Organize, Organize, Organize!

So I just added to my to-do list for the summer that every week I will learn about a new revolution. Lately, I've ben getting more interested in liberation movements, independence movements, anti-oppression struggles and the like. I think as a society, we can always use more inspiration to get involved with the movements we see going on around us. I want people to know and to realize that every little bit counts and that to change the system we have to fight against the system. Organize, revolutionize, educate yourselves, and participate in whatever you can!

Anyway, I will be highlighting everything I learn here. Check me out! :)

Song of The Day :))

The Isley Brothers-At Your Best (You Are Love)

Song of The Day :))

Jay Electronica-Girlfriend

The Tribal Law & Order Act

I recently learned about the Tribal Law and Order Act being passed in Congress. I wonder what this really means for Native communities. The effects of colonists and early US government agents disturbing the harmony of Native communal justice are still felt today. Instead of helping to restore these original systems, activists are relying on the oppressive US judicial institution. The Tribal Law and Order Act is supposed to do a better job of “protecting” Native women against sexual violence. Native communities have had a history of favoring restorative and communal justice rather than the punitive style of justice that the US likes to inflict and since colonization, forms of Native justice have been slowly dying. 

Restorative and communal justice seek to rehabilitate the perpetuator and use the community, not outside forces, to institute real forms of justice. What the Tribal Law and Order Acts essentially says is that instead of really trying to figure out why sexual violence is rampant in Native communities, we’re going to ignore the problem and just lock up anyone who commits this crime. No one is unredeembale and having a bill like this that favors prosecution and imprisonment instead of therapy or getting to the root of the issue, ignores this fact. It ignores the perpetrator and the problem. Surely, sexual violence in Native communities will not be solved by this bill. It says nothing of rape culture and those that are complicit in it.

This bill also protects and emphasizes the police state. This reminds me of the colonial period where sexual violence was committed against Native women and white men blamed it on Native men; this way the white men were seen as saviors of Native women, which instilled fear of Native men as well as false appreciation of the colonizers. It also skewed the importance of the community. This method helped to implement patriarchy, sexism, misogyny, and eurocentricity. To allow and advocate for more encroaching of the police institution onto Native land is both oppressive as well as counter-active. With the police history of discriminating, being violent against and criminalizing communities of color can we really trust the police institution to so-called “protect” Native women?

Protecting Native women would mean an ending to misogyny, sexism, and queerphobia. If you want to stop sexual violence, focus on education and therapy as deterrents not just as a response. As activists, the solution is to focus more on developing strategies to do just that instead of relying on and organizing around the US justice system, an institution that perpetuates the sexism that we should be trying to get rid of.  Do we really need more police to practice surveillance on another community perfectly capable of protecting itself? Yes, we know that Native women deserve equal protection under the law and do deserve that protection, but can this really be protection if it is also oppressive? Can we develop strategies that don’t rely on a marginalizing police and prison state?

The Tribal Law and Order Act also relies on the oppressive Prison Industrial Complex system. The PIC is racist, classist, and sexist. Should advocates against sexual violence be relying on this system where sexual violence is state sponsored within prison walls? “Conditions within the institution continually reinvoke memories of violence and oppression (Are Prisons Obsolete?, Davis).” Do they only care about sexual violence when it happens in the free world?

When I first learned about the Prison Industrial Complex, I was confused about what anti-prison activists saw as a viable alternative to prisons. I believe anti-prison activism to be one of the most powerful and important, yet, ignored liberation movements. When I read Angela Y. Davis’ book, “Are Prisons Obsolete?,” which is obviously pivotal within this movement, my eyes opened to how oppressive the Prison Industrial Complex is. I cannot go into complete detail of all the ills of the prison system here because of length constraints but if you would like to read about the way sexual violence is embedded into the Prison Industrial Complex, read Davis’ book. Here is just a limited overview; the Prison Industrial Complex includes all forms of prison and policing that do not take up the form of restorative or communal justice, here in America and abroad.

First we must realize, illegal acts are committed, number one, because of poverty and racism. The other reason why crimes are committed is because, as the name permits, the Prison Industrial Complex is a business that promotes corporate greed. The more people who go to prison, the more money the government and other corporations make. The government capitalizes off prisoners suffering especially when it comes to the sexual violence that they face and endure. The government therefore also capitalizes off illegal acts committed against victims. Prisons are a form of population control, and if you’re going to limit population growth, go ahead and send the poor people and the people of color away too. Native people are disproportionately incarcerated in the PIC. “‘Prisons, as employed by the Euro-American system, operate to keep Native Americans in a colonial situation. She points out that Native people are vastly overrepresented in the country’s federal and state prisons.” This is the attitude that the government has and yes, people have a personal choice in what they do, however, laws and governments should not make it easier for certain people to commit illegal acts.

