Capitol Hill Distinguished Leadership Award, Human Rights Campaign of Cleveland Equality Award, Backbone Campaign's Backbone Award, and the Carib News Multi-National Business Conference Marcus Garvey Award.

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones is a graduate of Cleveland Public Schools. She received her undergraduate degree from Case Western Reserve University, graduating with a degree in Social Work from the Flora Stone Mather College in 1971. She received her Juris Doctorate form Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1974. Additionally, she has received honorary doctorates from David N. Myers University, Notre Dame College, Central State University and Cleveland State University.

An active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, she served on their national Social Action Committee. She was a lifelong member of Bethany Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio and was a member of their Board of Trustees.

Her husband of 27 years Mervyn L. Jones, Sr. preceded her in death.

The Family and the 11th Congressional District Office wishes to thank friends, constituents, and colleagues for their expressions of sympathy and asks that the community allow the family privacy at this time. Thanks are also extended to the Cleveland Heights Police Department and Emergency Medical Services, Huron Road Hospital, The Cleveland Clinic, and Dr. Gus Kious, Chief of Staff at Huron Road Hospital. Information regarding funeral arrangements will be forthcoming.

For Your Information: This is What an Ally Does

2008-08-21T15:45:00.004-04:00

I am at gathering of friends I have known for a long time. Some I've known longer. Some I am closer to than others.

A conversation starts on mixed-race identity.

The tragic mulatto/mulatta myth has been thrown forth:

Are those of mixed-raced inevitable victims of the racist dynamics of our world?
Do the therefore have only the identity that is imposed upon them from the outside but no "real" identity of their own to speak of?
Are they cursed to forever lament their fate, search in vain for a solid, immutable identity, waste away in confusion of who they are or ever could be?

I open my mouth to speak what should be obvious to anyone who reads this Black and Puerto-Rican bloguera's words on a regular basis. (Browse away if you are new, but here is a quick link primer on how the Kis feels about this pseudo & internalized racist b.s.)

But the words don't even leave my mouth before someone in the room, not of mixed-race, is taking up the challenge and batting back. Full throttle. Uncomplicated by her obvious UN-mixed-race-ness, she goes to the root of the problem. Without me having to say a word, without point to me as an example of case-in-point until AFTER the discussion, the challenge has been revealed as the racist b.s. it is, new interpretations have been offered instead, and everyone is reconsidering their relationship to their own identities in new ways.

I didn't even have to speak.

Allies are courageous. They keep it simple, they don't make it self-centric. They are so thorough in their defense that the person/people/community/idea they are defending that the defended person doesn't even need to offer a correction. They put themselves at risk of being called out as, "Hey! You aren't even ____! How can you talk?" because they come from a place of honest, lived reality and informed opinion (read a book, shawties!)

And MOST IMPORTANT--Allies are not benefactors or paternalists. They do not speak because others can't speak. I certainly have a mouth, teeth, tongue and a thinking brain, and I know how to use them all.

Allies speak because they see in others' oppressions the same system that oppresses themselves. Even when they are in privileged positions.

Allies 101. For your information.

Racism in Medicine: AMA Apology

2008-08-19T11:02:00.001-04:00

From the NYT:

Indeed, it’s obvious when you think about it that many more African-Americans died as a result of racist medical treatment in the South than at the hands of all the lynch mobs, bombers, and night riders combined.

The American Medical Association glossed over this issue last month when it issued a formal apology for the racist policies it tolerated — and tacitly endorsed — in the century-long period that ended in the late 1960’s.

Read more here. H/T goes to: My favorite N.a.g.o ;)

Visual Literacy Moment: "Courage," Nike Olympics Ad

2008-08-19T10:36:00.004-04:00

I think this commercial is really well done and I am surprised that 1) I think so and 2) that Nike managed it.

Proceed with commentary.

Jamaican Afrofuturism

2008-08-19T08:24:00.004-04:00

In response to NBC's telemonopoly of the Olympic games, which left some countries unable to watch their athletes compete in real time:

"Some of us have called relatives in Jamaica to hold the phone by the TV. Some have gotten fancy by using hacker techniques to 'break' into BBC video," Barron Channer, board member of www.fastestnation.com, told The Gleaner from his home in South Florida yesterday afternoon. "I personally have visited websites in Korea, China, Syria, Russia, Canada, England and The Bahamas, all in desperation to share in the joy of my Jamaican people."(emphasis mine)

Indeed.

Click here. H/T the noble guys and gals of the Afrofuturist listserv

What Happens When Quirky Black Girls Discover the Erotic, or Summer of Our Lorde III

2008-08-15T09:10:00.005-04:00

Get your erotic here.

Love Letter to a Bus Rider

2008-08-13T21:30:00.006-04:00

This post is partially inspired by readings completed for Session II: Mothering Ourselves of Summer of Our Lorde.

The third myth of black women's self-perfection according to Audre Lorde:

"That perfection is possible, a correct expectation from ourselves and each other, and the only terms of acceptance, humanness. (Not how very useful that makes us to the external institutions!) If you are like me, then you will have to be a lot better than I am in order to even be good enough. And you can't be because no matter how good you are you're still a Black woman, just like me. (Who does she think she is?) So any act or idea that I could accept or at least examine from anyone else is not even tolerable if it comes from you, my mirror image. If you are not THEIR image of perfection, and you can't ever be because you are a Black woman, then you are a reflection upon me. We are never good enough for each other. All your faults become magnified reflections of my own threatening inadequacies. I must attack you first before our enemies confuse us with each other. But they will anyway."

I am processing being yelled at by a young black woman on the bus today because her nephew was hitting the back of my seat, because her nephew was hitting my back, because I looked up from my book and back at him with a pointed glance meant to condemn her maternal misbehavior, because who-did-I-think-I-was to look at her nephew any kind of way, because "she act like somebody wanna touch her anyway!"

