Pas de justice pas de paix (No Justice No Peace) French Nazi Police Show the Real Story Behind France's Unresolved Racism

Evacuation de familles sans logement à la Courneuve Uploaded by Mediapart. - News videos from around the world.

I cringed in horror when I saw the video of a group of French police brutally dissolve a group of African immigrants who were peacefully protestoring in Paris on July 21. The city of love my black ass.

The group consisted of mainly of women, women with children and pregnant women. The part that makes my blood boil is the absolute ruthless way they drag women with children on their backs against the cement. Savages! And people wonder why the Black Panther Party called some cops, pigs.

According to news reports (Media Part and CNN) 190 adults and 49 children were protesting their eviction from the building they had been squatting in front of since the July 8 removal. Babies and children living on the street!

Some were documented and others were not, the news reports that all have said that they have attempted with great effort to get legalized, but were denied.

The immigrants were mostly from the Ivory Coast, but this is not the first time this has happened to specifically African immigrants.

In fact, Africans are treated horribly and denied jobs, the opportunity to be legalized, decent housing, and other resources. And immigrant blacks period experience severe segregationist and xenophobic behaviors and attitudes in France. Also, African immigrants are grossly exploited with cheap labor, and many live in poverty.

Right now the France Administration is redefining its "Frenchness" with new nationality codes. Part of these policies are implementing a selective immigrantion process that expels their unwanted such as the recent waves of Africans, some Portuguese and Spanish (specifically the Arabs) that have migrated to France.

Specifically, France's President Nicolaus Sarkozy wants to revoke citenship to immigrants that he thinks put the country's security at risk.

But when someone whispered, "The Africans are coming," all hell broke loose.

In 1995, then the Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac expressed his disdain for African immigrants in his explanation of why the average "white" French citizen is becoming infuriated by their presence.

This is a translation of what he said, "The father lives in cramped quarters with three or four wives and some twenty kids. He gets 50.000 francs ($7000) from entitlements (welfare) benefits without, it goes without saying, working. If on top of that you add the smell and the noise, the French worker – he loses his mind."

This is the perspective: Africans come to France to get free benefits while they tax the economy and degrade the quality of life for true French citizens. Interestingly, when France was stealing people, natural resources, and forcing Africans to be speak proper French to benefit the French empire, it wasn't a problem.

And have you smelled the underarm pits on a French subway? Now that is some funky odor.

So now that Africans have been used in the worst way and France has reaped all the benefits through years of colonialism, they are no longer needed.

This is exactly what Arizona rednecks are salivating to do.

Though these nationality codes are part of a recent European xenophibic trend, this only follows a series of injustices and clear signs of serious racial disparities and conflict.

In 1996, there was a removal of about 200 immigrants from Mali who squatted in front of a church in Paris. They too attempted to be legalized and go through all of the proper steps and were denied.

Earlier this year in April almost 48 Africans died in a fire in a dilapidated hotel.

You think Arabs have it bad? And they have it real bad. Try being an African in France, sheeeiiittt.

Well Serena, now you know why the white folk don't bother you in your luxury Paris apartment. You are a nigglette like the rest of us.

Good Black Businesses for Hire: Why African-American businesses will Gain in this Economy

The Black Grape Bar, Afro-Caribe Restaurant & Performance Venue in London

In most urban black and brown areas in the United States, residents are grossly lacking access to the necessities of simple, quality living.

I have lived in Los Angeles, Atlanta and now Newark, and know the frustration of looking for some reasonably priced, non-rotten romaine lettuce for my tacos. Forget picking up something like cherries anywhere in the hood. A cherry is like an exotic fruit from New Zealand.

Since about the late 1980s when Affirmative Action reached its peak, integration was largely (but never fully) implemented and the brain drain of black professionals really hit black communities, the closing of black businesses in large numbers began.

The lack of businesses that knew, understood, and catered to ethnic enclaves of where it originated and blossomed created a devalued perception of black consumerism and thus the cheapened the expectations of black standards of living.

Between the pimpalicious churches, liquor stores, grimy bars, hole-in-the-wall hair salons and Chinese fast food grease spoons, people in metropolis are hurting for quality commercial presence.

