Questions on Blackness

Do you ever find yourself answering questions without thinking? It is as if you're so used to the same conversation that the answers spill from your lips unconsciously. I have, on many occasions, been involved in these mindless situations. The catch to it is the person asking the question is genuine and rightly concerned but the answer, to myself, is generic. There are so many people who don't know and have to be told where to start and have the same thoughts. There is a serious brainwashing that happened and becoming aware has been the new thing to do.

Questions on Blackness are the new fad. As if people in Black skin are reaching a tipping point and wanting to be in the know. Books have been written for years on this subject and only a few have been putting eyes to words. I am finding people who know enough to carry a valid opinion and those who need to re-learn because of their school taught education. I've been brushing up on new facts and details just so my answers can seem less regurgitated. We're an opinion based society but one should not doubt proven fact. The point of learning is to be open-minded and question what you need to be understood. Lately people have been depending on the interpretation of others rather than reading the same source and forming their own conclusions. But there has also been people just searching for a debate that may not end with them understanding the point.

There are those who have compiled a list of reading materials for those who are looking for answers to their questions on Blackness. For those who tend to deter from reading books, the Internet is a tremendous resource in learning anything. Some examples of what I have read so far:

1. They Came Before Columbus
2. Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey
3. The Fire Next Time
4. Stolen Legacy
5. The Destruction of Black Civilization
6. Images of Color, Images of Crime

I have people ask me what I feel once I have read books about the history of black people and I do have an answer. I am upset with my educators (my general education teachers and professors). I would have liked for my educators to at least share the extensive knowledge that I am now obtaining. Is it that they didn't genuinely know these details or they didn't feel the need to share information?

Recently I have stopped lumping every single Black American in the same category and come to the realization it is quite impossible for one race to be cohesive. The human aspect of it all has damaged that thought. While we're lumping every Black person in our statements of helping the race we have failed to realize the human aspect. Not everyone will be on the same page but we must do the work for those that are.

My Killing Rage

Elementary school teachers drilled the importance of Martin Luther King Jr. and his philosophy of nonviolence in my impressionable mind. Middle and high school teachers introduced the “by any means necessary” ode of Malcolm El-Hajj Shabazz (Malcolm X). Undergrad abandoned me and forced me to survive on my own through the autobiography of Assata Shakur. Life opened a grave new spectrum, filled with anger, inequality, injustice and a fading history. Day to day activities held police brutality, racism and sexism. Each aspect of my growth enhanced my killing rage.

Yes, we have come a long way from slavery but blacks are still looked at as three-fifths human. We have proven time and time again our capabilities of being seen as equal but there is embedded hatred for our uprising. bell hooks' essay “Killing Rage” has inspired me to express my own rage toward the white male patriarchal system and its continued oppression. Black men have the "John Henry" effect where even the scrawny are seen to have the ability to beat the machine. The sharp number of ignorant whites and blacks have fed the system of what we are living today. The education system is the first wave of artillery.

The implementation of the federal “No Child Left Behind Act” has started the destruction of an importance of creativity and the wonderment of imagination. The average parent is now forced to work an eight hour shift and fill-in the massive blanks that the education system is starting to leave out. After-school programs are getting cut, the arts are being excess from the budget and passing a test is more important than a real history lesson. Everything is systematic if we like it or not. There is always a means to an end. The powers that be are creating efforts to change and modify education are not doing it with a kind heart. There are no lessons that teach real world experiences and the ability to create your own.

Our past heroes had the right idea pertaining to integration but we had to succumb to the education system that omitted our history. We had to assimilate into a society that didn't care about the outcome of our intelligence. Years passed by of continued brainwashing and subliminal messages, clouding the judgment and leaving an impression on our youth. I have noticed that the disconnection between society and those in charge is unreal. People want us to see things as colorless but blackness is reminded in every negative way possible. Our positive images are infiltrated and the chosen few have become brainwashed.

Why does every day have to be a fight when it comes to embracing culture?

What exactly is the right way?

Every individual has a unique definition of normal and shouldn't be afraid to embrace their existence. The poor neighborhoods are ransacked with patrol cars and beat cops. The search for every infraction is magnetized in the “slums.” Rich crime is overlooked and to the masses seems as if crime can be paid off.

Why is the poor under attack from those who are supposed to protect and serve?

To be poor in the United States is to be criminalized and condemned by the powers that be. I wonder how can an officer of the law who may have been born in a poor neighborhood and environment surrender to persecuting their people. We are being taught to fend for self and to leave the community behind.

Where did we lose our humanity?

Where is the pay it forward attitude of the past?

Civil rights leaders were not thinking standards during their fight. They were focused on changing the future. Within changing the future something went awry and we’re faced with this present police nation. The thing that perplexes me the most is the people who don’t want to see the connection with race. They are the people who side with happenstance when the numbers show facts and coincidence.

There will always be questions with so many and no answers. We have to prepare for the future and the ones will obtain the power of change. My killing rage may or may not be justified but I, like the community of Ferguson, am tired of the injustice and inequality. Embrace your killing rage, be the change you want to see and pay it forward.

Civil Rights and Women's Rights

The racism of white women during the 1950s and 1960s, when the Civil Rights Bill was being pushed was seen as if they were the main reason of it passing. The suffrage movement wasn't for all women. It wasn't for equality and the bill prioritizing race wasn't sufficient for the backers. The racism of Susan B. Anthony and Martha Griffiths has not been blown to a point where their legacies are touched. They are deemed as fighters for the rights of all women. Yet, they were shamed at the fact that black men and women would receive more rights than them. The plan was then devised to ride the coat tail of the Civil Rights Act.

Even to this day, the Feminist/Women's Movement isn't for the equality of all women. The only change may be the decrease of blatant racism and superiority of race. The underlying subtleties are still enough for a small type of segregation. Although the guise is an organization full of unity there still lies a discrepancy.

I have recently began to delve deep in the feminist movement. I started by imposing my opinion on Black Feminism and Woman's History Month. Through my research for each topic I have seen an inequality. Feminism is merely an umbrella for women who are activists for rights. There is a separation between race and orientation yet we are all women. Shouldn't we all be fighting for the same cause rather than taking on "priority" issues one at a time. There is Black Feminism, Transgender Feminism, Queer Feminism and other subdivisions that aren't covered by the main topic.

White feminism seems to outrule the subdivisions. Yes, race and other factors shouldn't separate or deter from the cause but in reality it does. There are issues that just can't relate to a subdivision of feminism.  A black woman may not encounter the same problem as a white woman and therefore leads to either miscommunication or misrepresentation.

It makes me wonder if unity is inevitable or just a dream. Can feminist unity be a real thing any where in the world? We may not even touch the surface of answering this question when the stigma of women united is fearful. There are negative words and thoughts thrown at united women causing the preposterous of obstacles. Women's rights are also civil rights but when discrimination within the unity of all equality comes from those who should be fighting for all then it becomes an issue of integrity.

There is a myth behind the reality of truly equal feminism as there is that of civil rights. In my opinion true equal feminism has a small probability of taking off. There are too many factors to overcome when starting the conversation. The thought of it is great but actually implementing the ideas are a heavy task. I wish for fully equal feminism as well as civil rights but the discussion has to come together like the people willing to see the day.

Let us release every bit of discrimination for fighting for true equality. Let us stand up and fight the good fight for all.