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Visitor
First Time Poster
Username: Visitor
Post Number: 1
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 18, 2005 - 05:41 pm: | 
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Here we go again. Black Americans are still looking for an identity. Pick combs, Kwanzaa - or maybe Kanesha, Lavetta, Latonda, Lashonda - you name it. Offspring branded for life – and what a damn shame at that. From “boy” to “colored” to “black” to “Negro” to “Afro” to “African-American” and so on, it’s all become a sad joke – just hype and more African-American jive. Unless a substantial majority of one’s ancestry is from a “black” African country along with other qualifying characteristics, they’ll never be considered to be an “African-anything”, much to the delight of those who hail from the vast continent of Africa itself, and to the chagrin of many an unknown wannabe.
Just as in the old 1/32 rule (i.e., White America’s haunting but misguided attempt at racial purity), many black Americans have been unceremoniously sucked into the endless void of distinct colorization championed by nothing more than a bunch of hypocritical self-anointed “think tank” talking heads who themselves proclaim to be the defacto leaders of a non-existent black psyche. What is African American? Is the jury still out?
Funny thing - when U.S. residents of nationalities from abroad hyphenate themselves as in British-American, Jamaican-American, Chinese-American, etc., at least they have an actual country to identify with. The so-called U.S.-born “African-Americans” (i.e., blacks) in general can’t even trace their heritage to any single country in Africa, thus it seems as if they’ve hijacked “African” as a pathetic moniker for their own delusional misgivings about being a person of color more closely associated with the indigenous “black” peoples of the African continent. In other words, they don’t like the connotations associated with the color “black”. Last time I looked, black was just a color and theoretically, it simply represents the absence of light. That’s about it.
Isn’t it interesting that even though “black America” as a whole seems to be desperately trying to African-Americanize virtually everything in its domain from media to business to food, etc., skin color still is and will continue to be the defining factor within the black community when it comes to beauty, success, trustworthiness, aptitude and much more. Forget the hair, forget the nose, blue veins are where it goes, or at least they say. And don’t think for a hot minute that white America isn’t satisfied with watching black Americans aggressively reaffirm themselves as African-Americans. As W.C. Fields put it, “there’s a sucker born every minute”.
Just think what life must be like for those of mixed race (i.e., in this case, black and whatever). Despite a longing for their own unique and perhaps justified identity, they’ve been dragged down into the African-American quagmire. Is this simply a ploy by their elected “African-American” leaders to “pump up” the numbers and inflate the census, or is it something more sinister as in denying an entire group of people the intrinsic right to correctly self-identify themselves without fear of persecution from the “black” masses?
A brief look at the media – mainstream, cable, print, etc. Last time I watched BET, virtually every music video featured nothing more than a bunch of big-lipped dark-skinned non-singing jewelry-dripping “black English-speaking (Blinglish – is it language, or is it bling?)” “peasy-head looking” “brothers” parading around with a harem of long-haired fine-featured high-yellow ass sisters, white girls and island-hopping Buddha heads. Didn’t see Aunt Jemima in that crowd, huh? Nothing wrong with sporting a little high-yellow booty on your arm, now is it fellas? Brothers just kill me when they walk by – and you can just hear them saying, “look what I got!” I’ve “arrived. How insane. The only thing they’ve got is low self-esteem. And by the way, lest our ears deceive us, will we ever see a “black” burger commercial without some kind of “black-themed” buffoonish hip-hop jingle tune dreamed up by some white guy who thinks the “hood” is in his pants? You know, it just amazes me how much advertisers struggle to depict the “African-American”. They get it wrong almost every time, because “we’re’ not African-American, and never will be.
On television, numerous “black” actors who are comedians, or who portray high-profile lawyers, prominent doctors, influential business executives, cutting-edge technologists, superior athletes and so forth are all sporting either a piece of high-yellow ass, or something close to it. Most if not all of them profess to be “African-American”. However, it will likely snow in hell before you’ll find a genuine “African-American” (i.e., person of significant African lineage) that is high-yellow, partly yellow, or anything in that neighborhood, to say the least. Niggas, puhleeze. Talk about – light-skinned blacks will date virtually anyone, but dark-skinned blacks will aim straight for the yellow, or the “cream” as some put it. Hypocritical, or what?
Last time I looked, the genuine African-American U.N. Secretary General, the only living U.S. African-American Supreme Court Justice, the most well-known U.S. African-American entertainment promoter, and a who’s who of U.S. African-American business leaders, sports figures and entertainers are either married to or have a main squeeze that is so far from “The Color Purple” that the ink hit the floor before the book went to print. My, oh my.
Come on - give me a break. What is this African-American bullshit? Damn near every “black” person I know will be the first to tell you that their ancestors were from some American Indian tribe or from Europe or Asia well before they’ll tell you that their other ancestors from ten, twenty and thirty generations ago were African kings, queens and people of nobility. Yes, those niggers are full of shit and “The Last Poets” go it right. Good luck if you can still find that release on the shelf.