Who was wrong?

Me? For the quiet glance I sent backwards that was meant to let her know I did not appreciate having my personal space violated any more than it already was on a crowded metro bus? Was I vibrating my class/color privilege from what I thought was a neutral posture of preoccupied scholarship?

Her? For giving a five year old boy liberties with my body and distancing herself from me in the same breath as someone too good, who thinks she's too good, who thinks someone wants to touch her, who thinks that book, or that backpack, or that aloof stance is going to protect her from the reality of black poverty in the air around me?

"I must attack you first before our enemies confuse us."

But if "they will anyway" why this anger? Why this vitrolic self-hatred that spirals outwards from her to me and back again?

Why did I look down my nose so easily at her nephew, before I knew he was her nephew, when I thought he was her son, when I thought she was just another young, black mother with an out of control child?

"One Black woman sits and silently judges another, how she looks, how she acts, how she impresses others. The first woman's scales are weighted against herself."

Black Girl with a Nephew, I am writing this to you. We both made mistakes earlier today. And I hold you accountable for your anger. But I don't hold you responsible for it. How can I? I love you as I love myself. Which may not be saying much--not yet. But perhaps we can work on this together.

"How often have I demanded from another Black woman what I have not dared to give myself--acceptance, faith, enough space to consider change? How often have I asked her to leap across differences, suspicion, distrust, old pain? How many times have I expected her to jump the hideous gaps of our learned despisals alone, like an animal trained through blindness to ignore the precipice? How many times have I forgotten to ask this question?"

After all, I can't heal as a woman of color until I begin to see my image more fully in the image of you, my sister. At the end of the day, I'm more in love with womankind than I am with my own individual self.

"I am hungry for Black women who will not turn from me in anger and contempt even before they know me or hear what I have to say. I am hungry for Black women who will not turn away from me even if they do not agree with what I say. We are, after all, talking about different combination of the same borrowed sounds."

I am starving for it, actually. Wasting away to my bones for a taste of it. Lusting in every cell of my body with desire for it.

That includes you, Black Girl with a Nephew. Like it or not. Disdain it or not. Reject it or not. Love is love. And I am a jealous, brazen, warrior lover, and I won't be taking no for an answer. My love doesn't need your permission or acknowledgment. It just is. As my anger just is. As I just am. As the feminine Spirit just is.

And, meanwhile, I "reach, advancing with the best of what I have to offer held out at arms length before me--myself."

I hope we grapple again in person, Black Girl with a Nephew. But I will grapple with you in spirit for the rest of my life.

Have a blessed day,

Kismet

A Visual Literacy Moment

2008-08-05T08:18:00.005-04:00

Watch this video without sound.

Then turn the sound up. Is this clever cognitive dissonance or a clever lie?

I know. That's mad vague. I don't want to give too much away though.

Discuss.

(Sidenote: The girl looks more and more like her big sis every day)

H/T Purple Zoe over at the Ultraviolet Underground

X-Posted @ YBP

Waiting 2 Speak is Twittering....

2008-08-04T14:56:00.001-04:00

...as @waiting2speak. Follow us!

www.twitter.com/waiting2speak

As Summer Wanes...

2008-08-02T12:24:00.002-04:00

...remember when music videos had a range of colors, body types and layers of clothing?

If not, let's reflect.

(I used to love this song!)

H/T : The Hypesters

My First Green Smoothie....

2008-08-01T11:07:00.004-04:00

...was delicious.

I used a recipe I found on the forum. I'll post it again here.

"The smoothie of love and joy"

3 bananas
A big handfull of strawberries
Almond milk or water
2 handfulls of spinach
4 dates or 1 tsp raw honey
2 tsp flaxseeds (you kan skip this)

I did it with water. I think I could have added more spinach but my little blender was getting filled up.

I am pretty excited although the ingredients are a tad expensive. Or maybe that is because I also bought my safe food (nectarines) at the same time. Either way, flax seeds ended up being pretty affordable at my local co-op and so was the spinach. And you get a lot for the price.

I am biking to the campus shuttle today as my exercise (and to save my wallet). I guess I am kinda hoping that doing the raw thing these 100 days will end up being more affordable. But we'll see; I'll have to do better than today.

Thinking about health, healthy food and economics makes me think of elle's post on South Los Angeles "fast food moratorium." I completely agree with her. A moratorium on fast food isn't the answer. That doesn't build grocery stores. It doesn't put cash in people's pockets to buy $4.00 bags of salad instead of a $1.00 value menu hamburger. It doesn't pay for gas or electricity to run the fridge and freezer that will keep these things from going bad too quickly. All kinds of things that a middle class takes for granted are not so everywhere. I already know I'm privileged if I can even contemplate going raw for 100 days. Not everyone can.

I will keep reflecting on this as the 100-days goes. If you have your own ponderings, check out Cure This, a forum to probe the intersection between class, ethnicity and health in our society today.

The Power of Class

2008-08-01T04:36:00.002-04:00

Enough is a space for conversations about how a commitment to wealth redistribution plays out in our lives: how we decide what to have, what to keep, what to give away; how we work together to build sustainable grassroots movements; how we challenge capitalism in daily, revolutionary ways.

Challenge your class privilege here.

Lex has an article here on the choke-hold of debt, beyond the monetary, for working-class people of color. Davey has an interesting article on cross-class relationships.

Raw Food 100-Day Challenge

2008-08-01T04:26:00.005-04:00

I'm doing it.

These are my 10 day mini-challenge goals.

Goal: Alternate smoothie every day
Goal: At least two of those smoothies will be green
Goal: Eating green while I am out, even if it is only a salad with or for my meal
Goal: Biking anywhere I can (saves $$ too!)
Goal: Try at least one new raw recipe (this will be easy for this 10 days--it will be my smoothie!)

