October 19, 2010

• ON RIGHTEOUS RAGE - ALL WHO ARE AWAKE ARE ANGRY!!!

   

   

  { 2010 - As usual, a clueless, cowardly, weak “man” disrespected my anger today. I am female, black, poor, and lesbian in a world that is rabidly and increasingly sexist, racist, colorist, elitist, and homohating. If I was not angry, I would be dead! I actually fear people who are too blind or too ignorant to find droves of issues to be angry about!!!...It is with glee that I repost this column about a Queen I idolize. May you enjoy it and express your own righteous anger!...We need many more conscious Americans who get as angry about Hobama and his banksters as they do about reality TV and NFL/NBA games....Shame!!!}

   

   

  1998

   

   

  "To be conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage..."

                                                  - James Baldwin

  
  

   

  ON JILL NELSON'S REGAL RAGE!

   

  Two of my most cherished possessions are books penned by a woman I adore. They are "Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience" and "Straight, No Chaser: How I Became a Grown-up Black Woman".  She is Jill Nelson. She is an author, sage, journalist, afrocentric activist, visionary, sister warrior, single mother, feminist, and one of my greatest inspirations.

  I share Jill's love of sisterhood. I share her experiences as a middle-class child, who struggles with poverty as an adult, under the economic genocide of the New World Order. Most of all, I share her rage against racism and sexism.

  Like Jill, I embrace my anger and express it regularly. I will do so always!. My anger is as much a part of my being as my joy. To deny my anger, or any other part of my truest self, would be suicidal.

  Anyone who can live in this cruel, elitist, sexist, racist world and not be angry is insane/in denial. It is righteous to be angry in an evil world. Anger must be expressed. If I ever stop penning my anger, I may begin to express it in other ways. I may use fatal sex, bombs, crack, cocaine, alcohol, guns, or knives instead of my pen…

  From “Straight, No Chaser”: “I write because I am angry. Angry at either being ignored or defined and spoken for by others… When we look in the mirror,  it's hard to put on a happy face, since no matter what we do we remain who we are, black women in America, invisible at worst, unattractive at best. When was the last time you saw a black male public figure with a brown or dark-skinned wife whose hair wasn't conked or woven? 

  I used to try and escape my rage in notions of love, sex, orgasm, but even that does not work very often anymore. My rage's appetite has grown over the years, become more specific. Now it can only be satisfied by action, and not the pelvic kind…Recognize, understand, and put your rage to use…My rage is often so tangible I can have a conversation with it…There is no way to stay alive, a black woman in this culture and not feed my rage. Fed regularly, my rage grows stronger, wiser, more cunning…My rage is always present, never late, short or full of maybes...My rage, like Papa, don't take no mess. My rage says nothing to me but yes! yes! yes! And why not? What a host she has found in me, in this nation, in this moment...What better feeding ground for my rage than right here, with me, a black woman existing in a culture that despises women, and black people most of all. I am a two-fer in American hell. I have no intention of burning silently.”

  
  

  As a lesbian, the abuse I suffer is intensified. In a world that hates "dykes" almost as much as it hates "niggers" and "bitches", my life is a trilogy of terror. Just as no sister can separate her African soul from her female soul, my lesbian soul is equally inseparable from my person and my politics. As Jill is a two-fer, I am a three-fer.

  I refuse to fight with Black men for my space at the bottom of the world. While sisters cry: "Let's heal OUR wounds brother!", too many brothers cry "MY wound is BIGGER than yours sister!!!"  It is a phallic mantra that rapes our collective revolution. (It is very similar to the homohating cries that racist blacks spew at all gay activists: "OUR discrimination is BIGGER than yours, fag/dyke!!!")

  Gender does not protect us from racism. Sexism doubles our burden. Brothers who are oppressed because of their skin oppress us because of our sex organs. We will not be silent as such fascist fallout trickles down upon us!

  Macho misogynists love to whine about Black women being more employed. While they ignore our lower wages for superior work. They whine about the smaller populations of Black men on college campuses, while they ignore sexist professors who give superior grades/degrees to illiterate jocks like O. J. Simpson. Likewise, they ignore the rapid increase of campus date rapes, from fraternity houses to dormitories. They whine about Black men in prison, as they ignore the droves of Black women in identical cages, giving birth in chains to wards of states, fathered by men who never visit them.