I am sorry, but the Korean liquor store, the Indian 7/11 or the Arabic (or African) ran Dollar Store selling cotton panties that will give you a nasty yeast infection resulting in a fishy, dripping snatch is not the business we desire.

And if you don’t know, the hood is the first place where large chains pack up and go in a bad economy. Why? Because there is an assumption that we will not keep business afloat; but it is a fact that the working and poor class are the first to buy some shit to keep up with the Jones and the Petersons.

Unfortunately, there is a silent, but blatant segregation of good businesses in inner cities. This is where small, good black and brown businesses can flourish. There is a needy target population, and thousands of people with a history of good employment who are ready to work and be an immense asset to your business.

BUT, let me emphasize superior quality stores and not the negro-rigged shotgun shack operations ran by Pookie and them.

Okay, so here is EcoSoul’s Recommendation for Good Black
1. Focus on basic services and incorporate a mission to refine your operations before you go big. John Henrik Clarke always said that we didn’t even have our own underwear company to purchase drawers. Hell, I’ll be the first to buy panties made for people who actually have booty meat, but the cotton and satin gotta fit right.

2. Treat your customers with respect and be patient with their recommendations. I know black folk can try our people, but in the chitter chatter, there are some good tips. Plus listening to your customers shows you are a vested venture in good community relations.

3. Keep your store, sidewalk and parking lot clean.

4. Upgrade your operations and aesthetic every 3-5 years. The 70s Sanford and Son look is a nice vintage visual for Blaxploitation movies like Black Dynamite.

5. Saying hello will help you.

6. Contribute to community building efforts.

7. Reality shows can hurt you if you act ignorant.

8. Make sure your relatives know you have a business and not a hang out spot where they can get the hook up in front of patrons.

9. No getting twisted on the job or smoking weed in the back. That shit is not-the-business.

10. Bookkeeping is not the man on your neck, but a financial necessity.

11. Remember, you are the seeking community members’ money, and not the other way around. Respect their dollar.

NAACP, the Defunct, Delirious Dinosaur

There is one piece of humble advice I will give to the NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous. “Run far and run fast.”

The stagnant, antiquated, civil rights aristocrats who are stuck behind stuffy soirees and still exploit the works of King, Evers, Marshal, and Parks have flatlined. Unfortunately, the NAACP cannot be revived to its former splendor---even with the brilliance, tenacity and cojones of Jealous.

Frankly, the organization’s attempts to upgrade its face with elegant, hip-hop era faces are simple cosmetic changes that will not fix its outdated operations and narrow strategies of challenging the multi-headed monster child of racism.

Recently, the NAACP has lobbied the Obama Administration in terms of jobs for African-Americans. And they have been making great efforts to be a voice in the ears of Obama, especially by siding with the White House’s decision to ouster Shirley Sherrod. Though I made a satirical comment, Sherrod is a great illumination to the disjointedness

Though I hold a regard for Jealous, the explanation of the NAACP being, “snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing [Sherrod] had harmed white farmers because of racial bias,” is not an unacceptable answer from an organization that carries a history of stellar scholars and savvy strategists.

Dude, just fall hard on the sword and really make amends other than some rickety public apology.

This is not to throw shade or disrespect for the legacy and work put in by NAACP members. Nor do I underestimate Jealous’ leadership abilities; however, I embrace the beauty of evolution.

The fact is, NAACP’s effective presence has dramatically dwindled around the time the organization’s executive director, Benjamin Chavis, was fired for misappropriating funds and converted to Islam. Though Myrlie Evers-Williams attempted to restore the sagging face of a very old gentleman (that being the NAACP), the NAACP’s post-protest swagger, droops to an unrecognizable gait.

Unfortunately, the NAACP has transformed from a space where freedom fighters pursued rights for the progress of humanity, to a brand that benefits those in certain circles who are seeking financial and political success for certain income brackets. Ironically, it has become a place of extreme classism by using its fight against racism and class conflict. And some argue that it was a classist entity from the beginning. I side with that argument to a certain degree.