Recently, I’ve been noticing the refusal of other liberation movements, such as the feminist movement, to organize around the abolition of the Prison Industrial Complex. Using the practice of intersectionality, feminists and other like-minded movements should realize that anti-prison work is also feminist work, is also anti-racist work, is also anti-queerphobia work, etc. The Prison Industrial Complex was designed to be invisible to the free population, so I cannot be angry with anyone who is uneducated about it, but if we want to be holistic activists we cannot ignore this institution in our activism.

I don’t want to seem ignorant of the facts that illegal acts are being committed everyday and that we need immediate solutions to deter these acts and those who continuously commit them. However, prison is not the answer. As activists our solution should be in educating people about societal ills and finding solutions to those ills, not aiding the government in carrying out marginalization against minorities and other crimes committing within the PIC structure. Prisons are not for rehabilitation, as they were originally created, but for punishment. We cannot be comfortable with living in a society that would rather get even than to improve the perpetrator. “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” -Mahatma Gandhi We have all committed criminal acts that, if pursued vehemently enough may have sent us to prison. The life and well being of a person should not mean less because they are deemed a criminal by our “criminal justice” system. We cannot forget to infuse compassion and love into our activism.

Can we develop strategies to advocate for the abolition of prisons and also seek justice for those who commit illegal acts? People of color, when victims of illegal acts advocate strongly for the perpetrator/s to go to prison. How can people of color advocate so strongly for a system that unfairly targets and oppresses them? The pain and loss involved in losing someone can be detrimental to the psyche, however, minorities should be advocating the most for the abolition of this system not helping to perpetuate it. Making new laws criminalizing acts of violence against women will not see a decrease in this type of violence, however they will fill up more of our prisons, cost us more money, while doing absolutely nothing to solve the real issue.Laws don’t protect us, as we have been brainwashed to believe, they criminalize actions that should be treated with therapy or love.

*cross posted at Refuse the Silence *

Song of The Day :))

The Essence-AZ featuring NaS

What I'm Loving Right Now Part 2

Natural Hair!!

So of course, I have a obligatory story to tell pertaining to my "natural hair journey." So for the most part, I've always been natural, at least according to the usual definititon. I've only had a perm on my edges. So for the better part of my life, I've been getting my hair pressed & flat ironed every two weeks, along with the normal, expected blow drying. I just got tired of the maintenance required in getting my hair pressed, the wrapping, the no-water rule, the sweating out, etc. So I decided to wear my natural hair out, I've been loving it so far. However, what I didn't realize was that natural hair was such a huge movement! There are so many books, Youtube channels, websites, blogs, etc. all on natural hair; how to take care of it, styles, journeys, everything & anything you can imagine! There's so much support for those that want to go natural, so if you want to go natural, know that you are not alone. I totally see this as a resistance to dominant culture and euro-centric standards of beauty. Go head yall!

Below, I'm just going to put up a couple links to videos and other ish that I like when it comes to natural hair.

Naturally Beautiful Hair Blog

Curls, Coils & Kinks

Naturally Obsessed

The SuPreen

Hairlista

Motown Girl

Chiselle Couture

KinkyKurlyQueen

MizNikkiSoBossy

NappyChronicles

xGoldN

What's your favorite natural hair webistes??

Song of The Day :))

The Roots-The Seed 2.0

Song of The Day :))

JDilla-Think Twice

I missed yesterday. :((

Song of The Day :))

Nostalgia-Marco Polo feat. Masta Ace & Roxanne Shante

Song of The Day :))

Slum Village-Fall in Love Remix

Song Of The Day

Little Brother-All For You

Song of The Day :))

A Lighter Shade of Brown-On A Sunday Afternoon

News

Hey yall,

I just wanted to check in & let everyone know that I have a summer series on women of color and sexuality on the Refuse The Silence blog. Click the link and check me out! You can learn more about Refuse The Silence here.

Anthems

Which ones am I missing?