  From “Straight, No Chaser”: “The notion that black women's independence is a contributing factor to black male oppression has long been a subtext in the black community, and its political, cultural, and social movements. It is founded on the belief that women inherently have it easier, that we are less threatening and therefore given more leeway by the dominant white culture…

  Nationalism required that we do the behind-the-scenes work, keep our mouths shut in public, and in private, happily assume the prone position at the whim of our King, the better to produce more male warriors. Nothing really changed for Black women except the rap and the costumes…Men who refused to buy into the white man's system by working as a slave, seemed to have little problem with his woman's enslavement… 

  Unlike white men, we do not have most of the political power and nearly all of the corporate money. Unlike white women, we are neither the wives nor sisters of the masters of the universe. We have no National Organization for Women or other group with clout to advocate for us. Even though Black women do most of the work in our communities, are the mainstay of the strongest organization African Americans have, the black church ...unlike black men, we seldom head churches, are elected to political office, are in leadership…White male politicians demonize me as a welfare cheat, illegitimate baby-making machine, and drain on government programs. 

  Black men single me out when they need either help or an example of why they are "endangered" or hindered. I am asked to cook the food, stuff the envelopes, open my legs, and keep my mouth shut…” 

   

  On my talk radio show, I often speak against all marches. I believe that they are all ineffectual, favoring style over substance. The flames of revolution must be fanned with FAR more than the winds of marching feet. I support NO marches, including The Million Man March.

  I would rather see a million brothers gather to pay child support, promise to become superior fathers, or pledge to be monogamous. I loathe the sexism and gaybashing of the Nation of Islam. I am wounded by the misogyny of Louis Farrakhan and the lechery of Ben Chavis.

  From “Straight, No Chaser”:  “Wouldn't it have been more effective for black men to amass in southeast D.C., a neighborhood with one of the highest crime rates in the country and shut down the crack houses, seize the guns, clean up the community, talk to the young brothers? But that would have required work and ongoing commitment…Was the atonement really to black women or was that just a cover story to hide the far more ominous agenda, that black men were going to apologize to the great patriarchal white father for not being real men and keeping their women and children in line, to pledge allegiance to the patriarchy of the United States of America?…

  Whatever black men's failings in America, they pale by comparison to what was visited upon all black people by slavery and its continuing aftermath. When it comes to who needs to atone in America, black men are not at the top of the list…Black so-called leadership has accepted their consignment to the colored leadership ghetto, where their primary function is to either bemoan or denigrate the state of black people. They are never allowed to critique white people. Even through all the rhetoric and bad politics, Louis Farrakhan speaks to a broad spectrum of black folks because he dares to speak some truth, as many black folks see it, to white people, plain and simple…I found it hard to sit still and view the spectacle. To do so would have been to forget who I was, actively collude in my own erasure.”

   

  I have spoken often of the brutality of Mike Tyson. Mike recently expanded his lengthy and documented record of assaulting women, to include Evander Holyfield and his ear. Unlike fellow rapist William Kennedy Smith, Mike did not receive a fair trial. Yet, he does not deserve the national fan club that dares to demand that we all regard a rapist as a hero!

  From “Straight, No Chaser”: “I wasn't surprised when I heard the boys wanted to make Mike [Tyson] a hero, hold him up as a role model to our children. I was first sad, then sick, then angry…Why is it when black women stand up for ourselves we're accused of attacking black men? Is it that we have no role other than adjuncts, supporters, and appendages?  Well here's what I say to those backward brothers: If your penis needs maintenance, go to an urologist, that's not my job…I cry like a baby when I hear about Deletha Word. Then I tremble with a rage so fierce my whole body vibrates. Then I go and swim for an hour and fifteen minutes. Afterward, even though I am eager to get home and lock the door, I do not drive fast and aggressively as I usually do, but slowly, cautiously, suddenly aware of another aspect of everyday violence, that for a black woman, a fender bender can mean death.”

   

  Jill and I, and our kindred sister spirits are not bitter, we are battered! We are abused emotionally/racially/physically/politically/financially/socially etc…We are not anti-male. We are anti-misogyny. Many mindless females are misogynists too. We are not "bitches", we are survivors and warriors. We are not racists. We are realists. I prefer womanism to feminism because too many feminists prefer racism/elitism to global sisterhood.

  From “Straight, No Chaser”: “White feminist women ignore me, cut deals for themselves, and then invite me to the meeting, panel or forum as an afterthought, when it suddenly occurs to them that they need a visible- and preferably silent- black woman on stage to give their self-interested agenda the image of inclusion…Nationalists essentially colluded with white men and mainstream media to portray feminism and the feminist movement as antithetical to black women who, unlike those crazy white women, had never had it good, loved men, weren't dykes, and liked wearing a bra…Twenty years later racism is alive and very well, there is no national voice or organization fighting for the rights of black women, and most of us are far from being Miss Ann, although more black men, many of them lapsed nationalists, are busy balling her.” 