Safe foods: nectarines, cherries, celery with (homemade, unprocessed) peanut butter

I haven't decided if I am starting a new blog to journal this new adventure, blog it here, blog it on my (all new!) RawFu page, or if I am just going to stick it in the sidebar. I'll keep you posted.

For more information. This challenge is closed until December but definitely sign on for the next round if what you see interests you. I'll post interesting things--like recipes--as I go along.

[Updated: Since the challenge is closed, the link above actually doesn't work. This also scratches out me journaling publicly at Raw Fu. But that's okay, because the idea is to have some accountability and a safe space to do your raw food journey. In the gap, I'll post recipes, links and reflections as the days pass.]

Morning Video Love

2008-07-31T09:03:00.003-04:00

South Africa supposedly banned this SABC television commercial (although there are reports it is still running) of an alternative Soweto.

(Courtesy Chioma via Grupo Afrodescendiente)

I think because of Summer of Our Lorde, I am thinking more and more about our [insert poc, woc, queer & trans, working class here] anger. Note how this man's anger simmers and then righteously explodes. I felt like I was watching myself waiting to speak....except, as a woc, I may not have spoken at all and let it simmer...because too many of us don't speak our anger and let it sit...and now imagine that anger sitting somewhere in my stomach, twisting, growing, into something dangerous....like violence...or cancer...

Anyway, here's the clip.

(Courtesy: Renee @ Womanist Musings)

And this video has gone around before. Let's give it another push around again. What's worse? The C-word? Or the N-word? And is there a radio silence on the McCain and the first?

Blogging for Justice Against Extra-Judicial Electrocution (Tasers)

2008-07-30T09:26:00.004-04:00

Alright family. Time to join the conversation by starting here. And following the linkies. Leave comment love. Tell them you heard about it at Waiting 2 Speak.

Also, in case you've been living under a rock the last few weeks, help the family of Lavena Johnson--help all women who are sexually assaulted while serving in our armed forces--find justice. Sign the petition. And the hearing is TOMORROW so call a Congressperson on this committee and make sure they know they are being held accountable for continued silence on this case! Do it, do it, do it!

Hmm, who's phone is Kismet going to blow up today? *rubbing hands gleefully*

A Rant on Inflated Egos

2008-07-29T22:21:00.005-04:00

You know those people who are just a bit higher up in the hierarchy of whatever situation? They could be a boss, or an older family member, or a teacher of any kind. Yeah those kinds of people. You know how some of them get big headed and suddenly expect you to do whatever they say just cause their in that position and you're beneath them? You know how some of them suddenly feel that you have an obligation to them more than to yourself? I had a fat ass run in with one of those kinds of people today. Someone I had respected and admired until about 6:45 this evening. A black belt. Someone who had not only accomplished what I wanted to accomplish but was one of the few females who had done so in the school.

In asking this person to contribute to a fundraiser to send our team to a world championship competition in France (a team that I am not a part of but am helping to organize the fundraiser for out of the goodness of my fat ass heart) she actually cut me off and, in front of two other black belts, my boss, and a good friend who is part of the team going, said, "You better not tell me cause every time I ask you for a favor you say no. So have _______ ask me cause if you ask me for a favor I won't do it!"

Really? Is that how childish you want to be? Cause I'm pretty sure I'll get nothing from this fundraiser but headaches and lack of sleep. Here's what really happened. She asked me if I was interested in doing an exhibition fight, and I thought about it for a second and then said no. I don't like competition. But more than that I thought she might be talking about one of the show fights she sometimes gets our girls to do. The kind of fights where some fat old rich white men sit around in tuxedos drinking brandy while watching two girls duke it out in the ring. That's how those fights are. The men there treat the fighters like crap. They have to take the freight elevator, they can't even take a regular elevator. Sorry, but I'm not interested. In either case she didn't ask me if I could or if I would. She was very casual and made it sound like she was just tossing the idea out there. She asked me one time. One time. I'm pretty sure one time is not every time.

As it turns out (and she did not explain this until later) the fight was actually for a benefit hosted by our school a couple of weeks ago. Had I known that I would have been more inclined to do it but reluctant nonetheless. So now she's come at me twice and flat out said or insinuated that I don't want to do enough for the school which apparently offends her to know end. Here's the deal. I work at the school full time and I train there 6 days a week. I have organized special events, and I am also an officer of the elite club within the school. I go to every seminar I can afford which means giving up my precious weekends and my precious Sunday which is the one day out of the week that I don't have to go in. No one can tell me I don't do enough for the school. No one can tell me I don't support the school, and whoever tries doesn't know shit.

I do have a life outside martial arts. I am in a serious relationship, am trying to get my writing career underway, and have ritual and coven meetings to attend. Sometimes those things clash. I can't do everything that comes up with the school. I've made a lot of sacrifices for this so forgive me if I try not to let martial arts completely take over my life. Last I checked I was allowed to have a life of my own and a mind of my own too.

Yet, somehow this person got it in her head that she had asked me three times to fight for that event when it was only one, and that by not doing it I'm not supporting the school, and have offended her personally by the fact that I chose not to fight for a benefit that had nothing to do with her or myself in the first place.

Apparently I should feel a higher obligation to her and whatever vague requests she asks of me than I do of my own life, well-being and sanity. So here's what I have to say to that and to anyone else like that out there:

Fuck you and your inflated ego. Fuck you and your "you done me so wrong" attitude. Fuck you and your childish response to a question. Fuck you and your desire to humiliate me to make yourself feel better. Fuck you and your judgement that I don't do enough, that I don't care enough, that I don't work hard enough. Fuck you and your convoluted idea that I owe you somehow.

