Musings of one random New Yorker

by with No Comment CultureFeatured

“Go back to your country,” 

“Go back to where you came from!” 

“Curry lover.” 

“look at that big red dot on your forehead!” 

I’ve heard it all. Which, as a U.S. born Citizen… feels surreal. Out of my entire family, I am the first to be born in the United States, though my heritage and ancestry span continents. 

Originally, my ancestors are from India’s northernmost region, Punjab, to be exact, but the story does not start from there, though. 

No, the story begins with my ancestors integrating with the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, the Afghanis, the Mongols, and essentially the multitudes of other ethnicities that dreamt of India’s wonders and sought to conquer, trade in it, or subjugate it.

With each new group, with each new conquest, and with each new age, my ancestors survived, thrived, and grew. In a time where there were no universal laws or rules, my bloodline prevailed. And through all this time, they paved the course of my path, the purpose of my being, to one day be here, sitting in this very chair, typing these words out for anyone to read and digest. 

Through famine, war, disease, political intrigue, migration, poverty, wealth, my ancestors ensured I would be here one day. 

In a land that would be alien to them, but to me, it is all I have ever known to be home. 

Here in this nation – 

I scraped my knees for the first time, rollerblading. 

I played handball in the public parks against the bigger boys.

I saw scobby-doo and sang along to its theme song E.V.E.R.Y. T.I.M.E.

I enjoyed my first pop-song – NSYNC

I had my first school detention

My first beat up after school.

My first fish, turtle, bird, dog, and now cat pet

My first best friend

My first kiss

My first love

My first heartbreak

My first Slurpee (My first brain freeze)

My first pizza 

My first BaconEgg&Cheese

My first educational degree (Then my second first master’s degree)

My first credit card

My first job

My first paycheck

My first exposure to death

My first breakdown

My first sense of accomplishment…

You see, this country was my first for everything, as I was the first of my family to be born here. So when you tell me to go back to where I came from, where do you think that place is?

How could you know what it took, the sacrifices, the pain, the defeats, the victories, and the resilience and determination it took to ensure that I would be here one day?

They couldn’t know, but you, dear reader, you now know. 

The next time someone decides to tell you to go back to where you came from, take a moment and realize you are everything your ancestors hoped, prayed, traveled, worked, fought, and died for to be here. 

You are your bloodline’s greatest achievement. 

And just like you, I am here to stay, to grow, to achieve, and to inspire.

What are your detractors here to do? 

Similar Read: The 37th Best Place to Live in America

The 37th Best Place to Live in America

by with 3 Comments CultureFeaturedhighlight

In the late ’90s, my parents brought me home to a suburban town in northern Connecticut near the Massachusetts line. The town was quaint, with old houses touting 18th century New England, and a community that seemed to protect and serve one another. This was the town I always wanted to be a part of, and in many aspects today would like to have felt nostalgic for. However, when we celebrate the past, we always seem to glorify the beautiful parts, the memories that make us feel good rather than the brutal truth – and the truth is if I had grown up in 18th century New England, I would have been a slave – one of 5 in the town at the time.

But instead, I grew up in a town that was 92% white. The seemingly perfect town filled with church members, soccer moms, lovers of their community, has a glaringly dark past with racism. All that to say – that the town where I grew up is a place where black people make up only 2% of the total population and no one seemed to care.

We don’t talk about what it means to be such a small minority in a place that is reportable “safe” and a great place to live. I don’t disagree that it is “safe”, but these statistics are made by and for white people. My memories of the town are distorted but I know of the trials and tribulations that my family went through and other Black people, even if they try to hide behind high-end cars and responsibility politics. The truth is that towns like mine are “perfect” in theory because they intentionally exclude others who threaten their collective identity. They run away from the issues at hand and instead put on a shiny smile like parents attending their kid’s fundraising event, to deflect that they are in fact not perfect and sustained oppressive systems. If you are “perfect” then issues such as mental health, poverty, sexism, racism, and more don’t exist.

