Showing posts with label Other. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Other. Show all posts

February 25, 2016

Open Letter to Oppression


Come for us if you will.

You want to destroy individuals and their work because when they hold up a mirror, the true reflection in which you are harsh even to your own power-numbed conscience scares you too.

Those “others” and poor whites who guard your present-day plantation to suckle at the tit of regular paychecks, lifestyles just a few notches above what they could otherwise afford, titles, structural support, and “I’m an insider” bragging rights crumbs have been around since the founding of this country.

And you rely on any one of them concerning what we are thinking or what we have said? They don’t know!  Don’t put faith in their edited recordings, half-truths, and whisperings that affirm your hatreds and fears. How can you trust reports from those so deeply dependent on your good graces not to tell you exactly what you want to hear to boost their own star, wallets, and egos. They know well your songs and dances, and how to hold your tune. Since slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Era, the Black Power Movement and all strategies targeting “minority” groups up to today they have strengthened their DNA to know how to maintain your pitch.

Who is at risk?

That’s right. You have your open conversations when “others” are not in the room. What do you think the conversations sound like when your liaisons are in their respective rooms? What do you imagine is said by them when the demand to be “in tune” is absent?

We are without ill-will and forthright. Don’t ask your proxy, ask us yourself. Just don’t ask questions you don’t want a genuine answer to. We are not sensitive to the fragile façade to your brutal actions, thoughts and policies, which intend to destroy the aspirations and lives of people who look like us. No.

Your often used trope “I’d like to think that these things are not intentional” lacks veracity. You know that, we know that, the world knows that! Yet you continue to stroke yourself with this widely-known falsehood. How is it possible for anyone to respect that?!

And if you can a lease be honest with yourself, this is what you hate about us: We don’t pretend, along with you, that you are fragile and harmless.

So come for us if you will. But know that when you do, you are coming to destroy what you and the world knows about yourself. It is a form of self-hatred, actually. But you are too weak and greedy to hold yourself accountable.

Sincerely,
Us

October 7, 2014

In Defense of Raven Symoné


Typically, I avoid keeping abreast of what wealthy, famous people are doing and going though. ‘Call me unfeeling, but I just don't care much about their problems because most of them can be fixed with the resources they have. The rest of us are not so fortunate.

But the social media uproar about Raven Symoné's comments underscores an important cultural race practice in America--naming. So I took the bait and watched Raven's interview with Oprah because I wanted to know what she said that has led to the large amount of push-back.
Oh my gawd, from the posts I've read you'd have thought that ol' gurl said that she ain't black and doesn't want to be associated with those people or some such talk like that. Dang, she didn't say anything even close to that!

Maybe people would be less up-in-arms if Raven had not said "I am not African American, I am American," but instead had said "I am not African American, I am human," which is what I believe she is actually trying to communicate. But who knows, maybe people would not get that either.

Something that a friend posted on Facebook this morning is poignant and succinctly sums up the peculiar practice of racial badge wearing required of non-Europeans in America: ""I've been traveling a bit lately to other countries. When people hear me and/or my family speak, they say "You are AMERICAN!" ...not "African-American." That label is used ONLY IN AMERICA. *ijs*"" ~Bert Durant (emphasis his)

Raven is clear about rejecting other language that also labels her as alternative to a default or norm. She doesn't want to be labeled "gay" either.

In her interview with Oprah, Raven is saying that America fails at being the colorblind society that it should be and that in her personal life she is resisting the system of unequal treatment designed to oppress people of color—labeling being a key factor in perpetuating such oppression.

Shouldn't resistance to "othering" language that sets us apart by our skin, culture, or sexual preference be considered revolutionary?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...