I have no time, energy or obligation to someone who thinks any of that is okay. So, put that shit in a box and lock it in your closet. You should know better.

Do Something Romantic For Yourself

2008-07-28T19:42:00.003-04:00

Truly.

Margaret Cho speaks. Posting the quote in full but dart over to Reappropriate for the link to the full article:

I was on this radio show, and the DJ asked me, “What if you woke up tomorrow and you were beautiful? What if you woke up and you were blonde, 5′ 11″, and you weighed 100 pounds?”

Well, I probably wouldn’t get up — because I’d be too weak to stand. In our culture, we don’t see people out there with normal-looking bodies. We should all feel beautiful. If you feel beautiful, you will be more political, more active in trying to stand up for yourself, you’ll be in more control of your life, have more sense of power over what you’re doing.

I started to need to feel more positive about myself after I came to Hollywood. I got criticized a lot for my looks — people thought that I was too fat and that I wasn’t pretty. Also, because I’m different — because I’m not white, I’m Asian, I’m not super skinny. I was anorexic for a time when I was about 24, when I was doing television. I was told by network executives that I had to lose weight. I was forced to. I went on a very rigid diet and became very sick because I wasn’t eating at all.

My mother always had body issues, and I really feel that she passed that on to me. She’d had two kids and couldn’t retain her old body. She handed down this disordered eating to me. She was always on a diet and always exercising, but not getting any joy from it. It was a punishing activity. Before I reached puberty, she was always so in love with my body, and saying, “You’re so thin, you’re so thin, just stay that way.”

My father … one time when I was maybe 9 years old and dancing in ballet — I loved it — he said after a recital, “You’re the fattest ballerina.” It so destroyed me that I never wanted to dance again. He wanted to prepare me for a world that was not going to accept me because I think he experienced so much racism. He’d say, “You’re not pretty. And you’re not going to be pretty.” I absolutely believed him.

I was on this radio show, and the DJ asked me, “What if you woke up tomorrow and you were beautiful? What if you woke up and you were blonde, 5′ 11″, and you weighed 100 pounds?”

Well, I probably wouldn’t get up — because I’d be too weak to stand. In our culture, we don’t see people out there with normal-looking bodies. We should all feel beautiful. If you feel beautiful, you will be more political, more active in trying to stand up for yourself, you’ll be in more control of your life, have more sense of power over what you’re doing.

I started to need to feel more positive about myself after I came to Hollywood. I got criticized a lot for my looks — people thought that I was too fat and that I wasn’t pretty. Also, because I’m different — because I’m not white, I’m Asian, I’m not super skinny. I was anorexic for a time when I was about 24, when I was doing television. I was told by network executives that I had to lose weight. I was forced to. I went on a very rigid diet and became very sick because I wasn’t eating at all.

My mother always had body issues, and I really feel that she passed that on to me. She’d had two kids and couldn’t retain her old body. She handed down this disordered eating to me. She was always on a diet and always exercising, but not getting any joy from it. It was a punishing activity. Before I reached puberty, she was always so in love with my body, and saying, “You’re so thin, you’re so thin, just stay that way.”

My father … one time when I was maybe 9 years old and dancing in ballet — I loved it — he said after a recital, “You’re the fattest ballerina.” It so destroyed me that I never wanted to dance again. He wanted to prepare me for a world that was not going to accept me because I think he experienced so much racism. He’d say, “You’re not pretty. And you’re not going to be pretty.” I absolutely believed him.

Now I feel great and settled in myself and the way I look. It took a long time to get there. You need to look in the mirror and compliment yourself. I have these little rituals of being very fastidious about my skin care and drinking a lot of water, and I see the results. When we care for ourselves, these are acts of love.

Do romantic things for yourself. Over the years, I’ve become a dancer, which is a big part of my life. I do belly dancing and burlesque dancing. Now I’m comfortable enough to do shows naked. This is a huge change from feeling super insecure and freaked out to feeling totally comfortable with myself. It’s about celebrating the body as opposed to trying to banish it.

To Put Me In A Box

2008-07-27T19:55:00.003-04:00

"Where'd the name ______ come from?" he asked me. I stood in the back yard of my friend's house with another friend and this guy we had just met. He was worth talking too because he wasn't nearly as obnoxious as some of the other idiots standing around with their beers and cigarettes in hand. I thought he was worth talking too.

I didn't understand his question and neither did my friend next to me. It was my first name, not a nickname. "What do you mean?"

"Well, ______ isn't really a black name or a Puerto Rican name," he said.

"Yes it is. It's not nonblack or Puerto Rican,"

"I've known a lot of _______s and they were all white girls, mostly Irish. It's kind of an Irish name."

"Well if you think about it a lot of black people are Christian and most Puerto Rican's are Catholic and my name is derived from the name Christ." I'm sure my friend standing next to me knew what I was getting at. She was short, Mexican and more easy-going than I was. She gave him a funny look wondering where he was coming up with this shit. She looked more amused than me anyhow.

"It's still more of a white girl name," he said.

"Not really."

"I'm gonna go inside and use the bathroom," my friend said.

"I'll come with you. I have to go too." I said. He probably thought it was one of those weird things girls did where they had to go to the bathroom in groups or something. It wasn't. I did have to go and I'd been holding it for a while.

When we stepped in the back door she laughed and said, "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know, that was so weird. I've never had someone tell me I had a white girl name before."

It was a while later that he came back up to us as we stood in the light beaming outside the garage. He bent down a bit and looked at me. What the hell was he doing now?

"You know how I can tell you're not all black? Cause you don't have black people gums."

Really? Did he really just say that to me? My friend burst out laughing. "What?! What are you talking about?" I asked. I didn't even want to smile because I knew he'd be checking out my mouth which was more than awkward.