I went to school from kindergarten to high school here. I only had one black teacher in middle school who wanted to make me feel like I belonged. I didn’t. I knew it. And he did too. But he tried because he knew what I would be facing throughout my life. But the other teachers and neighbors were stronger, using their polite demeanors to constantly surveil and harass me into knowing my place. The racism tied with sexism, wealth discrimination, and prejudice because of my family’s status as black immigrants was psychological warfare served with a smile.

Fast forward to today while black men and women are killed constantly and our ideals of democracy for all are crumbling. I’m bombarded with fake activism on my social media feed and then puppies or someone’s trip to Long Island. It’s a weird type of dystopia. Justice still has not been served – not to Breonna Taylor, not to Trayvon Martin, not to George Floyd, and not to the 2% of Black alumni who attended these primarily white institutions alone. They all deserve better. We deserve better and I am empowered by the lives of other Black alumni and people of color across the nation; whose parents worked to put them into systems that would benefit them, only to realize those systems were not created for them. We are resilient, and we won’t be held to the standards of the systems that oppressed us. Now is the time to act. We are the 2%. Support black alumni in Connecticut and across the nation by signing the petition now.

Petition: Improve Racial Inclusivity in Tolland Public Schools

The Legacy of Notorious RBG – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

by with 2 Comments FeaturedPoliticsWomen's Rights

On Friday, September 18, 2020, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the pillar of the current Supreme Court. She served as the Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Affectionately known as Notorious R.B.G., to emulate late rapper and icon Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls), because of her strong passion to keep pushing regardless of life’s circumstances or obstacles that she may have faced… whether it was discrimination, health issues, or other challenges she faced.

She is known as the most powerful liberal Justice on the Supreme Court. Ginsburg became a US Court Appeals judge in Washington DC Circuit Court in 1980 when she was nominated by President Jimmy Carter. She was then nominated by President Bill Clinton as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1993. She was confirmed by Congress 96-3. An impressive confirmation you almost never will see in Congress today. She served as the second woman to be on the Supreme Court.  The first woman of the Supreme Court was Sandra Day O’Connor who served from 1980 to 2006 when she retired. Justice Ginsburg has served the people for many years. 

It was at Columbia Law School where she became the first woman to tenured. There she also co-authored the first law school casebook dealing with sexual discrimination. She co-founded the Women’s Right Law Reporter in 1970, the first law journal in the United States that focused exclusively on women’s rights. In 1972, she co-founded the Women’s Right Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU); she also became the General Counsel for this project. She has fought time and time again for women’s rights, including women’s right to choose what to do with their own bodies, rights to not be improperly searched as a woman, rights to fight for equal pay for equal work, rights for the LGBTQ community, women’s voter right, as well as many other civil rights issues.  

Her legacy must live on and we should always remember and celebrate what she fought for and whom she fought for. But we are living in a time where those who are supposed to protect the law are covering up and ignoring the law. A time, where people who claim they believe in the rule of law only believe in the rule of law against minorities. A time, where women’s Right to choose to have an abortion could possibly be abolished. The Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) could no longer be the law of the land causing millions of people to lose their health care in the midst of a horrific pandemic. Her legacy is of utmost importance, considering Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has done nothing but stack the federal courts with far-right judges who will do everything they can to uphold discriminatory policies and inequalities.

Ginsburg’s last wish she dictated to her granddaughter was that Congress would not replace her seat until the country gets a new President. Within just a few hours of her death, Mitch McConnell said he would put her replacement up for a vote on the Congress floor. This is a time where the person who can be selected on the Supreme Court could change the lives of America for decades. We say this often, election after election; if there ever was a time we need to vote that time is now. That time to vote is seriously now. Justice Ginsburg passed on the same day the nation begin voting for this election year. It is important that we the people vote not just for the President and Vice President but straight down the line, US Congress, State Congress, State, Local, Judges, Sheriffs, Prosecutors, and School Board Members. We need to exercise our right to vote and maintain the legacies of the late Georgia Representative John Lewis and late Senior Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We need to be Notorius Citizens exercising our right to vote.

Similar Read: Legal Attack on Women’s Right to Choose (How Did We Get Here?)

Why Are We Scared?

by with One Comment CultureFeaturedRace Relations

[New Contributor]

White America, stop. Look in the mirror and ask yourself, why?

