May 2012
“[F]or the first several years the SAT was offered, males scored higher than...”
– “Gender Bias in College Admissions Tests”, FairTest.org. (via vaginawoolf)
We were told our English Lang GCSEs were often about sport or politics because boys often underperformed in that exam. I can’t even fathom the number of things wrong with this kind of thinking.
(via benedictatorship)
i...
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chronicsativa asked: LOVE your blog. Thanks for following!
welcometokiahsworld asked: I just wanna say every time I see one of your posts on my dashboard I stop and read or look at it. I mean I scroll through my dashboard pretty quickly most of the time but your posts are so interesting it makes me stop. I love how your blog is so informative and politically conscious. I really do learn new things from your blog and I appreciate you for making this blog. well best wishes to you.
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“Gender isn’t simply a biological trait; it’s a societal one. The female...”
– Greg Rucka in article: “Why I Write Strong Female Characters” (via ka-tagory9)
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to pray is to ask. to meditate is to listen.
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Madness over the word Nigga.
Anonymous: Peace brother, had a question for you regarding the word 'Nigga'. Coming from Africa, I find it hard to associate my self or my fellow Africans (on or off the continent) as 'Niggas'. Its strange to us because we normally address one another by our tribes/clans/languages/regions/nationalities & hardly ever by twists in racial-slurs that came about in recent African history. Its not like we see our fellow Africans in the Americas as different to us, we see them as relatives we lost through history.
What is also strange is that we're meant to see it as a positive thing despite it no other 'race' using such terms to address themselves. Chinese don't call themselves Chinks, Jewish don't call themselves Yids -while those groups people haven't really been enslaved like Africans, we don't see the Irish addressing themselves by the names they were called during their slavery along side Africans. I'm not trying to tell any fellow Africans what to do or how to address themselves...
…but I am curious to find out how the word empowers us rather than puts us down. This is probably a silly question to many, but it is something I've questioned myself for a while. The reason I'm asking you this is because I feel you're someone who is capable of providing an answer that isn't a repeat of lines they've heard off the TV. Personally, I also feel its a word that focuses on a particular part of African people's history & doesnt acknowledge the vast history we're systematically denied.
When I say systematically denied history, I'm referring to governmental education on European/American Slave Trade that we're constantly taught in schools which beats our confidence down and makes us Africans (African migrant youth living outside Africa) feel bad about ourselves on so many levels. A lot of us wouldn't normally consider ourselves 'Black' or 'Niggas' back in Africa, so its a bit odd for some of us to address ourselves that way.
Again, I'm not looking to put down anyone for using the word 'Nigga' -I don't feel its my place to- I'm just curious as to how & why the word is seen as empowering our people. A great person once told me "Start with what hurts you and defend yourself with knowledge!" which is what I'm looking to do. Hope all is well with you brother. Much love to you & your followes & looking forward to your reply.
MadRiche: Peace Brother. I'll try my best to explain the word "Nigga" but please undserstand that this is based on my own personal understanding and research. The word is a direct representation of how misguided we've been conditioned to be. I could imagine what it might look like in East Africa as a result of the Arabs imposing themselves to generations of native people. This cultural distortion is similar to what has happened here on the western hemisphere. We have been denied our entitlment to cultures of our own for the most part and the word nigga is a reflection of that.
I really don't think anyone can say that the word nigga makes them feel great but it does give some unenlightened idividuals a sense of relevance when used harmlessly (and by that I mean unconsciously) amoungst peers. I know this may sound strange and it is. I've had trouble with this for quite some time before I personally took it apon myself to only use the word nigga as a means of attracting the unenlightened to a ray of vital information. What inspired me to do this was listening to 2Pac and how he redefined the word to mean "Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished." I can't speak for everyone on the usage of the word tho. Nowadays in America everyone is a nigga... I've been catching White kids call eachother niggas.. I really don't even know how to feel about this but I like to think about how the word "slave" is derived from the word "Slavic" who were some of the first European slaves during the cruisades and viking invasions.
I think that its imperative that you continue to refuse to be referred to as anything that goes against your sense of dignity. We need to see and hear more of that. Even if we might not always have a disirable response, it'll eventually settle in. I honestly don't think the word nigga should be used by anyone that isn't making an attempt to influence some sort of enlightenment (like conscience musicians, artist, writers etc).
I respect your cuiousity since I share it with you. I've read a few books on the usage of the word and most of them suggested that the development of independence from the dominate society is the best way to gain self-reverence in the stolen-African community. We've called eachother Gods at one brief moment in recent history when consciousness was "cool" (some people still say "G" as a reference to God not Gangsta). The problem is that we are in a state of psychological warfare everyday here and its hard to find empowering evidence of success unless you are REALLY looking. They (the dominators) have systems at work that ensure the miseducation of Africans called the counter-intelligence program.. they literally want to counter our intelligence without shame and at tax-payers expense... why do Black people pay taxes again?? anyway...
This makes it easy for generation after generation to identify with self defeat. There really needs to be more alternatives to how we refer to each other (like brother & sister!) because as hopeful as I can be, I find it saddening that I doubt that the so-called Black people of the Americas will start saying that they are "African, not niggas/blacks" and thats from the highest to the lowest members of the community.
I don't take any offense from your position, its completely logical and honest.
I'm not sure if enough could be said on this topic. It diserves discussion and most importantly, a solution that we come up with - not them! Knowelge is a great liberator when faced with insult. I mean if someone started calling me an orange and I knew better, I'd remain human even if I were dipped in citrus. I hope you get where I'm coming from with this.