Well, well, well. The hair thing - big, isn’t it? Not that big, really. If you haven’t noticed, long flowing hair is in, or should I say hair weaves? Guess those famous tennis sisters had better look out for the rain folks. It’s just damn shame that blacks, mulattos, 50/50’s and the like are still hung up on the African-American crutch when as a whole, “African-American” really constitutes a wide and ethnically diverse group of people in their minds; but in reality – only the African-Americans from Africa justly claim that right. Too bad it’s not recognized and admired as such. Interesting enough, the term African-American seems to be “played on” more often when 1) there is an attempt to marginalize, 2) there is an injustice, 3) there is an effort to isolate or 4) it’s time to complain.
We could go on and on and on, but you get the point, or maybe you don’t. African-American’s we’re not. Black Americans we’re not. Proud Americans we definitely are, with our own great culture that rivals the most renowned of the breed. Mixed Americans virtually all of us are. Of course, if we identified with that category, we’d certainly rob other groups of their opportunity to not be white, and definitely not be black, or African-American. Who’s being fooled here? Last time I looked, even the Asians were dying their hair blonde, surgically changing their eye shape, getting blue colored contact lenses, and just about everything else that could fit on a credit card.
And yes, for all y’all black “blacks” out there (and I don’t mean yellow or cinnamon brown, you know what I mean), unless you’ve got MJ’s (skin color changing) type of money – you’re going to black and maybe even purple black (i.e., real black) for the rest of your God Damn black lives, so get used to it. And what exactly “is” an African-American?
People might not say it, but most of them play it. “The color game.” Don’t take it too seriously.
And So It Goes…
p.s., I plead the 5th. All said.
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Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 189
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 18, 2005 - 05:57 pm: |
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I am an African from Sudan.
What you just posted is total and utter BULLSHIT.
Any man who looks like Michael Jordan or Danny Glover, any woman who looks like India Arie or Lauryn Hill....is quite clearly, and IDENTIFIABLY, of African stock to me.
If the specific nation or tribe is not clear...it doesn't matter, they are still AFRICAN by bloodberry.
Anyone can look at Michael Jordan and SEE that he is "Denkinyira" mixed with "Ashanti".
We can look at Danny Glover and SEE that he is "Yoruban", "Fulani" and "Fante".
We can look at India Arie and SEE that she is "Mandinka" (Mandingo).
Granted, people from Africa are less inclined to wish to claim the Mulatto (unless they have African hair and strong African features, ie. Red Foxx and Toni Morrison, who are high yellow but look TOTALLY African)....or don't want to claim those who are too mixed.
But continental Africans---not the Bougie Upper Class wealthy ones that come here for schooling---but the continental everyday Africans "DO" see Black Americans, Jamaicans, etc. as "African" people.
They still look just like us, they come from us....and EVEN IF THEY CAN'T TELL WHAT TRIBE THEY COME FROM...
....WE USUALLY CAN.
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Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 190
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 18, 2005 - 06:06 pm: |
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You complain about Black Americans calling themselves "African-American" in one breath....you bitch about their self-hatred and not wanting to be "black" in the next.
The first step in ANY black person's claiming their true identity.....is to claim "AFRICA", which is the Alpha and the Omega of all things black.
Next up...I am not an "African-American"....I AM A SUDANESE-AMERICAN, people from Nigeria are "Nigerian American" and people from Congo are "Congolese American".
Black Americans, I agree, are infested with self-hatred to the point of it being "religious" for them. But they slavery and "niggerization" have to be identified (as you just did)...and then condemned by the elders and motherseeds (those who give birth).....until the self-hating is wiped out.
It is a GOOD THING that they called themselves "Africans" in America. That was a good step towards
...the inevitable.
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Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 191
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 18, 2005 - 06:14 pm: |
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"FLY AWAY SLEEPING"
~~
I will kill GOD
before I see my Black babies dead.
Black men and White men
and those toxic White bitches
who called me sister,
do not understand.
They are GOD.
I would be happy to slit their throats--to
crush their evil heads in the toilet.
To place my babies on my pretty
brown back
And sail into the sunset.
I would be like a goddess.
I would be nappy and smiling.
I would be tall and dark as charcoal.
I would be singing.
I would be free.
Free at last.
To make up my own prayers.