Why does it not bother me that African-Americans are not on equal footing? Why am I scared about the empowerment of Black communities? Why do I not care about the injustices committed against African-Americans? Why am I not scared driving down the street but Black people are?

These of course are all rhetorical questions, but the why has been built into us over generations of discrimination against people who look different than us. We have to look at these questions individually. Not regurgitate a company line that we get from the media or the people we associate with. We have to make these problems personal. Why?

I am the results of the seeds sown by some of the most influential Black men in my life… coaches, teammates, friends, brothers. My story cannot be told without mentioning these men.

White friends, enemies, and family do not be scared or nervous, come talk to me. Ask me questions about these men and what they mean to me. I will tell you about Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, Micheal Strahan, George Falgout, Mathias Kiwanuka, Jason Pierre-Paul, Carl Hairston, Perry Fewell, Antonio Pierce, Barry Cofield, Fred Robbins, Kenny Onatolu. The list goes on and on.

Why are we scared?

Similar read from another NFL player: Dear Black Man

AMERICAN NOIR

by with No Comment CultureFeaturedRace Relations

“Fuck you! You black asshole!” is what she shouted as she poured the contents of her alcoholic drink all over me.

I had just arrived at a crowded bar in midtown Manhattan to meet a few colleagues for happy hour after work. We were huddled in casual conversation when someone walked by and forcefully pushed me as they were walking by; so much so, that I bumped into my colleague standing across from me. Agitated, I turned around to the culprit and said, “You can say excuse me!”, to which she responded with the racially charged epithet mentioned above. An uncomfortable silence fell over my colleagues as they were aghast by her racially charged remark and wondered aloud if people “like that” still existed.

The story got worse from that point but those details are not important. What is important is that these racially charged moments of aggression are potentially lurking around every corner of the Black experience. I could tell of the time when I was in high school, walking home from basketball practice in my catholic school uniform, when two police officers jumped the curb and drew their guns on my teammate and I. I could tell of the time I was in Atlanta when a cop pulled me over in my rental car and said, “Boy, get me your [rental] papers, I want to make sure this is yours,” before I was then pulled over again less than 3 minutes later by another cop who told me that my headlights were not on (it was 2 pm). I could tell of the time when an ex-girlfriend’s roommate was disgusted that she let a Black man take a shower in their bathroom. I could tell of the time when I was at the Intercontinental in Mexico and the hotel manager said to my friends, “Your Black friend isn’t welcome here.”

All of those horrible incidents of racial aggression don’t add up to the constant barrage of racial microaggressions that occur on a daily basis in the Black experience. Psychology Today defines racial microaggressions as, “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults towards people of color.”

Standing at 6’1” with a muscular build, I have a comparatively large physical presence. Layered on top of that is the fact that I am proudly dark skinned, so you might better understand some of the microaggressions that occur in my daily Black experience. However, what some may seem to forget, is that before all of those descriptors, I am a hominid (i.e. a human) with dignity.

(Dignity…)

When I walked into business meetings dressed in a suit and got asked where I played football, I know it was an attempt to erode my dignity. When I conducted a meeting and was then asked where I received my education, I know it was an attempt to erode my dignity. Being chased down and emasculated by another visiting employee at my office, who didn’t realize that I also worked there because I was casually dressed, was an attempt to erode my dignity. Conversely, last night, while wearing a custom tux and repeatedly being asked security type questions is an attempt to erode my dignity. Having to suppress my frustrations in fear of being labeled an “angry Black man” while White colleagues have the ability to freely express their frustrations, is an attempt to erode my dignity. Not seeing any Black executives at the company by which you’re employed, is an attempt to erode my dignity. Being told, “you’re not like those Black people,” when you absolutely are just like your Black brothers and sisters, is an attempt to erode my dignity. Being told that you don’t sound like you were born and raised in Brooklyn because you’re well-spoken, is an attempt to erode my dignity. People that have told me that they, “don’t see race,” are attempting to erode my dignity.  Going on a date and being told, “I know I’ve put on too much weight when Black guys start hitting on me,” is an attempt to erode my dignity. Dating someone who says, “my family will never accept you,” is an attempt to erode my dignity. Seeing the recurring violence against Black bodies and the equally as divisive rhetoric that follows on social platforms, is an attempt to erode my dignity. If this reads as an overwhelming paragraph of experiences then just imagine living it every day.  