"Black people have darker gums and you don't, that's how I can tell you're not all black."

I really had to stop here and wonder to myself what his obsession was with my background and why he felt the need to distinguish me so much. Who cares? No one else cared what I was. No one else was coming up to me and making ignorant remarks about my features and my race which he wouldn't know much about anyway because he was neither black nor Puerto Rican.

"I think it really goes more on features," my friend said, "I've never heard anyone use gums as a reason before."

Now he was starting to bug me. What really topped it off was what he had the nerve to say to me about a minute later.

"And you talk like a white girl."

"Now I can't even talk to you," I said. He smiled and my friend laughed. I turned to her. "See he thinks I'm joking, but I'm not." I spotted my boyfriend across the lawn. "I'm gonna go over there," I said pointing with both hands, and I stepped off the sidewalk into the grass. I walked over and sat next to my boyfriend.

"I was just told I talk like a white girl."

"What! By who?"

"That guy. Their new roommate," I said referring to a group of his buddies who shared an apartment half a mile away. One of those buddies stepped over right at that moment.

"You're new roommate's an ass," I said to him.

"What happened?"

"He just told me I talk like a white girl."

He looked mildly appalled for a moment then said, "Does talking like a white person mean knowing how to speak the English language?"

"Apparently," I said and then recounted everything that had been said from the beginning.

"Dude, what you have to know about him is that he's so ignorant. Sooo ignorant. You'd think being half asian and half Jewish would teach him something but he says shit all the time."

I'd been told I "talk white" before and I just didn't understand it. There was nothing wrong with knowing how to speak proper English. There was nothing "white" about it either and I hated when people made it sound as if being intelligent was something inherently nonblack or nonPuerto Rican. I hated it even more when people made it sound as if intelligence was something reserved for white people alone.

My friend came up to me later and told me he said he only meant that we don't have accents. "We don't have to," I said referring to us both being Latina because that was the common expectation. "Black people don't have accents," I said. That was a stereotype too. Speech and accents were not racially determined. People with accents had them because English wasn't their first language and they never quite picked up on the American accent, or because they were from somewhere else where the accent was different. In Britain I would be the one with the accent. There were plenty of white people with accents because they came from other places, even other places in America, and there were plenty of ethnic people who didn't.

My point still stood that he was trying really hard to categorize me and using ignorant methods and concepts to do so. I guess it just confuses people when they can't put me in a box, when they can't peg me down as one thing or another. For some reason this guy despite his own mixed heritage felt some overwhelming need to define me and see exactly where those definitions didn't fit so he could find new ones to put in their place. Yet he seemed to have no consideration for how rude or offensive he was to me. And I have no patience for people who want to say and believe the crap they come up with.

Soledad, This Is What I Wanted

2008-07-24T21:21:00.005-04:00

Oh Soledad. Afrodescendiente Soledad. One "o" short of illumination.

Let me preface this by saying I did not watch CNN's Black in America part 1, 2 or any this week. I was busy being black in America.

Whatever that means.

Still, after engaging in a variety of conversations on the special and the general state of black America throughout the day, I did get asked one excellent question that I can answer having watched or not.

So what would you guys have preferred to see in a documentary called 'Black in America', and who would be your target audience?

I'll amend it to "what would I like to see in a documentary entitled 'Black in America.'"

First, I'd like to see 'black' defined. Or, rather, undefined. I want to hear about the daily struggles and triumphs of African Americans from all walks of life. But I also want to hear about the Haitian, Nigerian and Dominican communities and their experiences with that fickle and promiscuous thing we call race. I want to hear about the first great migration of Puerto Ricans from the islad to Nueva York and how they were treated as blacks, how they organized with African Americans, and how they did it while creating the peculiar blend of Afro-Spanglish insurgency we like to call the Nuyorican. I want to hear about those of half n half bi-racial, bi-cultural folks--the black and Latin@, black and white, black and Asian, black and African. I want to know about the immigration and immigrant experiences of those of African descent who have come to live here. And I want to know about the expat experiences of those of African American descent who have left for Paris, for Germany, for Ghana. Blogs already pick up on these communities, including Black Women in Europe and Afro-European Sisters. These ladies keep it so poppin that I wish I were in Amsterdam for one of their conferences.

Then I'd like to see a special that walked black males and black females hand in hand through its narrative. And I am going to steal something Lex said in another discussion:

black women
and their families

which means all types of black women, queer black women, single black women, married black women, YOUNG black women, old black women, immigrant black women, professional black women, black women artists, black women politicians

and all kinds of black families which means families with two mommies, black single mothers of different classes and situations, black women raising their siblings, black women with chosen families of close friends, black women who survived abusive families...etc.

She said it better than I could. All I would add is I would like all types to include queer black men, single fathers, married black men, young black men, old black men, immigrant black men...you get the idea?

Ahh, but here's the trick. I, and I can only hope Lex does not mind me taking liberties with her words, I want to see them spoken and written of without pathology. Which means that a single mother is not a somehow deficient mother. She is not somehow destined to raise a gaggle of violent, abusive, jail-bound brats who are leeches on the System. She is just a single mother. And guess what? She has a name! She has dreams and aspirations. She has pain and loneliness. She also has the strength and determination of ~~Job~~ la Virgen to make shit happen.

And if she doesn't, then how dare you blame her? Because she didn't get up at 6 am to make breakfast because she came home from work at 4 am the same morning after working two jobs to keep her daughters in school? Word? Because a black man hurt her by leaving/hitting/taking/raping/inflicting on her the same pain society has inflicted on him his entire lineage, and she actually has both physical and mental scars? Who are you? What have you lived through? What have you pushed so deep inside your gut that it reappears in cancer/diabetes/obesity/arthritis/heart attacks? I want to see a documentary that takes all of this into account and shows the humanity that my words are unable to express, because this language is trapped in a history that it doesn't understand and there are no letters/words/sentences that I can string together that will properly communicate my absolute, my profound love and respect for every single mother across this world trying to save her own life...