________________
*Taken from the book "NILE RIVER WOMAN"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/097120196X/qid=1113862352/sr=8-4/r ef=sr_8_xs_ap_i3_xgl14/102-1422751-0414503?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 2171
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 18, 2005 - 08:18 pm: |
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Well, visitor, as one cynic to another, I find what you have to say not only abrasively articulate but veeeeery interesting. And in answer to the legitimate question you pose as to whether the African-American dilemma is real or imagined, my answer would be "real." Anything that doesn't have a solution becomes a problem and an unresolved problem becomes a dilemma. Or, as I have said before, would the dilemma maybe dissipate if it came to a point where dark-skinned people, rather than subjecting their progeny to the cruel discrimination they've been subjected to, decide to breed with mates who will ensure lighter-skinned children?? This is something that can be easily done because nowadays marriage or commitment doesn't necessary go hand-and-hand with the desire to have children. And, in addition to dismissing the "African American" lable, would it be pruduent to alter other language utilzed in discussing this subject. Dark-skinned people who seek to change their appearance are saddled with the "self-hate" label, a judgment that serves only to infuse them with the guilt feelings that compound their discomfort. So maybe people who seek to look like those who gain favor, should not be accused of engaging in "self-hate", but rather in practicing "self-help." Now conversations like this will drive Kola Boof up the wall. But so what? Race is a very controversial subject and, as such, hypothetical situations should be postulated. BTW, I agree with you saying that slave descendants in this country are a new breed with a unique culture. |
Rustang
Regular Poster
Username: Rustang
Post Number: 32
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 01:22 am: |
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This will be a touchy subject for some.I do expect that it won't always be,but certainly for the rest of my life.Let me start by making a couple of observations.First,it is very difficult for one to have anything resembling objectivity on something that effects them so directly.Second,that a single person will not encounter nearly enough people to call a sampling that's sufficient to make a sweeping generality concerning what the average member of any large demographic will or will not say when asked a given question.I suspect that I have T-shirts older than you are,visitor,and there's no way that I've actually sat down and talked to 3 thousand black people in my life.3 thousand out of 30 million.That's point zero zero one per cent.I have never claimed any native american,european,asian or any other ancestry,and one look at me would immediately remove any doubt in anyone's mind as to why that is.I'm guessing that my distant ancestors were indeed African,but that is all that this is.A guess.My mother was born in Georgia,as was her mother and hers.My great,great grandmother was freed from slavery in,that's right,Georgia.She was born a slave.Her mother was not.And that's about as far as I can go with that.I'm assuming that the old girl got snagged in Africa,along with many others,but I couldn't really say for sure.I'm not asian.I'm not a Moor.I'm not half of this or a third of that.I am simply what I am.A man.A man with a wife,a daughter,a home,a job.A man that dearly loves all of the above.More than that would be a label for other people to assign to me.And they do.If somebody hangs a sign on me that says Fido,that's one thing,but if I start barking,that's something entirely different.You can get so caught up in what it means to be black that you lose sight of what it means to be you.Understand yourself and all of that other stuff will take care of itself.It will be far more productive for both yourself and the black community,whatever the hell that is,if you look inward and begin a journey that will cause you to become a man or woman of character,integrity,compassion and wisdom than it would ever be to simply look outward,acknowledge that things are not all that they could be and wear yourself out shouting at the wind.Just my opinion,though. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 192
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 01:57 am: |
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WHICH....is the reason I respect White Men...so much more.
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Anunaki3600
First Time Poster
Username: Anunaki3600
Post Number: 1
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 07:50 am: |
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I remember the 80's while in college in California when the term "African American" became popular among Black students. I think it was Jesse Jackson plus others who popularized the term. I was once listening to NPR during this period and heard an elderly Black lady comment that "we are not AA's", "Negro's, yes" "coloured, yes", "but not AA's". How glad am I now that African-American is popular. |
Rustang
Regular Poster
Username: Rustang
Post Number: 33
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 10:07 am: |
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I would agree with Anunaki that I find african american less objectionable than rughead,spear chucker,jigaboo,coon or nigger.But it is still a designation made based on the color of my skin.In an earlier thread,Cynique mentioned some of the more compelling moments in her life.One of them was when men walked on the moon for the first time.That would be one for many,myself included.What I found to be most significant about that on a personal level was that,for a moment,I was in a state of child-like wonderment and was completely and totally unaware of black/white.Color blind.I wasn't thinking about how these white dudes get to ride in the hot rod from hell all the way to the moon and I've got to haul my black ass to work in this 53 Dodge.Not immediately,anyway.That has also happened around far less significant things.One time after work,I was sitting around drinking a beer with a buddy of mine,a white dude.We got to laughing and joking as guys are prone to do,and for an instant,the black/white thing dissolved entirely.And I saw in his eyes that he caught that too.And he's been different ever since.The point is that,if a person manages to dodge death long enough,they will experience moments like that.I think that was what Dr. King was talking about in the I've got a dream thing.I've caught little glimpses of it over the years and I liked what I saw. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 1086
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 10:29 am: |
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Rustang:
So you are going to dictate what people call themselves?
