...black man runnin for the president...

imagine...all of us (black folk) supporting barack obama? lets not think about what he did or didn't vote for, who he worked for and all that shit. just think about what it would be like if all of us (black people) just stood solidly with him. obama. a black man.


now, i am saying this a reformed obama doubter. i was kinda shaky about him in the very early stages but when i saw him on the cnn/youtube debate in july...well, that's when he really lost me. there was a question submitted by a black viewer asking the candidates for their positions on reparations. along with hillary, john and whoever else the hell was on the stage, barack faked and shaked, danced around and politicked until he got his his answer out: 'No'.

that upset me like a mutha fucka. on top of that, the only candidate that said yes black people deserved a monetary apology from amerikkka was dennis kucinich--a little white dude from ohio. needless to say...he got my vote. that wasn't an easy concession to make though, with race being an 'issue' and all. and while i liked kucinich's politics, and still do, i was kinda unsettled that i would want a white dude to get my precious vote over a black man. however, i knew that for me to support a brotha he needs to be black/african centered in his thinking...and if he isn't, well i'd rather just skip over the uncle tom shit and get a certified white boy. at least the disappointment, if any, would not be so severe.


since then i've made a few other assessments:


iowa+obama= 'i got 99 prollems and bitch ain't one!'


this has to be my favorite moment on the campaign trail thus far. it was then that i believed that there is a little more to barack than he can let on. after all, he is a black man. and if you are black and trying to get shit done within the world of the others, you know you can't get too black on they ass too quick (i.e. supporting reparations at the beginning of the race). if you do, they might get scared of you and put yo ass out (or lock yo ass up). but barack is displaying undeniable intellect and an ability to hold his own in the face of pressure. he's not backing down or bullshitting, which can be rare these days, no matter what a mutha fucka's race is. at this point even if you don't support reparations, i see ya barack...


new hampshire+hillary=cry me a river!!!


question hillary: did you cry when saw the faces of the hurricane katrina victims blasted on yo t.v. in 2005?...no?...how bout when the police murdered sean bell in new york in 2006?...nah?...what about when you saw the 6 black boys from jena, did you cry then?...no?...shutcho ass up then.

hillary has become an unbelievable disappointment. as a woman, i know that a woman is more than capable of running shit. we do it all the time. i also know deep down, that she is very capable of running shit. unfortunately, somewhere in washington, hillary lost confidence in herself as a woman. now she has resorted to acting like a man, playing these same old political dick games. the sad thing is...she never had to--she's just been listening to billy. i want to see the hillary that told everybody to kiss her ass when she was trying to reform health care back in '93. you know, the one who actually acted up for the people and not the politics. hillary, stop acting like a bitch. there are plenty of men already in washington doing that for you.


south carolina+obama=yes we can!

yes we can...can we? obama kickin ass in carolina is a spirit lifter for me right now. it is glimmer of hope that racism and white supremacy can end. little by little, but it can come to an end. i mean, i'm 28 years old, and i (sadly) never thought i would see a black man run for president with a chance to actually win. but here it is. so again, black world, i take you 360 to the beginning of the post when i asked you to summon your imagination. visualize all of us in solidarity with this brotha. standing behind him, beside him, and with him...daring somebody to fuck with him. can you see it?


yes we can.

...and we can work out all the 'politics' later...


and if hillary could get her shit together she might make an okay v.p.

...i'm just sayin'...

nah my nigga.

happy new year. i hope that all your resolutions are still in affect and will remain so throughout the year. it's been a hot one [minute], so i'm gonna get straight to it. i had an emotional break down today in front of my students. we were talking when one of the kids in my class turned to his classmate (both mexican) and said, 'right my nigga?!' immediately, i said 'don't let me hear you say that again, you don't need to speak that way.' the boy then got defensive and told me he didn't mean it that way, and became angry because of my attempts to correct him. before i knew it, through tears i was telling him that 'niggas' were the men and women hanging from the trees in the south. and 'niggas' were the men and women being treated like product on auction blocks. and today,
'niggas' are the men and women that are getting gunned down in the street everyday by police. and 'niggas' are the people who are disproportionately inhabiting the prisons in america. i was so upset and crying so hard that a colleague pulled me out of the room to calm down.

just let me say, i know that this careless use of the 'n-word', as it is so affectionately called, is not his fault. he is just a child so really he's just mimicking. in all of my emotion, i was trying to be informative realizing that he is purposely not educated about america's true history; in addition to the fact that we live in a culture where black history does not exist in the mainstream, making it no big deal to throw out the racial slurs that psychologically poisoned an entire race of people. it's cool even. it means you are hip and hard core when 'nigga' can just roll of off your tongue with no pause. people even feel a certain power when they say it--blacks and non-blacks alike.

truth is--i say it. whenever i feel like it (which is not in front of the children i teach--ever). not as much as i did when i was younger, but i do. i realize that is controversial, especially because i insist that if you are not black that word should never even cross your lips. i sum it up this way. as a black woman, a relatively young black woman, i have been called a nigger quite a few times in my life (an when i say 'nigger' you should know that it was said by non-blacks out of hatred). and there are not many non-blacks that can say that something like that has ever happened, or will ever happen to them. so, if one never has to experience the rage, shame, powerlessness and many other emotions that being called a 'nigger' places on you, then why is it okay to try and siphon from it the false sense of coolness that mainstream media has attached to it via the elimination of the reality of black experience in america? i mean, i can't even fix my lips to say, or force my hands to type some of the racial slurs that effect mexican people or any other race of people for that matter. and i don't ever think it will ever be cool for people completely outside of their cultural group to take those slurs and turn them in to greetings and affirmations. not even trying to do such a thing, in my opinion, shows a degree of respect for the struggles of another race of people, especially if you yourself are a member of an oppressed group. but respect, unfortunately, is something that black people do not get a lot of, from anywhere--even in our own classrooms.

...i'm just sayin

p.s. the spell check on my work computer is set up to spell the n-word 'correctly'...nigger, instead of nigga.