   

  In an era when neocons in blackface, like Ward Connerly and Ken Hamblin, reign supreme, by chanting blindly patriotic mantras of deception and delusion, Jill's political honesty and passion are healing. She can always be counted on for a regal reality check. In a world where denial is death, sister Jill is salvation for real life.

  Jill eloquently describes another black neocon poster boy, Juan Williams.  Juan is to racist media what Colin Powell/Colon is to Republikkkans and what Clarence Thomas/Uncle Thom is to the Supreme Court. I quote Jill, as her description of racist African immigrants is superbly applicable to Colon and his entire HNIC ilk:

  From “Volunteer Slavery”:  "Williams is a black Republican type, a neconservative opportunist a la Clarence Thomas. He is also of Panamanian parentage, which explains some of where he’s coming from. He typifies the worst stereotype of people of African descent who come to America inadvertently or willfully ignorant of the history of black folks born here. Many such immigrants, because they ostensibly came here voluntarily, view America as a place where, if you work hard, keep your nose clean, and obey the law, anything’s possible.

  They either don’t understand or conveniently forget the hand of America, and those of
  other superpowers, in their native region’s dismal economy. These immigrants often have a hard time relating to and understanding African-Americans, who after centuries of experience with what psychologist Na’im Akbar calls “the chains and images of
  psychological slavery” do not see America as so beneficent.

  Ignorant of our history, these immigrants of African descent pass judgment:
  “African-Americans”, they say, “are lazy, cynical, always looking for a hand-out.” They
  point to themselves as proof of the American dream come true. Denying the role of race, they mouth the prejudices of white immigrants in blackface. “Forget racism, history, the brutalization of the African-American psyche from the middle passage on down”, they holler. “America is a nation of immigrants, and we are just like the Irish, Polish, Japanese, and Jews who have come here.” They conveniently forget that
  African-Americans, unlike them, unlike any other immigrants, did not come here
  voluntarily; we are, all of us, children of slaves".

   

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  1998

   

  ON RIGHTEOUS RAGE:  AN OPEN LETTER TO  MY "BRUHS"

   

  {As expected, I have received hostile reactions to my column on Jill Nelson. Cowardly men hate Jill, and me, because we dare to be honest and angry without apology. The following is written in response to these “brothers”. For the record, it is also written WITHOUT APOLOGY!!!}

   

   

  My definition of a real brother and a real black man, is Malcolm X. I revere Malcolm because he dared to be angry, and to use that anger productively as fuel for his eternal role as a global rebel. His anger was the key weapon of his legendary, fierce, and fiery verbal and political combat. His raging and victorious battles, and his beautiful dark skinned wife Betty (recently reunited with him in loving spirit) are his eternal legacies.

  Malcolm's righteous rage was often slandered. Ossie Davis referred to that slander as he delivered a poetic and profound eulogy at Malcolm’s funeral, February 27, 1965, at the Faith Temple Church of God in Harlem. I quote: “There are those who will consider it their duty, as friends of the Negro people, to tell us to revile him, to flee even, from the presence of his memory. To save ourselves by writing him out of our turbulent times. Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this strong, controversial, and bold young captain...Many will say turn away, away from this man, for he is not a man but a demon, a monster, a subverter and an enemy of the black man. They will say that he is of hate, a fanatic, a racist, who can only bring evil to the cause for which you struggle...”

  In an interview with Alex Haley (Playboy, May, 1963), Malcolm stated; “What I want to know is how the white man, with the blood of black people dripping from his fingers, can have the audacity to be asking black people do they hate him. That takes a lot of nerve.”

  In a classic book entitled "Malcolm X: Speeches at Harvard", by Archie Epps, Malcolm said:

  “...It is absolutely inhuman for a man to let a dog bite him and not fight back. Let someone put water hoses on his woman, mother, daughter and babies and not fight back. He is sub-human. The day he becomes human, he will react as other human beings have reacted.”

   

  Sexist black men prefer that all women be nothing like Malcolm. They prefer that we be silent and not expressive. Smiling not angry. Cooing not crying out for revolution. As slaves to white supremacy, they prefer that sisters be chocolate caricatures of Miss Ann. She stood by and watched silently, or assisted, as white men abused black slaves. Today, many white women still stand by and watch, or assist, as white men wield Proposition 209, the welfare bill, the crime bill, biological warfare, chemical warfare etc... As always, their silence is consent, their assistance is evil, and such collusion is always wrong!!!

