and in thinking about black cool.
i am thinking towards the argument, well, the reason that new world black culture has become globally ‘cool’ is because the us is a global empire. hell, its THE global empire.
but i think its more nuanced than that. in part i think that the reason that the us *is* the global empire is in part because of its dissemination of black cool.
because i would argue that the us was not a global empire until after ww2. and for the next 40 years there were two global empires, ussr and the us. and the ussr tried valiantly to create a culture that would spread over the globe. they created new art forms, new musical genres, new dances, even. that shit barely caught on…
but even before the fall of the ussr, hell, even before ww2, black cool was the definition of cool in european uber-cities like berlin and paris. and after ww2, black cool became one of the most dominant definitions of cool globally.
i mean the word ‘hip’ (and thus hipster) is a wolof word, brought to the new world by slaves and then percolated in us black culture for a couple of hundred years before arriving in urban (racially mixed) areas. (and to this day hipsterism is the appropriation of black cool…)
and i feel like i am overstating my case, but even hajj malik el shabazz aka malcolm x spoke about the appropriation of black cool.
and i see it. daily. wherever i go. black cool staring me in the face. whether it’s egyptian hip hop. or some white berliner explaining how they aren’t afraid to use the word ‘nigger’. or an afro-european talking about how jazz is ‘our’ music not ‘theirs’. or one more majority white non-violent action group quoting king. or a white radical activist with his fist in the air. and the dreadlocks on white folks (which is not a reference to us black culture, but is a reference to new world black culture…)
and here’s the thing, i get it. i think black cool is the cool too. come on, yo, you cant deny that blacks define a certain laid back cool. we make survival look effortless. no one wants to be us, but damn, a whole lot of people want to pretend like, maybe, they could be us.
i should end this with a hip hop quote. and i could, there are plenty that speak to this very subject. but instead i’ll say, them that’s got shall get, them that’s not shall lose, so the bible says, and it still is true.
mama may have, papa may have, but god bless the child who’s got his own.
GZA of Wu-Tang Clan to release a science inspired album: “Dark Matter”
Excuse me while I squeal like a happy puppy at how dope this is going to be.
(Also, how cool would brunch be with GZA and Neil deGrasse Tyson? I’m not the only one who’d be hyped as fuck for that, right?)
![mingalbee:
zikrayat:
faineemae:
I don’t care who you know that is like this, it can be your best friend, it can be your sibling, it can be you. But you do not take someone’s picture like this and make it into a meme that is borderline backbiting, this is horrible and so un-islamic. You’re supposed to hide the sins of others so that your sins will be hidden on the Day of Judgement. This is a “joke” that’s being taken too far and I am seriously upset that this is funny to people or they are calling out ethnicities, “this is all arab girls! this is all pakistani girls!”
NO, there is nothing funny about this. This is the type of behavior that makes people turn away from Islam, when you judge and point. People grow up and change, when you stunt their growth by constantly making fun of their past, then you lose your morals.
This is beyond borderline backbiting, this is full on backbiting and destruction of character.
Who started this? I have some choice words for you.
People have PASTS. I have a past. Do all the converts in this world not deserve a good Muslim spouse? Remember someone named Umar bin Al Khattab? Remember his story? Remember YOUR story?
Shameful. Haram aleik, whoever made this.
I honestly don’t have much to add to what Noor and Ainee said about this post, however I do want to say one thing. I noticed one Muslim girl reblogged this and tagged it saying “you don’t deserve one [a good Muslim guy i would guess].” This is unsettling to me. Who are we as human beings to know what another human being “deserves”? And what does that even mean anyways? As Noor said, every single person has a past. Maybe it’s “squeaky clean” or maybe it’s not so much, and maybe, just maybe we’re not the ones to judge whether it is or isn’t.
Something we should all keep in mind is a Hadith from our Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم in which he said: “Allah will not be merciful to those who are not merciful to mankind.” [Reported by Jarir bin Abdullah رضي الله عنه — Sahih Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 93, Number 473] Bringing up someone’s past and spreading their secrets will do no good for you; it will actually do you harm. As Noor said, haram alayk. Have you no shame?](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4uuvkZxKH1qzl2xuo1_400.jpg)
I don’t care who you know that is like this, it can be your best friend, it can be your sibling, it can be you. But you do not take someone’s picture like this and make it into a meme that is borderline backbiting, this is horrible and so un-islamic. You’re supposed to hide the sins of others so that your sins will be hidden on the Day of Judgement. This is a “joke” that’s being taken too far and I am seriously upset that this is funny to people or they are calling out ethnicities, “this is all arab girls! this is all pakistani girls!”