When St. Paddy's Day comes around, people wear t shirts that say, "Kiss Me, I'm Irish". In addition to people who have no claim on this whatsoever, there are people with Irish surnames who ain't been no closer to Ireland than I have.
When Columbus Day comes around, there is all these Italian flags out. I thought they was all U.S. Citizens. Sly Stallone is "The Italian Stallion" etc.
Kojak can be a Greek. A guy who lived in Chicago all his life can be Polish.
On and on, but let a black person call his or herself African and there is all this craziness.
You do your thing, and let everybody else do theirs.
You do anyway--unless they are black. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 2173
Registered: 01-2004
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 11:20 am: |
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I think it was either Malcolm X or Dick Gregory who once said that no matter what you call yourself, in the mind of a white man you still a "nigga". Now this brash sound byte can be winked at, but the point is, is that how a person wishes to be perceived and how the minority to which such person belongs is perceived by the majority are 2 different things. I find it interesting that the question posed by "Visitor" inspired 4 different points of views, none of which had much commonality. Kola passionately believes that people of color in America should continued to suck on the tit of Mother Africa, Cynique is still shrugging her shoulders and telling certain folks to add cream to their coffee to relieve bitterness, Rustang philosophically advises us to "be all that we can be," in the hopes that this will provide a good defense, Visitor flexes his arrogance and tells us to "suck it in" and avoid labels. And the thing is, is that each one of these views is representative of the way certain segments of the population think - which would seem to indicate that there is no collective black consciousness in America. People of color have the audacity to think for themselves! So where does that leave us? Right back at square one. Is that good or bad? Who knows? |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 193
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 12:18 pm: |
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What I KNOW for sure is this.
In Africa....and many Africans will tell you this....the majority of black people grow up in their own tribes, communities, etc. and live their lives without EVER thinking of themselves as a "color". They are just "people".
A man is a man...a woman is a woman, and rather than "color"---they cling to the patriotism of "Tribe", "Language" and lastly--"Nation". They only call themselves "BLACK" when whites or other Non-blacks come around.
These people, however, ALL WITH BLACK SKIN and similar features......are Human Beings.....therefore they find reasons to make WAR, to CLASH, to DISAGREE and to DISCRIMINATE.
Because humans...love and crave POWER....as much as they need LOVE. Humans are also Selfish and Greedy.
______________
SO WITH THAT SAID....
....once you place people of one garden in immediate contact with people of another garden....a new dimension of reality is EXPOSED....the fact that we DO come in different "models" of looks, colors, body builds, blood types etc.
(I myself have two blood diseases, Sickle Cell Trait--an African disease and "Polycythemia", a GREEK disease that only affects Dark Skinned Greeks with Brown eyes)
Because of Human Nature---their is an instinct inside the Healthiest of us (the Whites) to dominate, destroy and Re-arrange what is Natural and INATE in the Weakest of us (the Blacks).....for power and control so that the Healthiest achieves a better Quality of Life for their children.
The thing that decides who is strong and who is weak....is WHICH ONE embraces its identity, attaches VALUE to it and insists on the survival WHOLE of its people, therefore strengthing their agenda by a unified pact of "shared sameness".
When those of a "Shared Whiteness" established the "one drop" rule, they were identifying themselves as the strongest...against which all others would from then on be measured, which is why Black Americans and Black Africans JOINED in the late 60's, early 70's to create the BLACK POWER movement, which was our way of attempting to identify ourselves as the "STRONGEST".
My problem, Great Mother Cynique, is not that I want people to suck the tit of Mother Africa.
My problem is that I am an African mother....and I KNOW that in order for children to have healthy minds, bones and bodies....they NEED first and foremost a DEFINITE positive ideation (IDEATION) about their "origins" and about their "physical attributes"---in our case being dark color and HAIR that, because of our tropical climate, 100% Protein as opposed to the Icelandic/Nordic/Germanic/Bolshevik HAIR which, because of their climate, is PROTEIN-deficient.
THE ONLY WAY TO BE........TRULY HUMAN
is to embrace and celebrate and VALUE everything that you are, including your color.
And by placing "VALUE" on it---you automatically insist on its survival. Which is all that I have done.
I do not feel any burden in having black skin, I feel no burden in being called "black", I feel no dishonor in being labeled "black".....and although I am NILOTIC.......I love word "Negro" (because I know what it REALLY stands for) and am more attracted to the Negro man than the Nilotic man and find the Negro people in general to be more Artistic, more Spiritual and more Physically Powerful than my group of blacks, the Nilotics. Notice the vast array of color and design that NEGROES use in their wardrobe as opposed to NILOTICS.
WORDS.....can "Kill".
WORDS can also strengthen, heal and give birth.
And no matter where a Black Man or a Black Woman goes ON EARTH....you can never escape AFRICA.
No one can.
