Skip to main content

Fight the Power

I was about six or seven lines in and the area had a brown-out. A transformer popped, as is the case a lot around here during the summer. I switched gears on what I was going to write about. Going to be hot today. Reminds me of Do The Right Thing. Timely. I was thinking about the protests last night. Metaphors and analogies. A sip of strong, black, iced coffee triggered these thoughts. I used to drink it with milk. I'd watch as the milked spread out in thin strands, expanding, eventually changing the main ingredient into something very different. Softer, less bitter, but, not coffee anymore. I view our opinions as to the milk, different varieties of creamer. A dilution of the product. I often wonder if people like coffee or the idea of coffee. Sweetened, almost pale, tasting nothing like the original product. The mass marketing of the two worst coffees you'll ever taste, praised by the same people who think they understand coffee. This is how I view our current climate. White people, thinking they understand racism, how to fight it, meanwhile not evening asking black people what they want or how to help. I've asked. The answers vary, but sound nothing like the drum millennials and college kids are posting on social media. Social media: A conservative think tank masked as free speech. They throw out words like sheep, yet they are the shepherd. The coffee has become the Kool-Aid, both literally and figuratively. How can we say enjoy something we cannot taste? How can we help people we aren't asking the problem? Systemic. Police run to 911 calls and often think the caller is the perpetrator. Are we any better? Running to make our signs, to post on social media, to tell black people we have their backs, but immediately standing in front. A sea of white faces chanting black lives matter. The frenzied boredom drowning out the voices that need to be heard. "Say their names," yet they don't even know their representatives. Meanwhile, the people they are helping have been saying their names since Emmitt Till, Lamar Smith, Medgar Evers, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins. 
We say the names of the dead, but have done nothing in 50 years to make sure this list ceases to grow. How can we help? What can we do? We need to ask and not allow our whiteness to dilute the message.
Back to Do the Right Thing. Remember the song? Fight the Power!
"Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamp." - 1989
2020 - People arguing and delaying the image of Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill
Until we realize we're the power, we're not helping. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

White Privilege

This was a post I wrote on Facebook after surprisingly not seeing any moaning about the Documentary by Jose Antonio Vargas, titled White People Dayyum! I just scrolled my timeline and not a single white person got their feelings hurt by White People. I unfortunately haven't seen it, but the number of fake accounts that popped up on twitter, tells me it was a damn good show. Here's the thing. If someone of color aka non-white says "White Privilege," are you offended? If you said yes, then you are exhibiting white privilege. It has nothing to do with how hard you work or study, how you stayed out of trouble, because here's the thing, that is entirely the point. Somewhere out there, there are 100 Black, Spanish, Native American, Arab, Asian, who worked and studied as hard as you and never got in trouble, but they don't have what you "earned" or achieved. Stop looking at the one person you know who isn't white that achieved as your benchmark. Loo
10 comments
Read more

11 Rules of Life - Bill Gates?

I read this on Facebook this morning.  A friend had posted it and said that every child should have to receive this. I of course read it and started to think.  I immediately wondered who really wrote this, as I rarely see things like this attributed to the proper person.  I immediately found it was written by Conservative Charles J. Sykes when he wrote a book about how America is dumbing down our youth.  I read it twice and started to wonder how true it was.  Below is a link to the actual picture I saw. So let's look at each of the rules and analyze them. Rule 1: Life is not fair — get used to it! - Life is not fair in that we are not all afforded the same opportunities based on race, creed, color, socio-economic background, but in general, those who are afforded the same opportunities to succeed are very often rewarded for their individual efforts.  Sure there may be underlying circumstances, but hard work is proven to pay more often than not and those who strive for succ
Post a Comment
Read more

Quickie Review - Finding Vivian Maier

While I thoroughly enjoyed the film, especially the first 15-20 minutes, I was a little bothered by the way the film played out. The interviews with the clearly disturbed brother, sister and the mother, who obviously, was in for a cut, didn't need to be in the film. Then the woman who suggested abuse, yet seemed to have her life defined by Maier, as she tried to muster every ounce of emotion and fake guilt. Her friend, more than happy to be party of the charade. People who talk about abuse for the first time, usually don't do so on camera. The fact these scenes were so prominent, shows that they felt wronged that they were not rewarded. Maloof on the other hand, seems to disappear from the documentary during this part, almost hiding away from the fact, he went from complete praise, to even making money off of her, to destroying her personal legacy. He almost mentions the family of boys taking care of her rent, as an afterthought. Her burial spot, never shown, yet a video of her
7 comments
Read more