  Yet, their silence and support for evil white men is revered by weak black men who are arrogantly ignorant strangers to angry white women like Gloria Steinem, Andrea Dworkin, Gloria Allred, and Valerie Solanas. Such “bruhs” dare to feel betrayed or “emasculated” exclusively by sisters like Jill and I. They have an exclusive aversion to our anger as they hypocritically, and simultaneously, dare to be angry with us. They ignore the racists who run this brutal world, as they reserve their anger exclusively for sisters. We are easier targets for their misdirected machismo.

  Too many brothers expect sisters to suffer in silence. They expect us to quell our anger, by any means necessary. As females, we are expected to smile incessantly, even when where there is nothing to smile about. Angry white men express their anger daily via racism, sexism, police, and politics.

  Angry white women express their anger daily via elitism, feminism, and sex with black men. Angry black men express their anger daily via sexism, violence, and sex with white women. How dare anybody expect black women to be emotionless androids in this angry mix!!! WE WILL EXPRESS OUR ANGER ALSO!!! HOWEVER WE CHOOSE!!! OUR VERY SURVIVAL DEPENDS UPON OUR DOING SO INCESSANTLY!!!

  When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and the weak get evasive and rhetorical. Just as the slaves who were afraid to rebel or run said “Well...massa do be feedin’ us regulah...”, so do their cowardly kinfolk today say “Well...anger is unhealthy and scary...and roses still bloom...” Just as the world becomes worse than ever before, as more anger is evoked and inescapable everywhere, only cowards decide that anger is “negative”. NOTHING is as negative as the causes of our collective anger!!! NOTHING is as negative as the New World Order!!!

  I say NOT being angry is NEGATIVE, UNHEALTHY, and INSANE!  I have no ulcers. I have no delusions. I have no internal timebombs ticking away beneath feigned smiles. I have no regrets. My rage explodes regularly herein. If you cannot take the heat, stay out of my cyberkitchen!!!

  Too many persons suppress their rage until it becomes unpredictable and suicidal. Too many Black men unleash their rage upon their random fellow Africans, while their real enemies blissfully exist. "Bruhs" eagerly attack womanists like Jill and I, “bruhs” swiftly conspired to kill Malcolm X, Huey Newton, and Tupac Shakur; but Pete Wilson, Jesse Helms, Newt Gingrich, Clarence Thomas, and Ward Connerly are all alive and well. These “bruhs” protest brutal police who beat their sons in private, but tolerate the public drug dealers who poison their sons in plain view. These “bruhs” never harass and slander Ken Hamblin, Larry Elder, or Rush Limbaugh with the venom they spew upon me religiously.

  To these twisted, sexist fools I say: BRING IT ON BRUH!!! I would rather die than live by cowardly lies, love anyone unconditionally, or stop telling rebel truths!!! Wounds heal best in open air. Consider my blogs electronic emergency care. Consider my radio shows oxygen via airwaves. I am proud to use all of my media as medicine for what ails our belated revolution!!!

  We are ONE! United we stand. Divided we fall. We share the same racial wounds. We should be allies ALWAYS. But, we are far too often enemies. Why? Because we sisters heal our wounds in superior fashions. We are weary with watching "brush" who infect their wounds and disgrace real brothers as they worsen all black wounds in America.

  The difference between "niggers" and Africans is that "niggers" deny the realities that Africans embrace and seek to rectify. Stop excusing and enabling black flaws! Fix them! The first step to any solution is to admit the problem!

  For those “brothers” who have a problem with sisters because you prefer Miss Ann, go hang out with O. J. Simpson. He needs some company these days. I refuse to mimick Nicole for your comfort!!! Just as black kids sit together in cafeterias because they grew weary with the myths and madness of integration, sisters are weary with the myths and madness of sexist lost "bruhs". If we cannot be with real black men like Malcolm, we would rather be alone. To all of you court jesters posing as African kings, KISS MY ANGER!!! TWO TIMES ON EACH CHEEK!!!

  For every single mother, there are MORE absent fathers! For every exhausted grandmother, forced to rear her grandchildren, left by selfish, abusive, incarcerated, or murdered children, there are MORE grandfathers who have been absent for DECADES! For every Black woman who dates white men exclusively, there are FAR MORE "bruhs"who date white women exclusively. Whoopi Goldberg is bashed for dating rich white men, while O. J. Simpson is praised as some hero for marrying (and murdering) a teen-aged waitress who was a high school dropout.

  I adore REAL black men. And , they love me too. They are friends, family, and heroes who are NEVER haunted by the truths that I pen, because they live as shining exceptions to them. To those "bruhs" who are my enemies, whom I eternally disrespect and loathe with passion and glee: If the shoes that you find herein fit you, then lace them up and STEP OFF!!!

   

  
  

   

  

  

  

   

  • 7:55 PM
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