Then there are the psychological questions that begin to fester in my mind because of the racial climate in which we live. Constantly wondering if I am walking too close to someone thereby putting their feelings above my own, is a subtle attempt to erode my dignity. Sitting across from a new prospective client and wondering how does this person view Black people, is a subtle attempt to erode my dignity. Walking out of an interview and wondering if you will or will not get the job on the merit of your experience and not because of the color of your skin, is a subtle attempt to erode my dignity. All of these thoughts come in a flash but can tally up over the course of time to weigh on one’s psyche.

The experiences above are not shared by my White colleagues and friends and therefore we lack the equality that the Declaration of Independence illustrates. Ignoring this difference continues to marginalize our experience as humans with darker epidermis. Despite the aggressions and microaggressions lurking around any given corner, Black people across the diaspora are not victims, we are mighty victors in the face of an ongoing attempt to rob us of a dignity that we hold so dear. But we will not crumble to any perils that may be lurking around any corners because as Maya Angelou wrote, “I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.”

Similar Read: Amy’s Gotta Problem

Ahmaud Murdered… What’s Next? Who’s Next?

by with 3 Comments CultureFeaturedRace Relations

[New Contributor]

Over two months ago, Ahmaud Arbery was viciously attacked and murdered in cold blood. In America, where the African-American community has some of the highest rates of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and renal failure, he was doing his part to contribute to lowering the modifiable risks of those diseases by simply exercising. Instead of looking at this young man jog and being inspired to do the same or simply just minding their own business, George and Travis McMichael decided to stalk and murder him. In broad daylight, in the middle of the street, and while being recorded, his life was stolen. His future, his destiny, his goals, all snatched from his grip.

It’s pointless to ask why because we all know the answer to that question. This mentality of hate and discrimination is handed down from generation to generation like a family heirloom.  The feeling of superiority that some are taught comes with simply being born. The delusional concept that they were appointed by God to keep us in line and remind us of our place which is under their feet. What’s even more outrageous is the fact that Ahmaud’s mother was told by investigators that he was attempting to burglarize someone’s home and the owner of the home killed him in an attempt to protect their property.  A blatant lie to cover for their former colleague. The investigators knew there was video, his murderers knew it was being recorded. Yet both proceeded. It was not enough that the story of Ahmaud’s death began to circulate, it took the leaked video of his execution and public outcry to cause the D.A. office to send this to a grand jury. Instead of arresting and charging two callous cold-blooded killers, they sent it to the grand jury to allow them to make the decision.

In the same country where a 16-year-old Kalief Browder was arrested and jailed for three years with no bail hearing, charge, or conviction for allegedly stealing a backpack… this is a disgusting reminder of this country’s history. My people were considered three fifths of a person, seen as nothing more than property. People like George and Travis McMichael are comparable to patty rollers that were paid to hunt slaves and drag them back to their plantation and allowed to have their way with them until they returned. In fact, patty rollers are the precursor of what we now know as police. There’s no possible way for me to articulate my feelings after seeing that video. We’ve prayed, marched, sang, kneeled, and there is no end in sight. As a wife, mother, sister, daughter, aunt, and friend of Black men I’m not only frightened for them, but I’m exhausted from the worry. The attempted cover up from the D.A.’s office is sickening. The silence of our tweeting president is sickening.

What’s next is my question. However, what I fear most is the question, who’s next?

Similar Read: Justice for Ahmaud?