Nevertheless, the NAACP brand today advocates for its survival all in the name of the poor, the underrepresented, the lowly, and all those good biblical references of the downtrodden.

Without a doubt, the NAACP of yesteryear was an institution that moved the social-political climate of the world and was part of historical moments that will never be recreated. But let’s also be clear, it wasn’t the only one in existence and the sole organization to rock this country’s deep-seeded volatile discriminatory actions.

There were a bevy of organizations that the NAACP collaborated with and eventually subsumed that played a part in reaching the agenda of better racial relations and economic equitability in the United States. Most have folded and others are just memories in a history book. Their efficacy has not been erased.

In my opinion, the NAACP has failed in becoming an institution due to its insidious aristocratic ways. This is my critique of most “civil rights era” folk, and their children who reap the rewards of being connected, but haven’t done shit, but pay NAACP tithes.
I cringe when old heads preface their speeches and introductions with “I walked with King.”

To me, it has become profane and an insult to King’s legacy. “So you walked with King, now what the fuck are you doing other than collecting civil rights residuals from his blood?”

The NAACP has become a necessary stopping point for the black, petite bourgeoisie, and black political officials who pass through the organization like a truck stop on the Interstate-10. And if you have ever heard of the reports of what happens at a truck stop, you know what I mean. I lot of whorish-behaviors, criminal deviants, and folk who are in a rush to get to places it takes gurus a lifetime to reach after they have died.

But everyone uses NAACP to get to the top of the food chain.

The truth is you see more thousand dollar suits and crooked-eyed pastors at an NAACP convention than a Protestant convention. To me that can be a little troubling. If you think the Catholic scandals with little boys is disheartening, do an expose on pastors at black churches and the multitudes of black thighs and ass they sop up like grandmother’s Sunday biscuits after 11 AM service.

But I’m digressing.

This is an assessment of someone who has worked closely with NAACP, gone to many of its galas, and also participated in several of their programs. I am speaking from an insider’s perspective.

Those who have dedicated their lives of struggle via the NAACP should be applauded. There were some damn good times. Now it is necessary to use the elder’s wisdom to expand the foundation the NAACP and other organizations laid years ago.

VOTE for Isehuh Griffin, Not the White Man's Bitch

Every now and again, someone has the courage to say, "Fuck Uncle Sam" with an intensity that cannot be ignored. Recently, that has manifested in Ieshuh Griffin, an Independent candidate for a State Assembly seat in Milwaukee.

Her slogan is very simple, "Not the White Man's Bitch." I wish she would've added, "Or an Uncle Tom's Ho." Now that would've summed up the state of affairs in the political realm.

A whole bunch of side-swiping, knee jerking, semen swallowing and finger-pointing non-sense has been going on, on the Hill and little is getting done.

On a historical note, black women have been known to just put it all on the table when our backs are up against the wall, and this country is about to make folk drop the soap in a hot steamy prison shower and fuck us all.

You've got police tasering the sense out of elderly, upstanding women, police shooting black men like its duck season, and these damn tea baggers and conservatives jaw-jacking has the President shaking in his boots and making stupid hasty decisions.

But thank you for fucking with a real classy gangster, Shirley Sherrod. She has them all bowing down to her pinky toe for forgiveness. Don't you know not to mess with an accomplished, Southern black woman. And I'm not talking about Tyler Perry's "MaDeia."

Since Obama's nuts are tucked somewhere up his arse as of late in the case of race relations, I got to give two thumbs up to Ieshuh Griffin, who has put it on the line in the very white state of Minnesota. Now all she needs is a platform.

Her slogan is the most honest shit I've seen in politics in a minute.

But I must admit, Obama getting the financial reform clause passed and extending the benefits for long-term unemployed is cool . . . for now. But as we have all seen, rules have been changing to suit the power brokers.

Now Bami, go and have a talk with Ieshuh and let her give you some effective tips on how to shut them down.

