My first blog post was about Black on Black love. So many times you hear the opposite, such as the constant focus in the media of Black on Black crime and how Black people should not worry about police brutality because they do not care about the brutality they inflict on each other. I can see that point and why one would think that. Especially, when it is spoon fed to us. But the fact is, every single race has crimes that are committed by and to people of the same race, religion, sexual orientation etc. The Black race is no different than other other group or sect. Some of us just believe it to be because of what the media shows us. Maybe you did not grow up around many Black people and or you do not live in a place where there are many in the population. What you may associate with being Black, whether that is behavior, attitude, clothing, etc is going to be very different from person to person. As free thinking people, obviously we all know this but we are influenced heavily by what we see especially when we see and hear it from what we believe to be respectable news sources and journalists. We have to challenge what we see and hear and find the real information for ourselves. The point I am getting at is the villainous pictorial of certain groups and sects in the news in comparison to their White peers. That kind of reporting leads to fear whether we are talking about peaceful protesters, Muslims, refugees, or immigrants. I am not talking about your personal political beliefs when it comes to this country, ex: Democrat vs. Republican. I am specifically talking about the fear tactics that are used to prey on those who may not be as knowledgeable, worldly, or equipped to understand the complexities of certain situations. That fear instills illogical thinking and potentially unnecessary actions. These people tend to flock together and the media perpetually propagates the fear that they instill to the point where people feel the need to take action to protect themselves and their families.
There is no reason to fear anyone of the Muslim faith anymore than a Christian, Jehovah's Witness, Lutheran, etc. But we will dive into that in another post... To let some people tell it, Black people are lazy, welfare collecting, no job having, make too many babies out of wedlock, tax refund wasting, uneducated, wastes of space taking up their hard earned tax dollars. That sounds rough but we all know that we have heard these types of words/phrases used behind closed doors, from that one Uncle, friend, or maybe even a closer family member or friend. When the media, extremist groups/militias get together in that perfect storm that villainous depiction has serious and often deadly consequences. Police officers telling people to run over peaceful protesters, women being beaten and thrown in jail over turn signals, children being maced and threatened for the color of their skin, rapes and yes even in 2016 hate crimes, some leading to murder. I do not say this to turn the tables and make White people seem like they are the bad guy. I am saying this because we all can do a better job at being cognoscente of our biases. We all can do a better job at looking at ourselves in the mirror and questioning how we grew up and what we were taught to be truth. We are not born with these behaviors, they are taught to us and learned over time. Talk to your family. Talk to your friends and the hardest part- stand up to people in your circles that are exhibiting questionable behaviors and spreading false truth. Change is not going to happen if we wait for it. We have too drive and inspire change. It does need to be confrontational. As you learn, explore and grow within yourself, you can spread that message and seek to help others start down the same path.
The issue is also two fold. Back to my point on Black love. I do a lot of reading around topics of philosophy, meditation, social issues, and listen to a lot of black and sci-fi radio shows. All kinds of topics around social issues come out from that reading and listening even from the most obscure and mundane places. The one common theme I am seeing in the last few months and one that I am very familiar with is Black people "hating on" or otherwise disparaging other Black people. It feels like a misery loves company situation and it is multi-faceted. When I grew up, I always dealt with the issue of not being Mexican enough for my fellow Latinos at times and not being Black enough for my fellow sistas and brothas at times as well. It was very hard for me. I always felt like I had to seek out the right balance so that Black people did not see me as too "boojie" and Mexicans did not see me as too "ghetto". The kind of music I listened to, mainly rock but I loved hip hop too, the way I dressed "like a skater" (but I also had my Chilly from TLC phase) it was all a teenage nightmare for me. Eventually I found an amazing group of friends and I was able to find who I was and begin to feel comfortable in my own skin. It is one thing for people outside of our race not to understand us: how we dress, our vernacular, our naming conventions for our children etc. But why do we do it to each other? The world being in it's current state of affairs, the last thing we need to do is start segregating ourselves. Good hair vs, bad hair, light hair vs. dark skinned, college degree vs. high school drop out, and the list goes on. Why can we not just accept one another and love who we are.
I know what some of you are thinking? Does that not apply to everyone? Of course it does. But back to my previous point, as a people, Black people have to love one another. It starts with us. We can try to change the mindset of others, we have been doing that since slavery ended. I believe that the way we can do it with the most impact is through that Black love and respect. Our differences make us strong. It is not about anyone being better than anyone else. It is about appreciating one another and helping each other to reach our goals. That may mean a mentor, an internship, a scholarship, a loan, the possibilities are endless. But how can we expect each other to thrive and move forward together when we will not support each other in our endeavors. We all have Black owned businesses in our neighborhoods yet most of us will go to a major chain to get the same item, service, or professional need done. We are so worried about who has what and why, who spent their tax refund, and focusing on tearing each other down. That is where this cooning word comes in. Similar to buffoonery. Black people speaking or acting against other black people. I use Stacey Dash as an example because she was the one recently in the news for it. Steve Harvey, Whoopi Goldberg, Raven Symone, President Barack Obama, Wayne Brady and countless others have been accused of being guilty of it. It is so damaging. Especially when it comes to people of mixed races. It puts people in a position where they feel they have to choose sides and that their is only one definition of what being a Black person is. I think it is shameful and we need to start healing instead of pouring salt in open wounds. We have suffered enough as a people, we do not need to start suffering at our own hands.