The Racialization of Music Part 1

The other day my boyfriend and I went to the Paid Dues concert in San Bernadino, California. Paid Dues is what I like to call a "concert warehouse", its a good number of acts performing at one huge venue throughout the course of a 12 hour day but all at different times. I had never been to one this big before, Jazz Reggae is probably the closet I've ever came. After attending, I came to the conclusion that I would prefer a smaller concert with just about three artists instead of 15. Its more personal. Anyway, while at Paid Dues, I made another observation, out of maybe 2,000 people, 50 of the attendees were black. This was an all-hip hop concert. Just as most things do, that got me to thinking about the politics of race. In this world nothing is absent from the concept of race, even music. Its a shame too, because music, as beautiful as it is should not be tainted by the confines of race.

With so many different races at this Paid Dues concert I wondered why hip hop still had an African American-only sign attached to it; there are so many different people that love, listen to , and are involved in hip hop. As people of color, which hip hop is most representative of, we have a common struggle of oppression and marginalization. Hip hop was created as an avenue to express oneself in spite of the dominant society. It was created as a counter-culture and a counter-public; I figure that's why so many people connect with it. Hip hop tells a story of being abused and beaten, something a lot of people living in the United States can relate to. We all know that hip hop is mostly bought by white, male teenagers. We also know that this doesn't take into account the fact that hip hop was commercialized and is commodified by rich, white male record executives who are the major reason why we have a glamorization of gangsta culture in America. So why then, is it black Americans who are the victims of hip hop's obvious ills? Hip hop was created by black Americans, however, since it was grown to become entirely more than "black music." In this world of race, salsa belongs to Cubans, Country to white people. Music, essentially is just a few sounds thrown together, how can anyone own sounds? From early on, we know that music has largely been an entity belonging to Black Americans. Black Americans are responsible for much of the musical genres that we have today, either from direct impact or purely because Africa is the original civilization from which all things sprang. However, we must also realize that music has a "full circle" type of relationship with the world. Any music that has ever been created has pulled elements from other people, places and musical genres and it has been copied and remixed. Therefore, no one really owns any type of music and especially no one race owns any type of music.

We can all agree that hip hop perpetuates stereotypes, from black men as thugs to black women as ho's. However, we have to make the distinction that hip hop is not to blame for these stereotypes. Hip hop is criminalized just like blackness is criminalized. Andrea Smith, in her article, "Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing" says, that " we can actually look at the criminalization of Blackness as a logical extension of Blackness as property." Thus we can say that even though hip hop is a entity that is multicultural, it is criminalized and commodified at the expense of black bodies.

What are your thoughts?

The next part in this series will be: The Power of Hip Hop

Interracial Dating: Are We Still Having A Problem With This?: Updated

Today I read this post on YBF on Jill Scott's views on interracial dating. I then, as usual, took to Twitter to have a discussion with my followers on the topic. I thought Jill added a great perspective to why black women might have a problem with black men dating interracially or why women of color have a problem when men of color date white women. She added a perspective I had never thought of before.

Race operates in a black/white binary, with white, along with everything associated with whiteness, being placed in the upper echelons of society and black, along with everything associated with blackness, being placed in the lowest echelon of society. I believe that black self-hate is motivation for the reason that a lot of people get upset when others date outside their race. When society tells you that you're ugly, stupid, and undesirable and that white women are more worthy of protection, more beautiful, more loyal, and smarter, and then you see a black man marry a white woman, its easy to see that as a small confirmation of that skewed self-perception. Also, I think, the real problem arises when both black men and black women designate who they will or won't date based solely on their race. For example, "I don't date black women." or "I don't date outside my race." When a black man completely rules out dating other black people, it obviously reflects on how he feels about his belonging to that race and the race in general.

White is seen as the pinnacle of society. In America, everything that is white is pure, good, and downright better than everything else, especially anything black. White is able to attain everything, black is able to attain nothing. When a black woman sees a black man dating a white woman, its a sense of "them" attaining another thing that should belong to us. It almost as if nothing is untouchable by the white race. Black women generally feel betrayed when a black man dates a white woman. We feel that black men's loyalty should be expressed through the dating of only black women. However, how much does this type of "loyalty" really benefit the black race? Its heteronormative to ask black men to only date within their race so that we can "preserve the black family" and it also reinforces the detrimental concept of race itself. Can someone give me one good reason for why we should only date inside drawn our racial lines? The "black family" has been destroyed since slavery times and I wonder if it ever really existed? Isn't the nuclear family a white ideal? I'm all for building up the black community through economically "buying black, supporting black political leaders, creating black sub-cultures, and the preservation and knowledge of black culture, etc. which are all profitable and beneficial ways to support us, however, I fail to see a real reason how racial dating loyalty benefits the black community in any real ways. I'm sick of hearing black women ask why there aren't black men available, or why black men find other races desirable or why there aren't more black relationships. Its old.