(In haste, I had to make some corrections to a crazy blog. Excuse last night's errors)

Land Grabbing, the Road to a Landless African-American Population

John Boyd, black farmer, agricultural justice activist, and president of the National Black Farmers Association

In 1986, white land grabbing in the South was the norm in the United States and had been for a very long time.

In fact, while unjustly ousted USDA employee Shirley Sherrod was overcoming her notions of race and humanity in an extremely racist and toxic Georgian Confederate agricultural circle in 1986, the federal government was supporting institutionalized racism and classism that still runs rampant in the production of food sources within the United States.

Unlike the white farmer Sherrod helped over twenty years ago, black farmers have been losing their land due to the lack of government assistance and the “good ole white boy” network at extremely disproportionately high rates.

As well, African-American heirs to farmlands across this country have lost millions of acreage since the turn of the nineteenth century due to unknown taxes or the lack of awareness of land ownership because of properties that were abandoned by their forebears who had to flee the South and Mid-West for safety.

Unfortunately, these stories have gone untold and remain part of the problem of the current land grabbing that has rapidly dwindled black farms, black generational lands, the Gullah Islands, and now black urban communities.

40 Acres and a mule is nothing compared to what blacks have lost. It blows my mind to think of how blacks have become landless when you read the except below.

In 1910 at the peak of land acquisition, African American farmers owned 15 million acres of land; in 2002 just 1,500,000 acres of land was owned by only 16,560 African American farmers. Ellie Hurley Reports

The report goes on to explain the reasons for the loss of land. One of the major issues is heir land, where descendants become owners of land from a relative who did not leave a will nor a plan on how the land should be used. Also, land is being lost because black farmland is being lost due to loss of monies to maintain them.

The loss of land by African-Americans is also documented in a 500-page study released in November 1980 called, "The Impact of Heir Property on Black Rural Land Tenure in the Southeastern Region of the United States," by Joseph Brooks.

The research starts with the talks of an Emergency Land Fund, an institution founded by Robert S. Brown in 1972. It was an organization who had a mission to create US policies that supported and protected black land ownership, especially among black farmers.

The Emergency Land Fund was a direct response to news and government reports of rapid loss of land owned by African-Americans and the lack of resources or support to maintain farms. According to Brooks, Robert Browne estimated that in Chicago alone, blacks were heirs to a billion dollars worth of abandoned land in the South, specifically Mississippi, and most did not know it.

My father and his family are one of those who found out after the government seized almost 800 acres of land for back taxes from a deceased uncle who left no will and did not have any immediate family to claim the property or pay the taxes that were about $250.

My mother's side has lost land due to family squabbles with membes so bitterly divided, the land gets sold, or is lost from years of bickering with no resolve, leaving taxes unpaid.

Today's black famer's are dealing with issues the white farmer Sherrod helped could not even fathom. Not only are they under-resourced and under-represented due to class, but black farmers are also at the bottom of the food chain due to insidiuous racial discrimination that has never quelled in the South.

Even more so, this land grabbing is not exclusive to the South. I see it happening in the North and urban areas. Look at the ghost town of Detroit, and pockets of black neighborhoods that sit empty due to strategic, institutional land dispossession.

Buck 40 acres, today, black folk wish they had 1 acre and a ten-speed bike.

It is quite ironic and not surprising that Neo-Paddyrollers aka Tea Baggers attempt to pull the reverse racism card on Shirely Sherrod in her dealings with a Caucasian farmer who was being punked by his white bredren corporatists.

Perhaps if the teabaggers took the cotton from their eyes and pulled out their real family tree, the one where one of my ancestors were lynched, they shall see the truth and find themselves on the bottom of the food chain like us.

R.I.P. Sugar Minott

Lincoln Barrington "Sugar" Minott died Saturday, July 10 at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Jamaica's capital, Kingston. He was only 54. Wow.

Silky, silky reggae singer known I remember wining' many a night off of his voice. He is credited for being one of the bridges from old school reggae to reggae dancehall. Very influential in the reggae scene, he started out as a sound selecter in a sound system crew, then went on to be a singer, musicians, and eventually producer.

In his songs, Sugar Minott was known to sing about upliftment, cultural pride, and love.