Some Black people will chastise me for putting our business in the street as we would say. But the fact of the matter is that all kinds of people read this blog. The only way to learn from one another and grow is to put it out there, my point of view and what I see going on in the world I live in. Just something for people to think about and gain some perspective. I heard our VP and Chief Legal Counsel Michelle Miller give a speech today and it moved me. She said she set out to change the world and realized that she couldn't do it on her own. She focused on her own corner of the world with the hope's of joining it with other corners. That is really what I want this blog to start to do. Show my readers the world through my eyes and continue my own spiritual journey. The sphere of what we know compared to what we don't is practically microscopic. For everything I know, there is probably 100 things that I do not. I am learning, growing and sharing as well. If we all continue to do that together, we will start joining our little corners together. They do not have to match up perfectly, but they can touch and share a connection. To me, that is good enough. Perfection is a losing battle. There is nothing wrong with good enough.
There is no reason to fear anyone of the Muslim faith anymore than a Christian, Jehovah's Witness, Lutheran, etc. But we will dive into that in another post... To let some people tell it, Black people are lazy, welfare collecting, no job having, make too many babies out of wedlock, tax refund wasting, uneducated, wastes of space taking up their hard earned tax dollars. That sounds rough but we all know that we have heard these types of words/phrases used behind closed doors, from that one Uncle, friend, or maybe even a closer family member or friend. When the media, extremist groups/militias get together in that perfect storm that villainous depiction has serious and often deadly consequences. Police officers telling people to run over peaceful protesters, women being beaten and thrown in jail over turn signals, children being maced and threatened for the color of their skin, rapes and yes even in 2016 hate crimes, some leading to murder. I do not say this to turn the tables and make White people seem like they are the bad guy. I am saying this because we all can do a better job at being cognoscente of our biases. We all can do a better job at looking at ourselves in the mirror and questioning how we grew up and what we were taught to be truth. We are not born with these behaviors, they are taught to us and learned over time. Talk to your family. Talk to your friends and the hardest part- stand up to people in your circles that are exhibiting questionable behaviors and spreading false truth. Change is not going to happen if we wait for it. We have too drive and inspire change. It does need to be confrontational. As you learn, explore and grow within yourself, you can spread that message and seek to help others start down the same path.
The issue is also two fold. Back to my point on Black love. I do a lot of reading around topics of philosophy, meditation, social issues, and listen to a lot of black and sci-fi radio shows. All kinds of topics around social issues come out from that reading and listening even from the most obscure and mundane places. The one common theme I am seeing in the last few months and one that I am very familiar with is Black people "hating on" or otherwise disparaging other Black people. It feels like a misery loves company situation and it is multi-faceted. When I grew up, I always dealt with the issue of not being Mexican enough for my fellow Latinos at times and not being Black enough for my fellow sistas and brothas at times as well. It was very hard for me. I always felt like I had to seek out the right balance so that Black people did not see me as too "boojie" and Mexicans did not see me as too "ghetto". The kind of music I listened to, mainly rock but I loved hip hop too, the way I dressed "like a skater" (but I also had my Chilly from TLC phase) it was all a teenage nightmare for me. Eventually I found an amazing group of friends and I was able to find who I was and begin to feel comfortable in my own skin. It is one thing for people outside of our race not to understand us: how we dress, our vernacular, our naming conventions for our children etc. But why do we do it to each other? The world being in it's current state of affairs, the last thing we need to do is start segregating ourselves. Good hair vs, bad hair, light hair vs. dark skinned, college degree vs. high school drop out, and the list goes on. Why can we not just accept one another and love who we are.
I know what some of you are thinking? Does that not apply to everyone? Of course it does. But back to my previous point, as a people, Black people have to love one another. It starts with us. We can try to change the mindset of others, we have been doing that since slavery ended. I believe that the way we can do it with the most impact is through that Black love and respect. Our differences make us strong. It is not about anyone being better than anyone else. It is about appreciating one another and helping each other to reach our goals. That may mean a mentor, an internship, a scholarship, a loan, the possibilities are endless. But how can we expect each other to thrive and move forward together when we will not support each other in our endeavors. We all have Black owned businesses in our neighborhoods yet most of us will go to a major chain to get the same item, service, or professional need done. We are so worried about who has what and why, who spent their tax refund, and focusing on tearing each other down. That is where this cooning word comes in. Similar to buffoonery. Black people speaking or acting against other black people. I use Stacey Dash as an example because she was the one recently in the news for it. Steve Harvey, Whoopi Goldberg, Raven Symone, President Barack Obama, Wayne Brady and countless others have been accused of being guilty of it. It is so damaging. Especially when it comes to people of mixed races. It puts people in a position where they feel they have to choose sides and that their is only one definition of what being a Black person is. I think it is shameful and we need to start healing instead of pouring salt in open wounds. We have suffered enough as a people, we do not need to start suffering at our own hands.
Some Black people will chastise me for putting our business in the street as we would say. But the fact of the matter is that all kinds of people read this blog. The only way to learn from one another and grow is to put it out there, my point of view and what I see going on in the world I live in. Just something for people to think about and gain some perspective. I heard our VP and Chief Legal Counsel Michelle Miller give a speech today and it moved me. She said she set out to change the world and realized that she couldn't do it on her own. She focused on her own corner of the world with the hope's of joining it with other corners. That is really what I want this blog to start to do. Show my readers the world through my eyes and continue my own spiritual journey. The sphere of what we know compared to what we don't is practically microscopic. For everything I know, there is probably 100 things that I do not. I am learning, growing and sharing as well. If we all continue to do that together, we will start joining our little corners together. They do not have to match up perfectly, but they can touch and share a connection. To me, that is good enough. Perfection is a losing battle. There is nothing wrong with good enough.
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