And I want black men treated with the same love and humanity. Even though I also want to hear about the fathers who left their wives/girlfriends/mothers/children because this greedy, materialistic, capitalist society made lose their minds, the same way black women lose theirs--but I want to hear also about how the SEXISM (hello!) in this society and RACIST GENDER CONVENTIONS puts the WEIGHT of their insanity in black women's laps. In their broken arms. In their violated bodies. And I don't want to blame them for the craziness that is in their head but I sure as hell want them to be held accountable for the violence that they have done and continue to do. Women of color are dying. They are dying every day. And black men our dying, and yes I still care, because they are the sons, brothers, cousins, and fathers, and uncles, and grandfathers of black women! And the issue is so complicated we don't even know how to twist our minds around it in a way that says Yes! to our anger and our love.

I'd like to see the grassroots movements for change. And I don't want Obama highlighted, believe it or not. I want to hear about Critical Resistance or Incite: Women of Color Against Violence. I want to hear about really local endeavors like Peaceoholics or Youth Education Alliance or Visions to Peace Project. Or the community that rallies itself against violence. I want to hear about projects that are organized in radical ways, like Broken Beautiful Press or the Ubuntu Project--in the face of hateful backlash. I want to see how the black academy is using technology in new ways, like e-Black Studies. I'd like to hear about the diversity in our music, like Jay Electronica or Janelle Monae.

I'd like to hear about filmmakers like Haile Gerima, Charles Burnett, Aisha Simmons, and M. Asli Dukan.

I would not like to see Jesse "them N----rs" Jackson or Al "Where's My Photo Op" Sharpton. I would like mainstream media to find new black "figureheads" to turn to. Because, again, what is black?

I would like to pee my pants with excitement because mainstream media discovered that those heads are cut in the figure of a woman of color.

There is so, so, so, so much more.

But don't say it is too much or ask how can all of that fit in one documentary? The details may be too much because they can't be compartmentalized. Because our lives, as human beings, are messy but inchoate, and constantly evolving.

I would like to see a 'Black in America' that understood that. A film that was focused not on stereotypes and tropes but on the humanity of people of African descent. That didn't try to name, categorize, or sort out our lives on some pre-defined track of mammy, Sambo or N*****r.

And the truth is, if I can't see that, if I can't have a documentary that gives all the blessings and praise and frustration and angst and rant and rave I heap on the black community...a community I claim...which claims me and doesn't like to share me....which has given me more than my share of trauma....which is the reason I am in the business I am in...which is life to my breath and breath to my life....

...if I can't have that...

...then I'd really rather have nothing at all.

The mainstream doesn't need any more help making up myths and fantasies about poc. They have plenty of their own.

And we--black peoples--need to do a better job recriminating our own myths and fantasies, and joining hands across ethnicity, nationality, language, sexual orientation, religion, and political affiliation.

Because, with Obama as the presumptive Democratic nominee, we've got plenty of "friends" who are so, so, so, SO ready to believe that we've got 99 problems....but race ain't one.

All that said....Soledad? I really hope you did a good job.

X-posted at YBP

Think You're Anti-Racist? Take the Test

2008-07-23T03:45:00.002-04:00

Reading this post at Racialious I came across this Adrian Piper quote:

Her observation brings to mind the groundbreaking essay “Passing for White, Passing for Black” by artist Adrian Piper. In the essay, Piper suggests peering at a white person’s features and complimentarily telling the person that he or she appears to have African ancestry, then watching the person’s reaction. She writes:

The ultimate test of a person’s repudiation of racism is not what she can contemplate doing for or on behalf of black people, but whether she herself can contemplate calmly the likelihood of being black. If racial hatred has not manifested itself in any other context, it will do so here if it exists, in hatred of the self as identified as the other—that is, as self-hatred projected onto the other.

I can think of more than a few people (white and Latina/o!) that I want to give THIS test to.

And the post at Racialicious was an interesting read. Go read it for yourself.

2008-07-21T10:23:00.003-04:00

Carol's Daughter Mimosa Hair Honey

reminds me of...

Puerto Rico

will always remind me of...

Puerto Rico

Picking starfruit in Utuado after hours of driving

Hiking to the waterfall of the rainforest El Yunque

Horseback riding with my sister in the foothills

The hotel with it's outdoor space instead of indoor hallways

Sitting outside working on my novel and listening to the coquis chirp

Reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the first and second

time

The streets of Old San Juan: cobblestone, tiny museums, and beautiful

crafts in shops

Tan skin and hot sun

Driving with people who have no sense of direction

The wonderful sandwiches you can get two miles away that can feed

four people for under twenty dollars.

Salsa Congress

Meeting family for the first time

3 generations of women returning to the homeland.

Never Would Have Made It

2008-07-20T21:42:00.001-04:00

Loves this.

2008-07-20T11:40:00.000-04:00

Live (Sunday) Linkage

Keep checking back for more tidbits throughout the day.

What a Pimp Reads (via tweet from mdotwrites) which suffers the reading list of child pimp Corey Davis. Davis lived in the house of his mother who, as commissioner of human services for their town, was also responsible for aid to victims of domestic abuse. (!)

I Heart Rice Milk (via Purple Zoe @ Ultraviolet Underground, the blog quirky black girls like me read) has a recipe for rice milk that I am planning to try. Soon.