Dan Gilbert's Slave Owner Tactics: I'm Glad You Left the Plantation LeBron

Quiet as kept, I am a native buckeye and I say bravo to LeBron James for knowing that he has broken the chains of one slavemaster, Dan Gilbert, the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

And Boo to Gilbert for being unprofessional and acting like a true slave owner whose best buck just ran away.

Yesterday after announcing he was going to Miami. Gilbert released a scathing letter calling James a traitor, and someone who betrayed Cleveland. Wow, how the tides change when your money bag has left the building.

Plus Dan Gilbert is from Michigan! How the hell can someone from the bowels of Detroit call someone a traitor. That's that pimp shit.

Just a couple of months ago while James was playing in the playoffs he was God's right hand man in the eyes of Gilbert who was racking in millions of dollars as the true businessman he is. James wasn't "heartless and callous" then was he Gilbert?

Now since LeBron has made a business decision, Gilbert attempts to discredit his savvy business decision and his major accomplishments in that hell hole of franchise that he helped build from the time he was 18-years-old.

You'd think that Gilbert would congratulate a man who has maneuvered through multiple obstacles, brought life to an almost defunct city, and as of late, overcame the challenge of moving beyond his mother getting her back thrown out by two of his teammates.

But Gilbert in true greedy capitalistic money-hungry fashion that was far from sportsman-like conduct, did more than add fuel to the fire he took bitch jabs at LeBrons nuts.

Gilbert writes:
"The self-declared former “King” will be taking the “curse” with him down south. And until he does “right” by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma."

No Gilbert you're wrong about him transporting any bad mojo because the curse of him being under your spell like some child who doesn't know right from wrong o can't make his own decisions has been lifted.

And if he never wins a championship, he has already won for being a man of his own mind.

Gilbert go back to Cleveland and start trading for a better squad you arrongant, exploitative prick.

PS. Now its time for LeBron to figure out how he can pay for his own freedom under the new plantation called, Miami. They do grow nice mangoes in the form of silicon boobs I hear.

Passion of the Racist Mel Gibson

My aunt would drool when you said the name Mel Gibson. You know she's the one who would kill and steal for a white man to suit her. When speaking about him she would always emphasizse that he was a good Catholic who had many babies and stayed married as if he would have a kid with her.

Well, that was before he ditched his old lady for a younger baby mama who decided to reveal the true Mel after she couldn't stand to fuck him anymore for the chump change his wife left him. But my aunt would probably still defend him to the core.

So let's see. Gibson has clearly stated that he loathes Jews, Blacks and now Latinos. What a small world he has created for himself.

I guess.


I'm not surprise. Hey, he was reared in Austrailia for some of his formative years and they're known for being vehemently racist and faithful domestic abusers. Ask the Aborigines.

But this is Hollywood folks. He is mild in comparison to some of the people making major decisions. You know the same folk who cried during the movie Avatar, swearing it was nothing short of a love story as opposed to another "White man saves the day" flick. Then would cut the funding of a great movie staring black folk that isn't Tyler Perry in the blink of an eye.

All he needs is a good ass whoopin, some days in rehab and a talk with Tim Wise, the inner ciricles of Hollywood will let him back in.

I guess.

Now I know why Danny Glover never mentions his sorry ass.

Get this Girlie-Man Out of Office

"To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say, Don't be economic girlie men!" the unwise words of pure-bred, racist, sexist, homophobic asshole

Here I am trying to stay cool in this 100+ East Coast weather, and that punk-ass bitchified Arnold Schwarzenegger is making me 38 hot with the recent news of him forcing to reduce California's minimum wage back to federal $7.25. WTF?

We are slaving folks. Straight up. California epitomizes the US disproportionate wealth gap that is growing exponentially. The big bank thrives off of exploiting and stealing the pennies of the little.

I am a Cali native and am proud to say that I am 100% thoroughly disgusted by the election and re-election of Schwarzenegger.

But quiet as kept, Cali, the country's richest state is ruled by Republicans wrapped in Democratic and liberal blankets. It's all part of the Hollywood show---political stunts and fantasy skits juggling to work over folk like a bad stage prop.