Blonde Ambition: Is That All It Takes?

by with One Comment FeaturedGlobalPolitics

While the price of the pound sterling erodes faster than the Amazon basin, we see an appreciation in the values of middle-class white privilege, having horrible views and being totally incompetent. I am of course referring to Trump, Johnson and Bolsonaro. We are no longer discussing right-wing politics as their views go beyond protectionism. Their policies are derived from laziness, convenience, self-interest and defiance of doing the right thing. So what exactly is going on in the world? How has it come to this in 2019?​

I want to impress upon you how Trump et al are not simply laughable misfortunes we can shrug our shoulders at. An eclipse of rationality and reality has overcome us with deep scars impending on our social and ecological history. Of course in the three nations, different forces are at play. In the USA, fatigue of being told ‘you need to do the right thing’. Brazil’s vote was swung by appealing to the public’s desperation. Boris bucks the trend in that he was elected by party peers when Theresa May stepped down. At first glance, Boris seems the most harmless in his glory-seeking buffoonery. But a ruthless liar can only mean potential ruin for Britain.​

We all know enough about Trump; but as a Brit, I feel a duty to inform the world of Boris’s incompetence. Despite being fired multiple times for dishonesty, Boris maintained his career as a journalist until entering politics. He then won an election to become Mayor of London. During which he failed to deliver on any of his responsibilities and betrayed promises. Most notorious of these lies is the promise of £350 million a week back into the U.K’s public healthcare system to win the Brexit campaign. This year, Boris was taken to court for these unsubstantiated lies but somehow left unscathed. Dishonourable mention for his 37 offensive public remarks including calling Black children of the commonwealth “flag-waving piccaninnies,” devout Muslim women walking “letterboxes,” likening gay marriage to bestiality and “f**k the families of 7/7″ bombings. ​

If you thought Boris was a farce, Bolsonaro says hold my caipirinha. His rainforest slaying is reported daily, this needs no introduction. He says Black people “are not even good for procreation” and should “go back to the zoo.” He said about an opposing female Congresswoman that she doesn’t even deserve to be raped. Recalling his earlier years on a public sector salary, he would spend his money on sex. So why would so many women and Black Brazilians vote for him? It is speculated that speaking to the electorate’s increasingly popular Catholic values and promises of a quick fix to the country’s crime and ailing economy won it for Bolsonaro. ​

An unsavoury but important question some of us are secretly asking: is White male privilege to blame here? Wealthy, supposedly educated White majority countries elect racist White men. In fact, a White man in Brazil has managed to deeply offend those of Afro-Caribbean descent yet astoundingly garnered the majority of their votes. Why are Trump, Johnson and Bolsonaro untouchable when they are awful human beings? Is it even fair to bring up the White male privilege cliché? Because let’s face it, if a person of colour or a woman held the same views they would not even be in the running, let alone be in office.

My answer to all the above is yes, because this generational phenomenon is the last ripple of imperialism and patriarchy. An act of revolt against liberalism is a revolt against today’s youth… a united youth who want to dissolve lines of socioeconomic class, race, gender identity, orientation and faith to work together. These values are a deep threat to old-world privilege. ​

We have reached shameful new heights for politics in the western world. I look forward to a future where any form of undeserving privilege is an artefact of our troubled history. I am confident that when generation X become the leaders of our world, they can turn some of it around. Let’s hope we haven’t lost the Amazon and our minds by then.

Similar Read: Fascism 101 

40 Acres & A Mule (Why Reparations Can No Longer Wait)

by with 2 Comments FeaturedGen Z

Reparations are defined as “the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.” Throughout history, numerous wrongs have been committed towards African-Americans, including (but not limited to) unequal education access, medical racism, housing discrimination, mass incarceration, etc., and yet no attempt to make amends has been made.

In 2009, The Senate issued an apology for slavery plus the years of oppression that followed, and expressed commitment to “rectify the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African Americans under slavery and Jim Crow and to stop the occurrence of human rights violations in the future.” However, the apology remains empty since the rectification is nowhere to be found. The United States of America refuses to sufficiently acknowledge its’ long history of oppressing, dehumanizing and exploiting Black folks, and restitution is long overdue. The Compensated Emancipation Act was passed in 1862 to repay slave owners for the income they would lose once their slaves were freed. If reparations could be given to repay slave owners for lost wages, then why is giving reparations to the descendants of slavery for centuries’ worth of lost wages viewed as unthinkable?

Reparations continues to be a pressing issue due “to a series of changes that have occurred in recent years — namely, the increased academic understanding of and public attention to the ways a history of slavery and discrimination has fueled disparities like the racial wealth gap, which shows that the median white household is 10 times wealthier than the median black one.” (The 2020 Democratic Primary Debate Over Reparations, Explained) People are aware of the glaring racial wealth gap, and that slavery, plus the centuries of disenfranchisement that came after, have fueled it. 