Renee gets on Disney and its history of racist constructions in her excellent rant against their First Black Princess

How Chicago Shaped Obama b.k.a The 15 pages behind the "satirical" New Yorker cover. (Courtesy: Ta-Nehisi Coates)

And in case you've been living under a rock the last few days, here is the Sun-Times coverage of J.J.'s dumb (or smart?) use of the N-Word on (of all places!) Fox News. (Courtesy: Various places but I got mine from the field) On the View, Whoopi Goldberg and Elizabeth "My Drama Is Central" Hasselbeck got into a tizzy over the use of the N-Word. Hasselbeck, stop, breathe, and sit down (Bossip covers).

Blogdiva (Fellow Boricuan Liza Sabater of the Culture Kitchen ) is live twittering from NetRoots Nation 2008. And loves Van Jones. From what I heard, I could give love as well. What do you think? The Christian Progressive Liberal over at J&J Politics also has some smart things to say about the NetRoots crew.

And I wish I'd known about Textbook Torrents before the book police got to them. Dang it.

Feminism, Partners, and Relationships

2008-07-20T00:32:00.002-04:00

So...my doctoral student relationship with Mr. just became an ABD relationship. Complete with complaints about uncertain job locations, long distance & long term travel, ambiguous time to degree timetables...the works. The results are not pretty.

The details, of course, are NUNYA. (For all the allies out there, NUNYA = None of Your Business)

Still, as I sat at my computer at almost 1 a.m., frustrated after another pointless conversation on African Diaspora, Ph.D. romance logistics, and tried to figure out who to call to purge, I realized I had a more interesting problem.

Who do I--radical woman of color aspiring academic in a long-term heterosexual relationship with a man of color--talk to about these things?

Let's break down the politics of identity and love for those unfamiliar.

I am Puerto Rican and black. Mr. is black. Which means I at least want to discuss this with someone else of color.

I am female. Which means, for the most, talking to dudes about the problems are out of the question. For the most part. (But we will put this on reserve)

I am in a long term relationship. Which means, I don't want to complain to many of my single friends who so often turn my cathartic scream fest into a session of Romance Olympics ("Oh, but at least you are with someone!", "I would love to be able to complain about a fight with my boyfriend", etc.). I also don't want to complain to those in my life who are so fiercely independent that they are anti- relationships, period. I am in this because I am happy and it works for me. And I want to build it, not automatically assume that a fight between us is the End. And even if it is I don't want to celebrate that.

I am a rwoc who is ambivalent about marriage (yes, the two are tied for me). Which means, I don't really want to complain to my married friends, many of whom are very invested in ideas of subservience and honor that are repugnant to me. Ideas like I should "work with him" or that I should be the one to meet him where he is, that I need to be able to bend, that "men are just like that," or I shouldn't have made him so mad, or I should see it from his side. Excuse me, vomit in my mouth. I can promise that very few of his male friends are telling him the same thing, bump whatever the Bible or the preacher said about love, honor and obey. And there is often an underlying dig in these conversations about how I am still unmarried (which somehow makes my relationship "unofficial" for them), which then leads to the complaint that I'm just a shrill, single female (which has its own underlying dig that "well, that's why you got in the fight in the first place--too independent")

I am a graduate student in a Ph.D. program. Which means I am facing relationship problems particular to those pursuing or part of the professoriate (and those in similar or related professions). I am a nomad. My job prospects are multiplicate and yet dependent on the call for applications. I could as easily end up in Omaha, Nebraska as New York City. My prospects change whether or not I get tenure--and whether I want to make that my home department or not. And there is no one-stop African diaspora archive or repository. Which means to even secure a decent job and/or tenure, I need to travel. For long periods of time. To far away places. (Hence the fight with Mr.) Even if I wanted to--ha!--I actually can't cook, clean house, do laundry, keep the light burning in a way that most hetero men seem to expect out of their significant others because most of my time will be spent researching, writing, thinking, planning seminars/syllabi, etc.

I am also young but not that young. Mid-20s is about the time when I am ready to stop being flagrant and be happy with one person for awhile. It is also about the time that all the images and ideas of society--that I'm getting old, fat, ugly, uncompetitive; that there are only so many "Do Right Black Men," that I'd better grab him and hang on to him no matter what right now or else he'll get on and leave my ass for a white girl--are starting to actually nibble at my consciousness. I can feel myself entering the period of my life where I have to actively resist these damaging representations. I do. And I hope to always do so. But not all 20-somethings are where I am at--more power to them--are ready to have a conversation about my fears and struggle with these images the same way I am.

So...

That's a lot to keep in play at any one time.

Who do you run to? Who do you call? Who gets you, all of you? Despite the identity soup I just cooked above, I still have a few people I can depend on. They mean the world to me. Who, in this context, means the world to you?

~~But this is also a cautionary tale. Do you fall into any of the above categories? If so, stop doing this stuff!~~

Sorry, not the point I wanted to make.

This is the point I want to make. As women--whether you are a rwoc or an ally, a lover of men, women, both, or pan--we need to do a better job of coming together and supporting each other in our relationships in a way that centers our mental and physical health as women. Instead of in a way that bolsters institutions (church, marriage) or the other partner (esp. when they are men of color) or that becomes a self-reflective pity party. Maybe this means doing a better job of separating our romantic relationships from our self-identity so that we can stand, empowered, on our own two feet and offer someone else the same faith, confidence, and strength. Maybe it means becoming more intuitive and responsive to what the myriad women in our lives need at their particular stage--catching them where they are, respecting all their sides, and being open.

Or maybe I just need better friends.

Because When and Where We Enter...

2008-07-19T17:38:00.003-04:00

...the entire human race enters with us.

Posted at elle who got it from Nora who got it in circulation because Kendra Tappin, a Firewalker/Afrofuturist/Womanist/artist/activist/comrade put it out there.

Hell yes.

Give it another push please, as Kendra requested. Forward to at least ONE other person you know.