That analogy also goes for stinking, Nancy Pelosi's botox, frozen in space, plastic surgery certified wax figure looking self. Saying she's a Democrat is only convenient for her at this point. But being a second generation politician, and in office for like, oh 1,000 years, her father was probably part of the Native genocide that went on west of the Rocky Mountains.

What do you do when the government takes food out of your mouth? I'm all ears on your suggestions. But in the meantime, this fool Schwarzenegger gots to go!

(read story below)

California minimum wage fight heads back to court
(Associated Press)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has filed a new lawsuit to force the state controller to pay California government workers the federal minimum wage.

The Department of Personnel Administration filed the lawsuit Tuesday against Controller John Chiang in Sacramento County Superior Court.

The suit seeks a restraining order that would force Chiang to pay state employees $7.25 an hour, rather than their full salaries.

Last week, an appellate court ruled Schwarzenegger had the authority to order the minimum wage because the state has not passed a budget for the current fiscal year. His order would cover about 200,000 workers.

The controller said he doesn't have to follow the order because the state's computer payroll system can't handle the change. A telephone message left for the controller was not immediately returned.

Parallels of Post-Reconstruction and Post-Obama Reconstruction Era

As I witness the ongoing assault of all-things-Barack-Obama and the environment of hatred that has ensued after his election, this atmosphere is reminiscent of the Post-Reconstruction Era.

Post-Reconstruction is also called the Nadir Era because it signified one of the lowest points of US history due to the violent, white backlash against African-American progress in the country.

Today’s whites have dirty little family secrets about a racist great-great-grandmother or a plantation-owning ancestor and even an heirloom of a picture postcard of a lynching circa 1907. Whereas black folk have many hushed family stories about an ancestor being the photo on the lynching postcard, someone who had to abandon their family in fear of being killed, or ran out of town, beat-up, or raped or unrightfully disposed of lands during these times.

But before you understand Post-Reconstruction, let me briefly explain the period of Reconstruction. This time marked a period of serious rebuilding of a fractured infrastructure due to a Civil War that left the United States dismantled, broke, and uncertain of its future.

One of the biggest plans that had to be put in place were policies and laws to ensure that recently emancipated enslaved black folk and quasi-free Negroes would be provided the opportunity to receive some of the civil liberties that whites had enjoyed for over two hundred years. Things such as basic public education, land ownership, business loans, military protection in the South, the ability to sue in court and the right to vote for black men (remember women were not a part of the public sphere during this time) were just a few of the things implemented.

And what happened? Black folks flourished, often becoming more prosperous than the local whites.

Since black folk had command of many of the trades, knew the land, and were industrious, plus communal, fully-operating and self-contained black communities, began to spring up throughout the country. Eventually, they began to compete and in some cases, surpass the prosperity of with local markets.

A photo of the first black US Senators, elected in the late 1800s. It would be almost 100 years before the US would see another one.

Black communities began to spring up and compete with local markets. And what happened? Local whites became agitated and hostile by their progress. From the poor white trash, to the white elites, the nation of whites did not like the progress of African-Americans.

In response, whites became agitated and hostile by their progress. From poor, whites whom were landless and sometimes more impoverished than their black counterparts, to white elites, they began to have a deep disdain toward the progress of African-Americans. Of course, they did not understand that black progress meant the nation benefited. Nevertheless, these hostilities were brimming, and became extremely prevalent during economic recessions.

This is when Post-Reconstruction became a reality. Along with the reemergence pattyrollers in the form of the Klu Klux Klan; the bevy of lynching acts against black males and females; and white vicious mobs that terrorized black communities in the North and Mid-West, blacks were subjected to political and economic disenfranchisement in untold measures. These inhumane depravities ranged from removing all black political officials to neutralizing black-owned businesses by way of brutal harassment and even murder.

As a result, whites set into motion a climate that would strip political and economic power from African-Americans through systematic violence and a host of civil rights injustices. Since the power structure holds males as the true base of power in this gender-conscious country, black men were heavily targeted thus removed as black powerbrokers, or attempts of brokering some type of power.