Generally, I think people are way too obsessed with relationships for some reason. Jealousy and unneccessry criticism from intruders always surround relationships for absolutely no reason. That's why its best to keep personal relationship business to yourself if you are in one. I think the ultimate solution is to love yourself and love who you are and where you come from.

Sex Work and Sexual Politics

In the essay by Jo Doezema, “Forced to Choose: Beyond the Voluntary v. Forced Prostitution Dichotomy” another binary of choice is exposed. The dichotomy that is talked about is whether people, mainly women choose to be sex workers or whether they are explicitly forced. However, the point that this piece makes is that poverty is the main factor when it comes to sex work, therefore these women are “forced to choose.” One cannot address prostitution without first addressing poverty and in the same vein one cannot criminalize sex work unless being poor is decriminalized. For so long feminism has been the place where an old debate exists: liberation versus exploitation. Sexism and misogyny tells us that a woman should be modest, reserved and quiet. In this society, showing off a little skin can get a woman labeled anything from a hooker to slut. 

First of all, modern feminists, generally, have taken a stance of favoring liberation in the liberation versus exploitation debate. Meaning they seem more readily convinced that sex work, in its many facets, is a form of liberation for a woman’s body instead of exploitation in and of itself. Feminism sees sex work as bodily autonomy. However, I also think that feminism has done a good job of leaving out the implications of capitalism and racism on sex work and those who participate in prostitution. This is the struggle that more people need to hear about, not just sex work as liberation. Feminism, as the traditional white ideal that it sometimes is, paints sex work as liberation for white women, but we never hear of the poor women and people of color who are held captive by this form of exploitation of the body. Sex is the most profitable industry, in the universe, ever. Sex is used to sell everything from music to cologne. Sex is capitalism’s biggest export and import. In her book, "Black Sexual Politics", Patricia Hill Collins discusses the connection between capitalism and sexual commodity, “making sex highly visible in marketplace commodity relations becomes important to maintaining profitability within the U.S. capitalist economy. The goal is neither to stimulate debate nor to educate, but to sell products.” Therefore, when women’s bodies are used in advertisement as a sales tactic, how can this be liberation?

Sex work is the most extended and serious form of exploitation of women’s bodies. Being that capitalism is contingent on exploiting the labor of underprivileged communities and race, it makes sense that poor women of color are most affected by this system of sexual oppression. Sex work is essentially the intersection of race and capitalism.

Sex work is capitalism’s most visible and hated form of all sexual exploitations. Among other things, sex workers are seen as dirty, dumb, and unworthy of protection under the law. When capitalism exploits sex, it also exploits those who are most affected by the system of capitalism, non-men of color. It is important to make the distinction between supporting sex workers and supporting sex work. We need to stop the criminalization of sex workers because these people are victims of brutal beatings by the capitalism, racism, and sexism found in society and sometimes even untreated mental illness. However, sex work needs to be a system that activists fight against because it is another product of what is wrong in this society. Essentially, feminism and other liberation movements need to support sex workers while fighting against the institution that keeps them oppressed. 


*cross posted at Refuse the Silence's blog*

Yes, It Still Matters: Light vs Dark: Updated

This post if by request. Usually when I write posts, its because I want to shed some light on the situation and present a prespective that I feel probably hasn't been thought about before. This time, someone actually suggested to me a perspective that I hadn't thought about before. What this post about, is the age-old debate of light skinned vs. dark skinned. Dark skinned vs Light skinned is a issue that some see as only happening in the black community, but it is an issue in every culture, from Mexican to Indian. I am someone who believes colonization is the root of almost all problems that we have in the world and especially in the US. The main ingredient of colonization was a white, male centric standard. Sometimes, standards can be good, most times they are bad. Yet, having standards is an idea that is seen as appealing to people. However, when we place standards on people that inhibit who they are as a person, the standards become dangerous instead of helpful. This is what the white standard does. It gives everyone an idea to try to live up to, but an idea that they will ultimately never achieve. The white standard, includes an ideal of beauty; thin, long, straight hair, and white skin. Minorities work everyday to try to achieve this white standard of beauty; with weaves, skin bleaching creams, and constant dieting. Minorities, not only try to achieve this beauty standard within ourselves, but we find ways to marginalize those who don't try to achieve, or don't achieve this beauty standard and we find ways to create a hierarchy, with those that have achieved the beauty standard as much as possible. For example, the people who are light skinned and have long hair are valued above those who don't. In addition, we tell fat people to lose weight, we tell those with natural hair to get a weave, etc. We constantly find ways for those who are not apart of the white standard, to try to achieve it.