NO, there is nothing funny about this. This is the type of behavior that makes people turn away from Islam, when you judge and point. People grow up and change, when you stunt their growth by constantly making fun of their past, then you lose your morals.
This is beyond borderline backbiting, this is full on backbiting and destruction of character.
Who started this? I have some choice words for you.
People have PASTS. I have a past. Do all the converts in this world not deserve a good Muslim spouse? Remember someone named Umar bin Al Khattab? Remember his story? Remember YOUR story?
Shameful. Haram aleik, whoever made this.
I honestly don’t have much to add to what Noor and Ainee said about this post, however I do want to say one thing. I noticed one Muslim girl reblogged this and tagged it saying “you don’t deserve one [a good Muslim guy i would guess].” This is unsettling to me. Who are we as human beings to know what another human being “deserves”? And what does that even mean anyways? As Noor said, every single person has a past. Maybe it’s “squeaky clean” or maybe it’s not so much, and maybe, just maybe we’re not the ones to judge whether it is or isn’t.
Something we should all keep in mind is a Hadith from our Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم in which he said: “Allah will not be merciful to those who are not merciful to mankind.” [Reported by Jarir bin Abdullah رضي الله عنه — Sahih Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 93, Number 473] Bringing up someone’s past and spreading their secrets will do no good for you; it will actually do you harm. As Noor said, haram alayk. Have you no shame?
(via queennubian)
I’m bad as hell / even my pussy booty smell like Chanel
(thank you, Trina, for having the best verse on that track)
(Source: w33d)
Can’t tell if I want to make out or just borrow the clothes/hairstyle.
(Source: theonlylivingboy, via humanformat)
burn
Fuck that, I’m the team owner (not majority, not principal… solo ownership, son). Players and coaches can stay or move at my convenience. And whatever moves get made, I stay winning. Don’t sleep.
(Source: lcvilleda)
To purchase the book please click here
Occupying Privilege; Conversations on Love, Race, & Liberation
A new book by JLove Calderon
In Occupying Privilege, today’s cultural icons–writers, activists, educators, and artists—offer unique and fresh perspectives on white supremacy, white privilege, and racial justice.
So, um, what the hell is white privilege anyway, and do I have it?
The short answer is if you’re white, yeah, you do. Good news is, there’s a lot we can do, together, to undo the power dynamics and racism which keep us from embracing freedom for all. Imagine if we could all agree that racism does exist, without the feelings of blame, shame, and guilt, then we could be in the business of changing it. This book will help you get there. A book for the people by the people, told through stories, conversations, letters, and essays, readers will learn about white supremacy, media’s spin control, (mis)education, the criminal IN-justice system, cultural appropriation, and racism’s continued impact on people of color and white people.
When you Occupy Privilege you’ll discover:
The difference (and there are many!) between white privilege, white supremacy, racism, discrimination and more–knowledge is power!
The stories and struggles of people of all color, their own relation to privilege, and how they are undoing it one poem, flow, rhyme, letter, beat, and day at a time. Here, the personal is political.
How not to drown in the guilt of the history of whiteness in America. You are not alone in this work!
When you buy this book, you are buying into a bigger movement for justice and liberation. All profits will be going to organizations that fight for racial justice!
CONTRIBUTORS:
Sonia Sanchez, Tim Wise, Inga Muscio, Rosa Clemente, DJ Kuttin Kandi, Eddie Ellis, Margery Freeman, Jeff Chang, M1, Suheir Hammad, Jonny 5 (Flobots), Danny Hoch, Talib Kweli & his father Dr. Perry Greene, Dr. Pedro Noguera, April Silver, Dr. Marcella Runell Hall, Cameron Levin, Susan B. Goldberg, Dr. Jared Ball & his mother Arnette Ball, Baba Israel, Sofia Quintero, Esther Armah, Chelsea Gregory, Hector Calderon, and more.
The first two are the most frequently used.
Hey, I look at a lot of porn, so surprising, I KNOW.
Here is one of my absolute favorite porn tumblrs at which I have used all of these faces (No shit, it is so dirty and amazing you guys):
http://derekisme.tumblr.comHubba hubba.
Also, I’m experimenting with coloring comics, I used to not have any time for such decadence with my auto bio strips but maybe there will be more of this in my future.Trufax.
GPOY
UGH HOW DID THEY KNOW
(aka GPOY)
Obviously I need to step my game up for Independence in August. #yardiesnuhramp #oonulookhowshecriss
(Source: myjamaica, via so-treu)
Hello the internet!
Specifically the POC centered, gender self determining, queer liberation, disability & economic justice internet!