The culture of violence and vehement persistence to remove progressive actions in the upper echelons of politics and financial matters by white masses happened then and it is going on as I write.

In the age of Post-Obama elections, we see poor white and working class folks protesting for policies that continuously undermine their communities in an attempt to re-position a false sense of white privilege. Doing the dirty work of people who would never share a seat with them, but thinking they are on the same team.

On news channels, both left and right, you catch the blatant and subtle onslaught of undermining tactics toward Obama, now Eric Holder, and as of late, the deceased Thurgood Marshall. These offences resemble actions that are creating an environment, though very nuanced, that loudly says, "See I told you, niggers can't run sh*t."

This movement is an old, reconstructed BS machine, but from Hannity Combs to Michael Steele, it is being reinforced. The anti-Obama climate is reigniting the same Post-Reconstructive tone that created almost a 100-year gap between having a black Senator, and a list of other atrocities. The next time you might see a black president, or any president who is not white will be in 2112!

What is even more disturbing are the familiar slogans and sentiments that strikingly resemble late 18th Century and early 19th Century lynching parties that celebrated as they cut off the scrotums of black men and passed out his phalanges during lunch time in front of cheering white families.

"Oh what a day to pick a nigger!"

Though I am fervent in holding Obama accountable, I often must sit back and acknowledge the racial, gender and classist dynamics at work in the public sphere. What I see are systematic entrapments to disempower an effective leadership and the consciousness of country that not only believed, but knew there was a better way, and it did come in a black face.

In the midst of my frustration with critiquing the Administration and its evident follies, I had to look at myself. I must be conscious about how my energy and my perspective are being directed and think about ways in which I can put Obama's feet and behind to the fire without incinerating him, myself, and all of us, in the process.

In my opinion, well-meaning, frustrated critics are so caught up the chaos in pointing out all-things-bad-Obama they undermine their own power, thus neutralizing a healthy agenda that can be manifested.



Sometimes, I must realign my own perspective. And today was that day.

The inner me understands that the "powers that be" have established a machine that is entrenched to manipulate every cell in every living thing. However, the higher inner me knows that machines can be dismantled, but without the master's tool.

It ain't about change no more, we just gotta be different. We’ve got to be the revolution we’ve been waiting for.

Remembering the Light of Mississippi

I thought that EcoSoul needed to spread a little love today. Sometimes it seems that I am this walking ball of anger. But I just speak my mind in between asanas and smoothies.
Today I will focus on the good of Mississippi. It created the first black millionaire and billionaire, and one of the foremost, but underacknowledged Civil Rights activist.

However, this blog will kindly pass on talking about Oprah and Robert L. Johnson (founder of BET). Though both hail from Mississippi, and are one of the few African-American billionaires, I choose to shift my focus on the political stalwarts who died for caring about black folks and justice, and did not take it up the ass to forward their agenda.

MEDGAR EVERS - - - If Medgar Evers were alive in this dimension and in this body, he would have made 85 on Friday, July 2. Shot in his driveway in Jackson, the capital of Mississippi.

A civil rights activist in the harshest Southern state, Evers managed to do more than 1,000,000 average folk in a lifetime before he made 38. Some of his work includes: suing the state for not allowing him into law school at the University of Mississippi, protesting a number of businesses and government institutions that did not allow blacks full usage of their facilities, and openly investigating the 1955 Emmit Till murder.

A CUNY college in Brooklyn is named after Medgar Evers. I went there and of course it is a friggin' mess. Ai yai, yai, we've got work to do. Check out the coverage of Medgar Evers on "All Things Considered," radio program.

FANNIE LOU HAMER
There aren't any words that can speak on the courage of Fannie Lou Hamer who started to participate in civil rights activism at the tender age of 45. She was married, the mother of four adopted daughters, and living in the exploitative conditions of sharecropping in Ruleville, a small rural town in Sunflower County.

Hamer's attendance of a voter rights meeting cost her husband his job. Her further participation resulted in local whites shooting up her house, and eventually, lifetime injuries from a savage beating while in jail for civil rights participation that would eventually cost her life. The trauma of being beaten with batons and a tire jack by two black lawmen who were "forced" by white bosses was the biggest blow to Hamer.