Enslaved Black people were denied the opportunity to build wealth. Meanwhile, America gained wealth from their work. The early American economy was built and dependent on slavery. The income from the forced labor of slaves was so lucrative that defenders of slavery went so far as to argue that emancipation would lead to the collapse of the American economy as a whole. “By 1860, there were more millionaires (slaveholders all) living in the lower Mississippi Valley than anywhere else in the United States. In the same year, the nearly 4 million American slaves were worth some $3.5 billion, making them the largest single financial asset in the entire U.S. economy, worth more than all manufacturing and railroads combined.” In addition to plantation slavery, slave labor was used for the development of The White House, The Capitol, Wall Street, JP Morgan Chase, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Washington & Lee University, and The University of Virginia. These institutions profited from slavery in the past and continue to make a profit in the present day. America benefitted greatly from slave labor, while those who were enslaved never received any benefits.

Furthermore, America has never acknowledged that slavery can’t be an issue of the past when it still impacts the present. The harms of slavery didn’t just go away with emancipation. When slavery was abolished, it evolved into other forms of oppression. Black people were denied educational opportunities, adequate housing, good jobs with decent wages, discriminated against by businesses, and their labor was once again exploited through the prison system. Harassment from police and White residents was common, and the subjugation of Black people continued, taking a toll on the entire community. This toll still exists in the present day.

It is not logical to enslave a group of people for over two hundred years, repeatedly railroad them into less than adequate schools and neighborhoods, incarcerate them at unnecessarily high rates as well as repeatedly brutalize them by those who are sworn to “serve and protect”, only to tell them that they are “undeserving” of proper repayment in any form. The United States has done nothing to help Black Americans recover from centuries worth of marginalization, which needs to change. Reparations have proven to be an important issue among Black constituents for the 2020 election, and a hearing was held last month to discuss a bill (H.R.40) that would establish a commission to study and develop reparations proposals. It is obvious that the demand for reparations is not going away anytime soon, nor should it. The impact of slavery is still something that negatively impacts the Black community on the social, political, and economic levels, proving that reparations are long overdue.

200 Strong Defend Maxine

by with One Comment Uncategorized

“As women whose ancestors have lived through the incivility of slavery, segregation, and all other forms of discrimination, racism, and sexism, as people who have historically been told to “wait” for justice, for freedom, for our turn, we consider it an insult to characterize Ms. Waters’ call for the exercise of our constitutional rights as uncivil and un-American.” 

On July 3rd a letter signed by nearly 200 Black leaders and allies was sent to Chuck Schumer and Nanci Pelosi. (The above passage is from the letter.) They expressed their “deep disappointment” in Democratic leadership for what they considered a failure to defend Rep. Maxine Waters. In fact, they’re arguing that Schumer and Pelosi did the exact opposite by publicly criticizing her and calling her actions “un-American.” In a strong defense of Rep. Maxine Waters they quickly reminded Schumer and Pelosi that Black women are the most loyal base of the Democratic Party and the Progressive Movement – at a time when millennials and many in the Black community are questioning the Democratic Party’s leadership, this is probably one reminder that they’d rather not address. While the unusual mid-week holiday might buy them some extra time, it’ll be hard to escape this critique, which seems to be growing within the Democratic Party.

When Rep. Maxine Waters was asked about Schumer’s “un-American” comment, she responded…

“Well, I’m surprised that Chuck Schumer, you know, reached to do that. I’ve not quite seen that done before, but one of the things I recognize, being an elected official, is in the final analysis, leadership like Chuck Schumer will do anything that they think is necessary to protect their leadership.” 

Below are two more passages from the 2-page letter. If you haven’t read it, we encourage you to do so. Whether you agree or not with these 200 leaders and allies, it’s safe to say the old guard in the Democratic Party might be running out of time. Either way, being publicly challenged and reprimanded by your most loyal base is not a good look.