I co-authored a chapter in Queers for Economic Justice’s ebook, A New Queer Agenda with my sibling Che & AJ Lewis about queer & trans people resisting police violence. after many years in limbo, The Scholar & Feminist Online journal published by the Barnard Center for Research on Women published it! it finally hits online newstands today! We wrote it in 2009, but clearly police violence has hasn’t stopped, nor has our resistance, so IMHO its still relevant! its also filled with beautiful photos by Syd London!
You can read it here:
Signal boost: YEAH, THAT NEEDS TO GO -
Last night I met up with the awesome chica behind Yeah, That Needs To Go, one of my favorite Tumblrs. She was a cool person and it was fun to connect on the issues and topics that we are both passionate about.
Heben Nigatu is a student at Columbia University where she studies the intersections of race, gender, and technology.
black feminist, immigrant, lover of used book stores, avid television watcher, writer (screenplays, poetry), questioner, tweeter, dreamer, film festival-er, sister, fighter.
It’s always cool to put a IRL face to a source of daily inspiration in your dash :D
Check out her Tumblr description:
You see something stupid. You hear something stupid. You read something stupid = Yeah,TNTG.
Sometimes I post about things that need to stay, pop culture stuff, random personal things. But mostly just grump. If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.
“You might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physically or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”
- Bruce Lee
i have a new found admiration of Bruce Lee
“Strong I Am” by Kevin A. Williams
Pretty sure there’s at least 5 pics of little-kid me that look more or less like this painting.
Where all of this anti-Black American feeling from PoC everywhere is coming from, this idea that Black Americans have everything and everything we have is utterly undeserved. We’re constantly accused of hogging the mic, of keeping other groups down, cockblocking their way to ultimate power. Folks are mad that our Civil Rights movement is known internationally, our organizations are so well known nationwide. They are so mad at our few successes that they totally twist and retcon history to support their anger at us.
They wanna act like we didn’t work for our freedom for literally HUNDREDS of years. That everything we have (and that’s been greatly exaggerated) was given to us because White Mommy and White Daddy like us best (and that’s the REAL ass fear in the gut) after all. As if that we didn’t spend LITERALLY blood, sweat and tears to get it. They don’t wanna ask WHY our shit is so well known (and the vast majority of our history and culture is NOT, not even among our own—only a select few pieces) or HOW it got to such “prominence” because then they can’t hang onto their image of Black Americans being the worthless, lazy turds that White America keeps telling them we are.
And non Black Americans accepting those racist tropes about us AND building their sense of superiority to us on that is one of, if not the, main reason they think we’re so damn undeserving of our accomplishments and “status” in this country and world. After all, we’re just “niggers” and aren’t they allegedly better than us? So why do folks know all about the NAACP and not their organization? Why do folks in this country mainly discuss racism only in terms of Black and White peeps and never them? They may not be White but they GOTTA be better than those bastard descendents of the various illicit fuckings of unwanted-by-their-own-African-people slaves and the rapist-sociopathic White men who impregnated the former over and over again. Why ain’t they got as much, if not more, than the real niggers?
The world is amazed and disgusted that Black Americans are still here. They’re flabbergasted that we have anything at all. We’re supposed to be DEAD. I now see that sentiment extends further than White folks here. It’s like we’re the poor relations of the human family and we’ve been on the come up. And even though it’s a modest come up after a butt-ton of work, folks still resent it because we’re really supposed to be that family that’s on the ground that everyone can look down on, pity and feel superior to. But we ain’t down there anymore so now folks complain about our progress as if WE were all kinds of wrong for daring to progress.
The social contract of whiteness is: “No one else matters as much as you do.”
The social contract of antiblackness is: “If you get along with the system, you won’t be treated as bad as Black people. You can always feel good that you’re not Black.”
And I STAY calling out fake ass activists and progressives who engage in antiblackness because they’re never fighting for justice - they’re fighting to NOT BE TREATED LIKE BLACK PEOPLE.
That’s why they’re the first and constant to either shit on, or try to steal credit for black progress, because even in their envisioned “more just” future, how dare Black people get ahead (or even equal) to where they are? The promise of anti-blackness is a powerful wage for some people, and embedded so deep in their hearts.
And anyone who accepts that logic, who takes the words of the oppressor as true about the oppressed, who takes that devil’s deal that 3.5/5th a person over 3/5th a person is an accomplishment or progress? Yeah, that’s the person who really is just a white supremacist negotiating for a better wage in keeping down the lower classes.
White supremacy and antiblackness remain tools of the same thing. And subscribing to one or the other is the same.
But folks out here still trying to order a dish of equality for some and wondering why the waiter ain’t bringing shit.
(ETA: on antiblackness contract- not to say anyone ever does get fully treated like Black people, just that threat is what keeps a lot of folks in line, and also why folks get angry when it happens to them but never angry when it’s BEEN happening to Black folks.)
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