Hamer took on everyone, unflinchingly, and never once did she flee Mississippi. She died in 1977 as result of injuries sustained in that beating.



IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT
"The only times an Afro-American who was assaulted got away has been when he had a gun and used it in self-defense."

"The nineteenth century lynching mob cuts off ears, toes, and fingers, strips off flesh, and distributes portions of the body as souvenirs among the crowd."


If Ida B. Wells were alive today she would have been started a black NRA. As the only thorough investigative journalist of lynchings and lynch mobs in the late 1800s and early 190os, she supported gun ownership, and felt that blacks did not use the gun effectively. And I agree with that then and now.

Standing not even 5 feet tall, her big spirit, savvy research ability, and steadfast courage to challenge injustice started with a lawsuit when she literally thrown out of a Chesapeake & Ohio train in Tennessee by a white conductor. Of course she was removed kicking and screaming, even biting the guy. Fiesty is an understatement to describe Ida.

Check this out, she was one of the top three watched Americans at one point. Right after Garvey and DuBois. Married in her mid-30s (an anomaly in those days), her husband encouraged her activism and loved all of her dirty drawers.

Also, many don't know how much Ida was involved with the Women's Suffrage Movement.In fact, she challenged Susan B. Anthony, Cadberry and all of them chicks when they removed black women from the movement to win the favor of white Southern ladies who could not tolerate negro women.

MADAME CJ WALKER

The first self-made woman and African-American millionaire in the US, I must emphasize that Madame CJ Walker did not invent the hot comb like so many people assume. Nor did she create the creamy crack also known as perm. She was the first sister to create an effective and healthy comprehensive hair care system along with products for black hair called Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower.

Walker established her own franchise of beauty schools and taught the regimen to thousands of women who used hairstyling as sustainable form of income.

Walker opened up a manufacturing plant, salons, and schools throughout the Americas. She even had businesses in Central America and the Caribbean. This sister owned blocks, not buildings. And she hired a black architect. I know that's scarey for a lot of us to use our own, but as you can see, that has become our demise.

Walker created an economic infrastructure using hair care as a model that many still use and try to implement like she did today. Sorry, but buying bullshit weaves in China will not get you there.

Just a little know fact, black women's hair back then on average was 6 inches longer than ours today. Why the hell are we so bald? Go figure.

Anywhoo, the photo above is that of her mansion, Villa Lawero, located in Irvington-on-the-Hudson, New York, and in great condition. Built from the ground up with some of the money she made from her Walker Franchise, Madame CJ has never been duplicated.

Check out the MCJ website and read an autobiography by her great-great grand daughter. www.madamcjwalker.com

Go Ghana!

For once in a lifetime, all of Africa will be cheering for another African country. Too bad, some Negroes over here think that their involvement with FIFA has come to an end because the US of A is out.

For me, when Ghana whooped on the US, that was when my fun began. Yup, I said it. And I am not revoking my American Passport. I earned it. Got 300 years of sugar cane in my veins. And if you haven't noticed, Guidos in Staten Island are cheering for Italy, the Boriquas in the Bronx are waving Spanish flags. And I am unapologetically screaming for the black star.

Now if we can just get South Africa to deal with its serious xenophobia. A sickness that has black South Africans side-by-side with whites and Indians, participating in anti-immigration policies against other blacks that is parallel to Michael Steele supporting Arizona. Then when a white European is there, they will bend over backwards praying that Jesus is standing before them to save them. Self-sabotage is a bitch.

And what's up with my black American family sneering at the "other" football. This toothless man on the bus swore that American football was much better. I wasn't interested in that debate, I am still scratching my head at how exclusive soccer is the the US, something that is the polar opposite every where else. To be in a decent organized soccer team is like playing hockey, both are damn near inaccessible and designed for middle and upper class folks.

Soccer is like equestrian training. Both expensive and few and far between.

Oh well, for now I'm going to wave my red, green, yellow with the black star in the middle.