So since you do have African blood, you do look like Africans---you should TAKE ADVANTAGE of your heritage, embrace it and PROMOTE IT, UPHOLD IT, VALUE IT.
"The Moors", like the "American Indian"....are virtually EXTINCT.
And the Moors, too, upon living with Whites spoke of not wanting to be "black", but simply "human".
The FIRST HUMANS....were black.
Being Black...."IS"....being human.
You don't have to chat with White Friends for "validation" of that or watch people landing on the MOON. You don't have to be "WATCHING WHITE PEOPLE" to be filled with validation of your humanity.
You are ALWAYS human every moment.
What pisses me off about Black men like Sidney Poitier ("I'm not a black man--I'm a MAN").....is that they always associate Humanity and being a MAN....with White People (as its an appendage of Whiteness)....and are usually the first ones to WALK PAST the "bluest,blackest" woman on earth and not acknowledge her presence, her HUMANITY, her WOMANNESS. In other words, these Black Men with their Sidney Poitier "Lines" are nothing really but the White Men's niggers. His CREATIONS.
That's why they get the blues...wishing he could just see the HUMAN in them and not their color.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 2174
Registered: 01-2004
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 02:33 pm: |
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Kola says:
"My problem, Great Mother Cynique, is not that I want people to suck the tit of Mother Africa.
My problem is that I am an African mother....and I KNOW that in order for children to have healthy minds, bones and bodies....they NEED first and foremost a DEFINITE positive ideation (IDEATION) about their "origins" and about their "physical attributes"---in our case being dark color and HAIR..."
Great Mother Cynique says: (jeeze, I hate that title)
I don't know of anybody who is a more outspoken critic of colorism in America than Kola Boof, anybody who empathizes more with people who are demoralized and victimized by the dark color of their skin. You are the first to deplore and complain about how certain advantages accrue to people who have lighter skin. You bitch and carry on about how color-conscious and racist your adopted country is. And what did you then do about this? You comfortably settled into the America way of life, and call yourself doing your offspring a favor by making sure that they look the way you claim causes people pain and rejection. It's as if you deliberatly created a situation that would provide grist for your mill. You have turned your children into symbolic objects that serve to promote your cause. You are not thinking about them; you are thinking about yourself. You are what is known as a "cause-embracer". You have a need to be in the forefront of a movment that will cast you as a heroine. If what you believed about the color scale in this country is true, then you have to share in the blame for putting your sons in harm's way. Now, everything I say is applicable to you in particular because all dark-skinned people do not share your Afro-centric views, or are they uptight about their color. They just let roll their eyes and keep on truckin. Fine black men get as much pussy as fine light men. Fine dark sisters ain't all sitting home dateless. Ugliness is the real disadvantage in this society. And it comes in all colors and manifests itself just as much from the inside as it does on the outside. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 195
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 03:01 pm: |
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Once again, Beloved Mother Cynique...and with all due respect....you totally twist my words and intentions.
Totally.
____________
You fail to mention that there's a Court Order to "Behead me on Sight" should I re-enter The Sudan---or that it's a good bet that I would be killed upon entering ANY African or Muslim nation, the 2003 firebombing of my publisher in Morocco being evidence of that. These are facts...that cannot be disputed.
Next up....just because Colorism and White Supremacy decrees that MY SONS (looking like a miniature Denzel and Tupac) will face racism and strife due to their being future "black" men.......DOES NOT mean that I should have refused to give birth to them, on their grounds that their "dark skin" will make their lives so much harder, as you stated.
So what if they will....SUFFER.....being black.
Their father, mother, their ancestors and MILLIONS suffer and have suffered for being Black.
If that's being a "cause-embracer" as you claim, then I would like to do.....more "cause-embracing".
I LOOOOOVE Black Children and the world could never have too many of them for my African eyes to see.
NEVER...have I....EVER stated that fine dark sisters (LIKE KOLA BOOF for instance)....don't have men or are ugly, etc.
You take my words and the true reality of the lives of "dark" people and make them GRIST for your own unfeeling, empirical, prejudicial Americanized viewpoint, because the truth is, Great Beloved Wise One----you are colorist.
APPARENTLY...since there are books such as "The Bluest Eye", "The Blacker the Berry" and "Don't Play In the Sun".....I am not the only person in America who is fighting and exposing colorism.
ALL MOTHERS...are heroines, Cynique. Or they should be.
What cause they take up is of their own volition.
I am a Black Mother from Africa. Therefore, I LOVE black children and want to see them born into the world...as themselves.
I don't care how it IRRITATES Black American women to hear me say this or how they ROLL THEIR EYES at my insistence that Colorism is a CANCER eroding black people's hearts and minds and that many if not MOST of their choices "socially" are related and regulated to.....color.
My job is to come to this country and SAY IT. That is what I believe, even if I am wrong.