(X-posted @ Firewalkers: Black Women Doing Women Studies)

Dear Friends,

On Wednesday, June 25 a 20-year-old black woman was raped and robbed in her apartment in Philadelphia. A man forced himself into her apartment and once he was inside he called up two of his friends. After four hours the three men left. The victim was left to walk a mile alone to the closest police station where she reported the crime. The woman’s next-door neighbor has said that she saw the initial intrusion and heard the screaming but that she went to bed and did nothing. Other neighbors reported that they also heard the woman’s screams but that they did nothing.

Twenty-four hours before this incident a 48 year-old woman was raped just a few blocks away. She was lying in her bed when an unknown man intruded into her home. He raped her and he stabbed her in her neck. Police say that they do not believe the two crimes are related or that any of the same men are involved.

I have been silent on this issue, but this morning I woke to a note from a friend who reminded me of the powerful ways in which our silence condemns us.

I am writing you this letter because I know we must do the telling even if we feel afraid, anxious or alone. I am writing this letter to urge you to take up this issue as though you or your family member were the victim, and because I am troubled.

I am troubled because there seems to be an epidemic of violence, sexual violence, against black women. I am troubled because this country’s history is replete with instances of violence against black women, denigration of black women, sexual violation of black women and then turning a blind eye those crimes. Presently I am reminded of:

• The acquittal of R. Kelley

• Megan Williams, a 20 year old black woman in West Virginia who was kidnapped and gang raped by 6 other people, three of whom were women, forced to eat animal feces and insulted with racial slurs.

• A 35 year old black woman in Miami, Florida living in the Dunbar Village Housing Projects who was gang raped by up to 10 men. For three hours the men beat and raped her. They also forced her to perform oral sex on her 12 year-old son whom they also beat and doused with household chemicals. Several months after the crime 4 teenagers, aged14-18, were arrested and charged in relation to the crime.

• The New Jersey 4, black lesbians ages 19, 20, 20 and 24 who were sentenced to prison terms ranging between 3 to 11 years because they defended themselves against a physical and sexual assault from a man who held them down, choked them, spat on them, pulled out their hair from their scalps all because these women are lesbians.

• A conversation with a friend who was distressed because she had heard signs of domestic violence in her neighbor’s apartment but did not know what to do. She was anxious about calling the a hotline because she didn’t think they would offer real alternatives, and she was anxious about calling the police because she thought they’re presence would exacerbate the situation.

• My interaction with a visibly pregnant woman in East Palo Alto with whom l sat and spoke on the street corner after seeing her walking and sobbing, hearing her engaged in a public shouting match with her boyfriend, and noticing black and blue bruises on her arms.

I am troubled by these cases because they reflect, I think, what seems to be an epidemic of violence against black women, little action on the part of our communities and the police/judicial system to protect them, and few strategies for how we might respond.

I am troubled because of the rate at which crimes of sexual and physical violence against black women seem to be occurring. Thinking about it I wonder:

• Why are these crimes happening?

• Is it that black women are being sexually assaulted with more frequency or is it that more cases are being reported?

• Why is it that crimes of sexual violence against black women, particularly as they are happening in such high instances, do not spark movements in our communities like the one to free the Jena 6? See for instance see the case of the New Jersey 4.

• Do these cases just serve as flash and puff for the media but nothing else?

• Is it that black women are quite simply expendable?

• What are we to do?

• For instance, I am for abolishing the prison industry, but how do we hold our communities and these men accountable in the interim when we do not as yet have the means set in place to do so?

I am deeply frustrated, traumatized and pained by the continued disregard for black women’s lives. But a sister-friend has reminded me that it is imperative that we transform our rage and frustration into a vision for action and that it is the power of all of us together that makes us brave.

I am asking you all to be courageous.

I am asking you to read Audre Lorde’s essay “Need,”* a trenchant call to end violence against black women, and her poem ”A Litany for Survival,” a reminder that our silence will not save us. I have attached both pieces. Audre Lorde wrote “Need” in 1979 when 12 black women in Boston were killed in the space of 4 months, but the police and the media ignored the killings claiming that these women were mostly prostitutes. Audre Lorde’s essay and poem are tools for our liberation and creation of a space for community action and healing to protect black women. Her powerful essay provides creative ways that we can respond to gendered violence.

Please read these pieces and share them with at least one other person.

Please sit and talk with people in your community to strategize and brainstorm ways that you could respond to sexual violence or any other kind of violence in our communities.

Please create ways to end gendered and sexual violence against women.

With love, love and more love,

Kendra

Kendra Tappin, Stanford University

"Only the black woman can say 'when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole...race enters with me.'"

Anna Julia Cooper
1892

I'm Back

2008-07-18T15:42:00.002-04:00

Let's begin.

a force and fuel

a feeling and fire

of feminine psychic power

rooted in conflict

that moves

from unbalanced to revolution;

from accusatory to defiant;

from tense to strength;

that incites action and creative expression

out of necessity.

Yes!

~~A collective definition of our Anger by women of color, who came together on July 16, 2008 in the Summer of Our Lorde. ~*~abap~*~

Crossposted. Find more self-care at http://iwannalive.wordpress.com.

Blog Break Open Thread

2008-07-02T23:35:00.005-04:00

I am still on hiatus.

But I am also pondering all sorts of online projects. Inspired, as always, by Firewalking Women and Radical Women of Color such as Lex, Johonna and BFP.

Some of those include e-zines, blog reading/study groups, twitter writing groups, organization webcams, media literacy workshops using YouTube....The possibilities are endless.

What kinds of projects do you imagine? What do you dream technology can do for you as an afrofuturist, artist, activist, researcher, or regular Jane? What should I jump into next (and will you jump with me!)?

Open thread. Until I get back.

Let's inspire each other.