Thank you brother, you've provoked some serious thoughts.
this society's insecurities makes us think that he...
"Rap and Hip-Hop isn't meaningful or complex!"
2Pac: And since we all came from a woman, got our name from a woman and our game from a woman, I wonder why we take from our women. Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think it's time to kill for our women, time to heal our women, be real to our women. And if we don't we'll have a race of babies that will hate the ladies that make the babies. And since a man can't make one, he has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one.
Jay-Z: Silly rappers, because we got a couple Porsches, MTV stopped by to film our fortresses. We forget the unfortunate. Sure I ponied up a mill, but I didn't give my time. So in reality I didn't give a dime, or a damn. I just put my monies in the hands of the same people that left my people stranded. Nothin' but a bandit, left them folks abandoned. Damn, that money that we gave was just a band-aid, can't say we better off than we was before.
Kanye West: Is it genocide? 'Cause I can still hear his momma cry, know the family traumatized. Shots left holes in his face, 'bout piranha-size. The old pastor closed the cold casket, and said the church ain’t got enough room for all the tombs. It’s a war going on outside we ain’t safe from, I feel the pain in my city wherever I go. 314 soldiers died in Iraq, 509 died in Chicago.
Mos Def: When the average minimum wage is $5.15, you best believe you gotta find a new grind to get cream. The white unemployment rate, is nearly more than triple for black so frontliners got they gun in your back. Bubblin crack, jewel theft and robbery to combat poverty and end up in the global jail economy. Stiffer stipulations attached to each sentence. Budget cutbacks but increased police presence. And even if you get out of prison still livin join the other five million under state supervision. This is business, no faces just lines and statistics from your phone, your zip code, to S-S-I digits. The system break man child and women into figures. Two columns for who is, and who ain't niggaz. Numbers is hardly real and they never have feelings but you push too hard, even numbers got limits. Why did one straw break the camel's back? Here's the secret: the million other straws underneath it - it's all mathematics
Lupe Fiasco: I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit. Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets. How much money does it take to really make a full clip. 9/11 building 7 did they really pull it. And a bunch of other cover ups. Your childs future was the first to go with budget cuts. If you think that hurts then, wait here comes the uppercut. The school was garbage in the first place, thats on the up and up. Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the uppercrust. You get it then they move you so you never keeping up enough. If you turn on TV all you see’s a bunch of “what the fucks”. Dude is dating so and so blabbering bout such and such. And that aint Jersey Shore, homie thats the news. And these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth. Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist. Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit. Thats why I aint vote for him, next one either. I’ma part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful. And I believe in the people.
“You can’t drive a knife into a man’s back nine inches, pull it out six inches,...”
– Malcolm X (via famous-negro-athletes)
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Shit Black people just can't do, say, and/or act...
white teen with her lil'sis: "Aw, sister day out"
black teen with her lil'sis: "OMG she gota baby so young?"
White teenage mother: "mistakes happen"
Black teenage mother: "thats so sad" "her father wasn't in her life" "welfare queen" (Black people reaction) "Thats a damn shame she gotta baby" "dumb bitch"
White graffiti artist: art
Black graffiti artist: vandalism
White people with locs/dreads: "OMG you're sucha rebel" "your dreads are so hawt"
Black people with locs/dreads: unprofessional
White girl wearing short shorts: no big deal its summertime
Black girl with short shorts: "she has no respect for herself" (Black people reaction)"she's bringing our race down"
White men sagging: "Swag" "thats just the style"
Black men sagging: gangsta, thug, "he looks suspicious"
The vast majority of drug users?: White people
The vast majority of people incarcerated for drugs?: Black
White people: no stop and search
Black people: "he looks suspicious"
White with a hoodie: "its cold out" "thats the new style"
Black with a hoodie: "he looks suspicious" "he's dangerous and might have some skittles and iced tea"
Whites rapping about money, cars, etc: "this is sooo dope" "swag" "Mac Miller is BEAST!"
Black rapping about money, cars, etc: "this is music?"
White in the Ivy League: Congratz!!
Black in the Ivy League: "sport scholarship?" (Black people reaction)"Oh, you hoop? football or track?"
White college athlete: .....
Black college athlete: "thats the only way they can get in college" "you're only here cus' you can dribble a ball"
White people & rock music: normal
Black people & rock music: "you like this music?" (Black people reaction) "you listen to white people shit?"
White ex-con: *processes application* "This is America we believe in second chances"
Black ex-con: Application meet mister trash can
White homophobia: tolerable
Black homophobia: "you guys have always hated gays" "you know thats like slavery"
White in the mall: no need to follow them
Black in the mall: lets play follow the black ma- I mean, leader
White with bad grammar: no big deal
Black with bad grammar: crucified
White & tatted up: body art
Black & tatted up: thug/gangsta
White drug addicts: rehab
Black drug addicts: jail
Movies about the world ending: White man saves the day
Movies about the world ending: about 4billion Asians & around 2 billions Blacks seemingly disappear....
White actors: kings, witches, aliens, warlocks, lawyers, superheroes, teachers, etc.
Black actors: slaves, gangsta, slaves, drug addicts, slaves, poor people.
White woman angry: Justifiable and a lil'bitchy at the most
Black woman angry: Could have had the most shit filled and fucked up day and will always be The Angry Black Woman
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America creates brain dysfunctions, identifies...