A Black Man who HATES black people.....is no less evil than a White Man who HATES black people.
They are both against my child.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 2175
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 04:02 pm: |
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I didn't say that colorism doesn't exist, Kola. And I am well aware that you have a following. So continue to express your opinions. Just don't go berserk when others don't fall in line with you. |
Rustang
Regular Poster
Username: Rustang
Post Number: 34
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 06:43 pm: |
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This could turn out to be fun.To ChrisHayden I'd like to say that even if the gods came down and said that the decision is to be mine what all people would call themselves,I would say let each person decide for themself.I simply made a statement about how I personally feel about the variety of labels that strangers would hang on me.I did not say,or even imply,that anyone should say or do anything.If I was Greek,Irish or Arab,or if that was the topic in this thread, I would say the same thing.Nationalism is what the ruling class uses to convince the general population that it is actually a good thing for them to send their children half way around the world to kill and die.People never go to war.Their government sends them.The people are used like the expendable resource their rulers consider them to be.Beating the drum to the chant of god and country is how this is accomplished,and I simply refuse to play that particular game.But again,that's just me.If a person decides to do things differently than I,that is their choice.It certainly isn't mine to make for somebody else.So,no,I most assuredly will not dictate what people choose to call themselves.
To Cynique(great mother )It is true that I would advise anyone to be a man or woman of character,integrity,compassion and wisdom.But it ends there.Not for any purpose,defense or any other.It is it's own reward.Just do it because it's the right thing to do.Sometimes people are rewarded for doing wrong,but it's still wrong and they shouldn't do it.People frequently endure harsh consequences for doing right,but they did the right thing.Do the right and refrain from the wrong.Just because.One will see a variety of ideas on what the right and the wrong are,but whatever their ideas on that are,those are the ideas that they should act on.Again,just my opinion. |
Rustang
Regular Poster
Username: Rustang
Post Number: 35
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 06:52 pm: |
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Oh,and by the way Kola,I didn't 'walk right past the blackest woman on earth'.I married her. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 196
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 09:49 pm: |
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I love you for that, RUSTANG. (WINK)
**but even if you married the whitest one--I would still "SECRETLY" love you. No matter what.
Don't take concerned African mothers too seriously. We are VERY LOYAL and loving---no matter what guilt trip we try to fix you up with.
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DON'T YOU GUYS FORGET TO CONGRATULATE "Sisgal" on her new "Book cover!!!!!"
It's on display in the KOOL ROOM.
Congratulations SISGAL!
Congratulations SISGAL!
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Ancestry
Newbie Poster
Username: Ancestry
Post Number: 23
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 10:17 pm: |
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The dilemma, it seems to me, is the inability for people to embrace their various identities without losing site of reality and the integrity if their humanity...as if there is a contradiction.
Another dilemma that black folk face, usually the intellectuals, is that they want to be "human" like white folk--embracing your cultural is an express of your humanity, as Toni Morrison has written. These faux-humanist want to experience the integrity of their individuality....these are nice thoughts until you are raped by an officer's billy club because you are black. The fact of blackness, as Fanon has written, immediately returns...
These socalled faux-humanist seem to forget that white folk are not living purely as "humans," but people with white skin with political, economic, and cultural power which controls the earth. They have the power to be "human" because the are in control. |
Rustang
Regular Poster
Username: Rustang
Post Number: 36
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 11:21 pm: |
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To ancestry let me say that I am not a faux humanist.I maintain these 'nice thoughts' even after having been knocked around a bit by a variety of white folks,cops included.I have not said that blackness does not exist.I am fully aware of the reality we live in.If I say that the way whites have treated blacks over the centuries is wrong,why would I use their behavior as the benchmark for my own?Whether or not they are at harmony with themselves is not even relevant.There was a white dude named Immanuel Kant that addressed that point nicely in Groundwork to the Metaphysic of Morals.It doesn't matter if I am the only sincere friend in the world.Sincerity in friendship is still my part of my duty as a man.Gandhi got his brains beat out on a regular basis until the day he was gunned down like a dog in the street.He held himself to a higher standard than the chimpanzee.Something hurt me and that pisses me off so I tear up everything that I can get my hands on.A chimp can think it through that carefully.I like to think that I'm capable of a little better. |
Anunaki3600
Newbie Poster
Username: Anunaki3600
Post Number: 2
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 03:33 am: |
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Africa is peopled by "muntu's" or "human beings" that appear in all types of "skin colours". You have shades from the blackest Nilotics/Bantus to the brown "San people" whom you may know as "bush man" in Southern Africa to the white/brown Berbers in the Sahara Desert and all other shades that come in between. So being "African" or "African-American" has nothing to do with the colour of your skin but everything to do with the "attitude of your mind". You may be the blackest @$$ on this planet but have an attitude no better than Jesse Helm's. The term "African-American" includes all brethrens and sisterines in Amerika who have the right attitude whether they have green eyes and cream skin colour, like the ones I saw in New Orleans to those who look like the blackest "mandingo warriors" that I used to teach math in L.A. jails. Since African people come in all shades of colour, so do African-Amerikan people. The most important factor is, do African or African-Amerika people have the right type of attitude or are they just "lost souls" who have been totally colonized and stuck-up in their "mental slavery"?????????? |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 197
Registered: 02-2005
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 12:03 pm: |
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Once again...WHITE BROWN BERBERS...do not consider themselves "black", and MANY do not even consider themselves "African".