In the black community, we create the two identities or dark skinned/light skinned as opposing, binary identities and treat them as sub-races. Light skinned, long hair; dark skinned; short, nappy hair; these are believed to be the true identities of the black race. (Read: School Daze) There's a constant fight between these two identities. Now, I'm not here to knock anyone's perference of getting a weave, or dieting or liking a dark skinned/light skinned complexion in a mate, however, we have to understand that the issue is deeper than just preference, its very possible that your preference is because of the influence that this standard has.

This is a real issue in many communities, but we never really hear of any possible solutions to the problems, we just have repetitive conversations about the problem, what do yall think can help solve the issue?

A Picture is Worth... Part 2

So I've had a couple of discussions about this shit right here and I have also read a couple of commentaries on it as well. I just want to know what do yall think this picture is saying?

Again, we need to be critical about the images that are fed to us by people like Mr. West and Lady GaGa. These are two huge celebrities right now, we buy into their images constantly. When a star is presented to their public, they are not just presenting to us their music, they are presenting their way of thinking, their personality, their style and their mistakes. People like Kanye and Lady GaGa are influencers on our generation, pop culture, our world and our society. When we start to think about images such as this, not as what are they trying to sell us but how are they trying to sell it to us, that's when we can start to hold the images we see in the media accountable. In this image, we see a female body, that falls into what a typical acceptable body looks like in mass white culture. We also see a black man, who obviously falls into the background of this image and is used to contrast Lady GaGa's overly white body. Seemingly, she is being saved from some sort of evil. In the context of feminism, the last thing we need is another woman being saved, especially by a man. However, in the context of feminism and race, the last thing we need is a white woman being saved by a ignorant, blinded by love, man-monster, which Kanye is in this picture. This picture enforces the myth of black bodies for sacrifice of the white dream. Kanye is unimportant, Lady GaGa is the perfect, innocent, white woman.

Gay Men & Their Relationship to Womyn's Bodies

So today, while on my beloved Twiitta (read: Twitter) I started to have a conversation about the relationship between womyn and queer men. Often times, womyn get harrassed by gay men. Womyn get a constant barrage of touches, feelys, lingering looks, luring eyes, foul getsures, and snide comments from gay men. Its as if they feel that they can touch and grope any part of a woman's body with a openness and confidence that I just don't see from heterosexual men; touching of the breats, touching of the hair, giving naughty comments, etc. It seems as if gay men feel that they have a type of access that heterosexual men don't have to womyn's bodies, as if, because they are not sexually attracted to womyn, then grabbing her breasts and commenting on how sexy they are is harmless. Of course heterosexual men also feel that they have an entitlement to womyn's bodies which is evidenced in sexual violence, telling womyn what they should wear, trying to limit the sexual sovereignty of womyn, etc. However, I find it evident that there is a different type of false ownership taking place between gay and heterosexual men and womyn's bodies. Most often, gay men are more open and friendly with their touching and inappropriate comments, while heterosexual men might save the same actions for a sexual scene or mean it in the disrespectful way. Gay men usually do not have the intentions of harming or disrespecting the woman in any way when they touch, unwelcomingly. Its usually a way that they show they like the woman, in a unsexual way, albeit.

The black gay male culture is one that I have a supreme respect and interest in. In black males, we see a culture that is totally different from a lot of cultures that we see in American society. However, womyn get a constant barrage of yelling, passes, unwanted touches, etc. from random men. Womyn are constantly aware of their bodies, unlike men. From years of being subjected to the 'male gaze', womyn see their bodies as a man sees them, on display, as sexual objects. A quick trip outside turns into a fashion show because womyn are aware that they are being watched by the supreme spectators, men. Sadly, it seems, gay men also fall into this category. When a gay man feels that they can touch or make sexual-esque comments towards a woman, it makes womyn even more aware of how her body appears to men, even someone who may not be attracted to her sexually.

Many womyn safe with gay men because they feel that this is one type of man who is not interested in her sexually, but when gay men cross the limit and invite themselves into the personal space of a woman that safety is abandoned. Womyn constantly have to deal with being sexual objects for men, anyone from friends to family members probably have shown a sexual interest or gesture towards any given woman, its tiring to always been seen as a sexual object. It doesn't matter whether a gay man is sexually interested in the opposite gender or not, crossing the line is crossing the line.