For Black women, who are the most loyal base of the Democratic Party and the Progressive Movement, Congresswoman Waters is our shero… She continues the phenomenal legacy of leadership of Black women who paved the way for all women to break glass ceilings… Disparaging or failing to support Congresswoman Waters is an affront to her and Black women across the country and telegraphs a message that the Democratic Party can ill afford: that it does not respect Black women’s leadership and political power and discounts the impact of Black women and millennial voters.

We call on the Democratic Party leadership to step up and publicly support Congresswoman Waters… We further believe Congresswoman Waters is owed an apology for your public comments insinuating she is “uncivil” and “un- American” for challenging the Trump Administration.” 

Do you agree with them and their letter? Is there anything Schumer or Pelosi can say to calm the waters in their party? And does this signal a bigger problem within the Democratic Party – that their leadership needs to be replaced with millennials and more people of color?

Let us know what you think… your perspective matters.

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Can Someone Be Pro-Black and Date Someone Who Is Not Black?

by with One Comment Uncategorized

In the midst of the wild events that are unfolding domestically and abroad, I’ve seen the same debate being had on various platforms: Can someone be pro-black and date someone who is not black?

The origin of human beings has long been debated between science and faith groups. Faith-based schools of thought believe that human beings were created by a higher being thousands of years ago. Science-based schools of thought believe that we have evolved over millions of years. I believe that both faith and science would agree that we are human beings, the only surviving species of the genus Homo.

Since human beings began mass populating the planet to the point where we could recognize distinction, we have divided ourselves by tribe, by nation, by wealth, by religion, by culture, by pigmentation, etc. The evolution of this division led to groups believing that they were superior to other groups (even within their own grouping!). This social system took a nefarious turn when humans began the wholesale selling, trafficking, and enslavement of other human beings. It’s evil to enslave your own people but it’s a greater form of evil to purchase and enslave someone else’s people without war. So in order to execute these human transactions, human beings convinced themselves that the group that was being sold was less than human. Most even believed that they were not even the same species altogether. These slaves were not homo sapiens (i.e. human), they were homo naledi (i.e. gorillas).

Fast forward to the 21st century where most human beings still haven’t cognitively evolved their thinking to fully embrace the complexity and nuance of our species while overlaying the impacts of our history and culture as it is applied to our existence. If we did, human beings across the planet would understand that we are more alike than we are different. If we did, we would understand that man-made concepts of “whiteness” and “blackness” are distinctions created to empower one group over another. If we did, we would better understand how the human brain, the nervous system, emotions, and personality all intertwine. If we did, we would better understand that culture impacts who we are but does not change the composition of who we are as a species. If we did, we would ultimately understand that debates around groups of human beings procreating with other human beings based on pigmentation are cognitively beneath us as a species.

Like any other species on this planet, life is all about survival. The empirical evidence shows us that in order to continue the species, we need to eat, sleep, and procreate. The mating process is critical to the preservation of the species. Over time we have increased the complexity of this process by including man-made social constructs into the procreating consideration set. Cynically, I believe that these social systems were developed to divide, control, and oppress us. Therefore, to whittle down my experience as a human being to just being black is a futile attempt to rob me of my ability to think, to create, to build, to feel, to love, to emote, to stand erect and walk, to use my thumbs, and to act in a manner that is not in line with the evolution of our species. When we continue to breathe life into these social divisions we give life to the same ideologies that empowered one group to enslave another.

Man-made social constructs like “blackness” or “whiteness” or “dating” are still relatively new to concepts for our brains to grasp. As a member of this culture, I participate in understanding these classifications but my primal being wrestles to reject them. Specifically, around ideas that I should not “date” and/or mate with another human being that is not also a member of my ethnic grouping. I would be foolish to dismiss the psychological impacts of the systematic oppression of darker pigmented human beings at the hands of lighter pigmented human beings. While I do not dismiss this altogether as it relates to love, mating and procreating; I do not leverage that man-made ideology into the consideration set of whom I choose to be with. So to answer the much-debated question, yes one can be pro black AND date someone who is not black. However, I believe the more evolved question that we should be asking one another is can one be against the oppression of a group of human beings and be with someone who is in favor of the oppression of a group of human beings?