This is one thing about Black Americans that never ceases to annoy me.....they try to pretend that we have some "multi-colored" uber-garden in Africa and that we all get along.
BULLSHIT.
The OVERWHELMING majority of Africans are "BLACK"---PURE GODDESSA CHARCOAL (or CHOCOLATE) BLACK.
In North Africa, where I'm from---tanned people like Halle Berry are classified as "WHITE" on their identification cards. They do not associate with BLacks. In Sudan, even the dark skinned HALF-ARABS (I am one) will tell you to your face that they are not "Black"---they are "ARAB". My Egyptian grandmother put me up for adoption for it.
Mixed race and MULATTOES in Africa DO NOT socialize with.......or LIVE WITH the true authentic black people and they do not consider themselves black or African------and because of COLONIALISM they are taught they are infinitely SUPERIOR to blacks....
....and the ONLY TIME they pretend to be "black or AFrican" is when they bring their sorry asses to the U.S. and are surrounded by BLACK AMERICANS (who want so desperately to be mixed themselves) and then and ONLY THEN, because they're surrounded by blacks over here and don't have their safety pedestal....do they try to claim "black or African".
BEING AFRICAN....to us AFRICANS...has every goddamned thing to do with the color of your skin....and MORE THAN THAT...the texture of your hair. Go to any African nation---the darkest people are considered the most "authentic", they are called the "True African".
Colonialism has created mixed people---but to over there, it's nothing like here.
People with dark brown skin in Egypt and Libya and Morocco are HATED, marginalized and are called "ABEEB" (nigger). They fill up the prisons. I know, because I'm from there.
Don't even delude yourselves or LIE to your children any further.
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Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 198
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 12:08 pm: |
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Annukai---we don't have a "ONE DROP" rule in Africa. That's an African-American thing. We DO NOT come in all colors.
We've had "colonialism" 500 years....and, in North Africa--"Arabization", and the Ethiopians (the "elite") are mixed through Arab and Persian trade and slavery.....so it has produced some lighter people here and there, but overall, what you're saying is really NOT TRUE and most MIXED folks in Africa would slit your throat for even suggesting that they are "black".
_____________________
You said it all right here (and notice WHICH ONES were in jail):
The term "African-American" includes all brethrens and sisterines in Amerika who have the right attitude whether they have green eyes and cream skin colour, like the ones I saw in New Orleans to those who look like the blackest "mandingo warriors" that I used to teach math in L.A. jails.
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The shit just never fucking changes...no matter where you go in the world.
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WHITE SUPREMACY POISONS and SEPARATES US FROM OUR OWN BODIES.
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Ancestry
Newbie Poster
Username: Ancestry
Post Number: 24
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 11:12 pm: |
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rustang:
You are preaching to the choir. My response was not directed towards you nor anyone else. My point, however, was that a faux-humanist is false in the fact that he/she does not allow others to express their own humanity. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 2179
Registered: 01-2004
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 21, 2005 - 12:51 am: |
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After reading the comments of Kola and Anunaki3600, why are my eyes glazed over. One is declaring that, like on the continent of Africa, people of color in America come in all shades and that blackness is actually about having the right attitude. The other is vehemently disputing this comparison, clarifying the delineations of color among the black races on the African continent, and contemptuously dismissing the idea that a common attitude could transcend their color. Anunaki3600 is cloaked in his confidence, and Kola is laying bare her wrath. Me? I not inspired to be anything other than what I am: a colorist with the wrong attitude. tsk-tsk. And I know all of you who were somehow able to distill some relevancy out of Kola's rebuttal are really happy that you have this human flame-thrower for your leader. BTW, since Africa is the source of everything in this world, did the concept of racial supremacy originate there? |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 199
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 21, 2005 - 03:02 am: |
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Beloved Cynique.
SOMEHOW---you really are not "reading" what is being said.
You just said (in reference to me):
The other is vehemently disputing this comparison, clarifying the delineations of color among the black races on the African continent, and contemptuously dismissing the idea that a common attitude could transcend their color.
I SAY:
Your statement here is totally false.
I am simply pointing out that a common attitude DOES NOT transcend color where I come from. It "COULD" from 12,000 miles across the Atlantic ocean in an AA dream bubble------but it doesn't in Africa and never has.
