Unseen Scars

Black person: This process, program, policy is racist.

White person: I'd like to think that what is happening and what they are doing is not intentional.

Translation: I am quite comfortable with the way things are. I'd like for you to believe and behave like it is unintentional too. The only change needed is your attitude adjustment.

Note: There is nothing sweet, cute, endearing, or lovable about racism, patriarchy, or any form of oppression.

Let me say that again: There is nothing sweet, cute, endearing, or lovable about racism, patriarchy, or any form of oppression.

The expectation that responses to any of the above should be "respectable," "politically correct," sweet, or palatable produces the unseen scars of emotional and psychological violence.

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The Loud Silence of Sexual Violence

Between 150 armed terrorist taking over federal land (standoff) and a 12-year-old boy playing with a toy gun in a park (murdered); between state control of female reproductive rights and gendered self-actualization; between, between, between the incessant oppressions and aggressions that seep in through cracks in the wall and hit the roof like a felled tree.

Living while black and in possession of a vagina in America is one hard-ass nut to crack. The only reason there are any black women still walking and breathing in this country is 'cause there are millions of them who are hard-ass nut crackers. Ase!

Yet, yes, from time-to-time we gets real ty-yard.

I am exhausted by the cap-flapping for Cosby, employing any sort of twisted logic to justify denial and minimization of Cosby own admissions in his signed deposition. This by patriarchal men and their female allies.

On the one hand, there is the expectation of racial loyalty because this predator is black. The penal equivalencies argument that Cosby should escape punishment because his white counterparts guilty of greater or equal offenses have not be punished is feeble-minded and exceedingly immoral.

Then there is this: The notion that 50 women could not simultaneously remain silent for 30 years concerning the sexual crimes of a single predator.

Please, post the address of your rock (digital or analog) because there is an error somewhere preventing delivery of your mail and memos. This is the only thing that explains why you have no conception of the level of silence and secrecy that attends sexual violence.

I am not going to go into excruciating detail about the domains (workplace, interpersonal, home, school, etc.) and the relationships of trust (father, brother, boss, teacher, pastor, doctor, etc.) exploited to perpetrate sexual terror.

And, to quite honest, I am not qualified to provide the kind of therapy needed to truly raise your consciousness to the level necessary to grasp the threat women are exposed to routinely.

So, for you own knowledge and curiosity, do this: Ask your mother; wife, fiance, or girlfriend; daughter; niece; and very close female friends if they have ever been raped, sexually assaulted, or molested in any way at all.

On second thought, it may be wise to invest in professional therapy before you do that. Because, if you have a good relationship with the women in your life and they feel comfortable talking with you, you should be prepared for the unexpected.

Once you have talked it out with your therapist and the women in your life, go to those women and admit the occasion(s) when you have, on a "major" or "seemingly small scale" have crossed the boundary of mutual consent.

If you cannot or will not do these things, why you go hard in the paint for people like Cosby and R. Kelly, regardless of race, should be much more clear to you now. That is, if you can be honest, at least, with yourself.

Perhaps you are a sexual violence apologist. And like slavery apologists, identification with the practice does not stop at shielding others from accountability.

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The Cannibalism of Capitalism: New Technology, Same Effect.

 "Masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without [meaningful] work, without possibilities, without any means of escape ... Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded." ~Pope Francis

(Credit: AP/Gregorio Borgia)

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Dear Pope Francis,

Ahem, there is nothing new about the cannibalism of capitalism. But thank you for trying to connect with the masses from your gilded tower.

Respectfully,
The Global Masses

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Pope Francis: Capitalism is "a new tyranny"

Pope Francis on Tuesday called capitalism “a new tyranny” and very explicitly called on global leaders to act on poverty and growing inequality.

Francis’ remarks are part of an 84-page document known as an apostolic exhortation, which makes official the platform for his papacy.

The document is incredibly direct in its call for specific, policy-level action to fight institutional inequality rather than speaking broadly and loftily about poverty as some kind of abstraction or something to be addressed exclusively by charitable giving at the community level, as some of his predecessors have been content to do.

How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “disposable” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.

In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.

Full article by Katie McDonough reposted from Salon.com

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People Against Oppression Everywhere

Occupy Everything!



Rob Herron, III

There is nothing like seeing a unified mass of pissed off people overcoming the American traditions of social conditioning and identity illusion to make a statement against oppression. It’s just beautiful and it’s a phenomenon that hasn’t shown itself in this country since maybe the 60’s or 70’s. The “Occupy” movement is truly a rare sight during these days where so many powerful spirits and minds have been suppressed to maintain the status quo. This process is nothing new though, especially recently as we’ve had front row seats to the many revolts that popped up in Middle Eastern and African countries (I’ll come back to these). 

This time in history is clearly indicative of the need for Humanity to rise up and reclaim its authority, and what better platform for this message than America: the self proclaimed world leaders. I think that’s why the “Occupy” protests springing up in every American city have such a massive significance and a purpose that, honestly, could be in danger of being compromised. The protest itself is the movement because it accomplishes the most important thing an oppressed or deceived people must do to kick start change: speaking.

Specifically, purposeful speaking that calls out wrongdoers and helps to clarify the responsibility of the participants moving forward. But as this movement approaches a stage where its growth is exponential and the message can no longer be hidden by media outlets and the overall power structure the territory gets rocky. It’s at this point that unstable movements start to crumble mainly because the opportunists (both within and outside of the protest) start to show up. The things that people need to be most aware of are the always present human instincts to micromanage or provide a comforting distinction to something.

It’s at this point that the demonstrators and organizers whose hearts are immeasurably committed to achieving liberation have to take ownership of the efforts, or someone else less concerned will. There’s an “Occupy Everything” kind of mindset that defines the power structure that we’ve all been forced to adhere to and that attitude comes out particularly when its reign is threatened. It also comes out when it sees the opportunity to corrupt a pure movement of change, they just can’t pass that up.

Now back to the movements in the Middle East and Africa real quick. Many of the corrupt leaders of countries whose people were trying to overthrow them had to have American assistance to get to that oppressive state, but it was the Americans who swooped in to play savior or rather to stake claim in a place and people that are transitioning. The same idea will apply to the “Occupy” movement. There will be an effort to claim our message of freedom.  As a result we need to have an “Occupy Everything” approach too. We have to be of the mindset of reclaiming every right that has been usurped, every promise that has been skipped out on and every speck of truth that has been kept from us. There can’t be an outcome that falls short of that. If this happens we may see a world “Occupied” completely by liberated people. 

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Rob Herron is a graduate of the journalism school of University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He freelances at 'The Call' in Kansas City. Rob is the author of the blog 'Just Thoughts.'

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