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.

Morals and Human Sexuality Pt. 2

“Sexuality is one of the ways we become enlightened, actually because it leads us to self-knowledge,” –Alice Walker

There are children who are opting to please parents when it comes to forging their own path. There are civil wars going on within between the conscience and the soul. In defining yourself you have accepted your truth and not the fallacy. It is to know every intricate aspect of personality and mirroring it so the masses can see what you perceive.

The explanation of how morals affect human sexuality results in ambiguity. There will always be a personal answer to the question yet no correct answer. Morality is what shapes our personality and the decisions we make. Adding the factor of sexuality and our choices of sexual freedom we tend to choose based on taught values. People define their sexuality based on societal ways of thinking. Recently people are starting to recognize and embrace their truth, leading to personal revolutions.

“Sexuality is fluid. It moves freely in and out of the universe. It’s contingent upon energy and character. Sexuality isn’t based on gender or orientation. I’m queer, always have been. I was taught that there was a binary gender paradigm but I do not adhere to that. I don’t believe that sexuality is a binary concept, but a spectrum. I choose not to adhere to a hetero-normative lifestyle or society.”

“Sexuality isn’t something to be figured out. It is something that grows with you and manifests itself in your being in the most comfortable way. Sexuality is stage that one embraces naturally when they are ready to open up that part of themselves. I can’t say wholeheartedly that my environment per say had shaped my views on sexuality but my morals most definitely. My morals shape my life, how I ought to function and how I treat myself and others. I guess in regards to my sexuality, my morals has led me to create an energy in myself that attracts like souls to explore in the most healthy and respectable way. The universe allows it so that I am able to learn every lesson that comes my way.”

In regards to opposition, sexual revolutions are distasteful if not in the right accordance. In the article, “When Sexuality Goes Feral,” by Bill Muehlenberg he states, “The disastrous consequences of the sexual revolution continue to unfold and be fully displayed to a world losing the ability to even be shocked anymore.” He continues, “Everyone is harmed by this massive social experiment, but it is often our children who are the biggest losers. The destruction of this sexual tsunami shows no signs of aborting and it will only likely get much worse in the days ahead.” Muehlenberg even touches on a person’s personal choice of who to love. “Of course much of this is driven by the militant homosexual lobby and their efforts to destroy marriage and family and even the very idea of biological sexuality. For them one’s sex is purely a matter of social construction and biology has nothing to do with who we are as sexual beings.”

Feral is defined as having returned to an untamed state from domestication or existing in a wild or untamed state. Why does anything need to be tamed in the first place and who is authorized to do such? To define sexuality based on opinion of ignorance is an injustice. People are more inclined to private revolutions in fear of public shaming rather than embrace the essence of who they truly are.

The stigma of having sexual freedom is from those who have fear of doing the same. Although we try to be people who are unfazed by judgment, the responses from others dictate our doings either way. In elaboration, the need for labels and categories for those who are inclined to go against what is deemed normal. Here in fact is where morality and values are the prominent players. These two indicators are what shape the personality of the judged and ones doing the judging.

“For me, sexuality is ever evolving. I’m right in the middle of living this right now and the evolution of my morals through a changing environment is crucial to that. I’ve come to understand they go hand in hand. Sexuality is a really complex and beautiful thing.”

“Sexuality for me is the foundation of life (love, happiness, artistic expression, etc.) and all creations there in. it is the most possibly powerful interaction between individuals with the correct composition of compatibility with one another. Media influence, irresponsibility and ignorance have torn from the genuine eroticism of the natural and explorative act itself, but when between people who respect it and the power it yields; it is the closest physically spiritual experience you can share with someone.”

It is by any means a personal choice and preference of how we choose to explore and display our sexuality individually. Some find strength within discovering what frees them and others are quite as comfortable. There will always be opposition in every situation that involves a choice. How can we permeate right from wrong when there isn’t an ultimate answer? How do the choices of someone else affect how you live your life? These questions should be asked when judging others on their decisions and choices. Everyone has their own set morals in place, let’s respect their decisions and love one another unconditionally.