The fact that my Egyptian grandmother went as far as to put me up for adoption---the fact that Egypt is notorious for the "drownings" dark brown newborns.....the war in Sudan....the bitter HATE that "coloureds" in SOUTH AFRICA feel for "blacks".....the fact that black women in Libya are not allowed to hold "desk jobs" and can only be MAIDS....the notorious CASTE SYSTEM in upper class Nigeria and Senegal.....proves that point.
I see no reason for AA's to be "DELUSIONAL" about the reality of "color" in AFRICA and to keep spouting these "dream fantasies" about a "naturally" Multi-Hued Africa who come in 32 Flavors---it's sort of like expecting "Kings and Queens" to meet you at the airport in Nairobi with magical spears and flowing robes to welcome you home. It simply isn't the real true TRUTH.
Black Americans use that excuse---"Africans come in every shade"----to keep deliberately BREEDING OUT what African blood they have, to keep rejecting their West African ancestors, to keep salavating over "Yellow Dream Babies"----they use that excuse, that they can be WHITE or BEIGE and still be "African" and they superimpose that "fantasy" onto Africa itself, just as their slave master super imposed it onto them.
Now you've got Africans doing it with Bleaching Creams.
Lastly, Cynique....
ALL EVIL originally comes from Africa just as ALL GOOD does. Don't you know about Asli Nalla (EVE) and Phumkut (the white worm of everlasting evil)? The beginning the human of the race.
But anyway...
...at this point....
....I now agree with my dead Arab Egyptian father that WE BLACKS NEED a concept of "racial supremacy" amongst Africans just to salvage what little humanity and self-respect we've got left. I'm ALL FOR instituting "Black Supremacy"....and LIVING IN AMERICA with Black Americans.....has made me that way.
I realize that my "lighter" brothers and sisters feel harrassed and spit on by my words.....but they fail, and have failed for centuries, to see what part THEY PLAY in the enforcement and continuation of White Supremacist attitudes, and I'm sick of their selfishness, their denial and their smug dismissals.
A lot of black people are.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 2181
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 21, 2005 - 03:57 am: |
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Well, I think a lot of your being "sick" of things has to do with your being a racial hypochondriac. And it's an "ill wind that blows no good." Especially if it consists of a lot of hot air.(When you come down from your ivory tower and give up the life of luxury and leisure that you're living in the country you profess to love so much, then your eloquence would be more than just empty rhetoric.) |
Anunaki3600
Newbie Poster
Username: Anunaki3600
Post Number: 3
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 21, 2005 - 04:36 am: |
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I think that maybe I did not express myself well enough to clarify my point of view. I find that being "black" alone is not enough to show that you are committed to the African people and their struggle. We have a large group of "black folks" in Africa and abroad whom I call "Afro Saxons" who walk like saxons, talk like saxons......,they are "saxon ducks" i.e "saxons in black skins". The only way they identify with other "blacks" is through their exploitation and primitive accumilation of their wealth. On the other hand we can not wish away the important progressive role "non-totally black" individuals/people have played in Africa, Amerika, Carribean, etc. It was Walter Sisulu (mulatto) who mentored Nelson Mendela (son of an African chief) to join the progressive forces of the ANC. Look at the so called "mulattos" in Angola who spearheaded the armed wing of MPLA and fought not only the Portugese but also the Boers and CIA and many lost their lives. Was'nt it the father of "Negritude" or "Blackness" in Senegal a.k.a Leopard Sengor (loved by France) who frustreted to death our beloved scientist Chiekh Anta Diop (author of African contribution to Western Civilization and many other books). One thing I am sure of is that Mother Africa loves all of her children whether they are black, brown or of other shades and she loves the children who lay down their lives to protect her from harm more that those who are ready to rape her and her daughters whether they live next to her bussom or have been stolen away from her. So for me, being an "African, African-Amerikan or "African-whatever" has more to do with your attitude towards your people and Africa than on how black your @$$ is. I do not care about africans who speak the arabic language (so called light skinned arabs)who have not liberated their minds just as much as I dont like the "blue black" arabic speaking africans who speak the arabic language in the Sudan (jangaweed) who are slaughtering africans. I accept all of Mother Africas children where every they live on this planet as long as their attitude towards their own people is liberating of all.....a luta continua..
Cynique:..you are corrext in that Africa may be the source of racial supremacy....just look at the drawings from ancient egypt and you will notice the difference between "non black workers" in fields captured in war and their masters. |
Visitor
Newbie Poster
Username: Visitor
Post Number: 2
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 28, 2005 - 02:37 am: |
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Just thought I'd check in and meter the flaming. |
West_africa
Regular Poster
Username: West_africa
Post Number: 50
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - 01:03 pm: |
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Find the light... |
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