228 + murders and 100’s and 100’s more shot this year in Chicago already! Why, people are asking? Why so much violence is such a beautiful city? You have a plethora of talking heads; the mayor, the police chief, and anyone else with an opinion churning out answers and happily standing in front of cameras at press conferences all around the city, but the violence continues on.
At this point Jody Weis has to fill a little bit better about his track record as police chief here. No matter what he tried to do it kept coming back to these wild wild west type of spring and summer occurrences. I remember posting on a social network a few years ago that I loved it when it rained during the summer, and everyone chimed in about the rain helping to break up the heat, the smell of rain and so on, but I came back and said, I like it because at least then you’ll know that there will be no shootings. Because for some reason gangbangers don’t like getting wet. When it rains no one is standing around outside selling drugs, smoking or drinking, they’re all in their cribs or somewhere indoors, so the shooting stops. But as soon as the sun comes out it’s back to the gunplay.
So as city leaders debate about what will stop the shootings, making it rain seems to be the only thing that has stopped it so far, and rain is an act of God, so in short, only an act of God can stop it. Or there is one other alternative, Martial Law. Yep, you heard it here; martial law is the only other way to stop the violence besides an act of God!
Let’s be serious, the vast majority of the violence in Chicago is centered in the same neighborhoods every single year, then you have a few problems outside these areas but nothing as major as what you see in Englewood week in and week out. Would the mayor be wrong for laying that option on the table? I say no! The mayor should have the option to declare martial law and disperse them to these problem areas until they can get it under control. As a Black man spewing this I know this will get a lot of people heated and the so called Black leaders will chime in about how it’s like being back in slavery. Or what’s going to stop them from putting all Black people in concentration camps like they did the Japanese, blah, blah, blah!
Which would you rather see; a neighborhood of law abiding citizens being murdered weekly, and be under the control of vicious gangs, or an over powering military presence that makes sure that the gangbangers stay in check for the most part? Yeah, it will cause some angst amongst the community but no more than being scared to sit on your porch.
So to all you gangbangers who are destroying your communities because of drugs and gang affiliation, Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Fuck your rights as American citizens. You are enemy combatants and you should be treated as such. The vast majority of people that live in these areas are law abiding citizens and you are making it hell on them day in and day out. People can’t even sit on their porch or near the front window of their homes because one of you no aiming bastards are shooting the wrong person all the time. Travelling to and from work is a problem because of you ignorant bastards. Continue reading
“Niggas In Paris”, In Real Time!
Disclaimer: If you are offended by the usage of the word Nigga, Niggas, Nigger or any variation of the word……………….. get over it!
So Gwyneth Paltrow Tweets out, “Niggas in Paris for real”, and the Black blogosphere goes up in arms, white blogs discussed it also, but Black bloggers seem to want to keep it on the front page for propaganda purposes. After seeing it x amount of times since the incident I decide to add my hundred billion cent opinion to it, yeah I said it, 100 billion cent opinion.
My first thought was niggas please, my second thought was niggas please and my third thought was, I just used the word nigga in written format more times than in one sentence than I have since I thought I was destined to be an MC. Casual T was the name, people call me Tab so I was Casual Tab, get it, then T Slang, Tab Slang. Don’t laugh T-Pain getting money, I wish I would have thought about auto-tuning myself back then, but oh well!
As I grew older and wiser, I decided to limit my usage of the word and my MC names transformed into Reign Philosophe, yeah that’s right with an E and Wizdom Manifest, with a Z. What kind of Hip Hop titan would I have been without corrupting the English language just a little bit right? Sadly my career as the world’s greatest MC never took flight, probably because I only recorded 1 song and never went back to get it mastered, but I was cold I tell you, cold!
But anyway, back to Nigga, that infamous, diabolical 5 letter word that has caused this “uproar”. To the niggas that keep posting about how offensive it is, Niggas Please.
Historically ……………… blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. Now that you are caught up on the historical meaning and significance of the word, let’s move on shall we.
For the past 30+ years of the existence of Hip Hop, the word Nigga has been used. We, Black men, hoisted the word into the stratosphere and said that we were going to change the meaning of it. We urbanized the spelling by subtracting the E & R and added an A to take it from nigger; a term of hatred spewed by whites, to Nigga a term of endearment when spoken amongst brothers. Hip Hop, which was quickly becoming the culture and language of the worlds disenfranchised youth translated this new meaning and spelling to people from New York, to England, to Japan, Africa, China, South America, Russia, Germany, and to every crevice of this planet that had the capacity to receive radio waves. At this point the word started to take on different meanings associated with the way it was spelled and with how a non-black person used it. Continue reading
The Wrong Vibe
Vibe Magazine recently released its cover art for an upcoming issue of the magazine and it has been stirring up controversy ever since. It features 4 reality TV stars, Kandi Burress, Tamar Braxton, Evelyn Lozada, and Chrissy Lampkin. In bold grey and pink letters the words “Meet Your New Role Models” stand out to highlight the feature article, and that is precisely where the controversy began.
Are they seriously telling young Black women to look up to these women as role models, or did they create the cover to stir up controversy and get people talking about Vibe Magazine. I hope it’s the latter, because the cover art has gone viral and Vibe is being talked about on social networks and blogs like never before. But if it wasn’t the latter then what merits does one have to achieve to be hoisted up to role model status. Let us examine these women’s merits shall we.
First off, I believe that Kandi should be the only one on the cover because she has years of independent success to back her up. From being a member of Xscape; to becoming an award winning song writer, boutique owner, radio show host, and being the owner of an exotic toy company, she has shown that she has what it takes to be successful and maintain that success. By those merits she should be a role model for Black girls and women alike. As for the rest of them, if Vibe believes they deserve to be role models, one must ask, what kind of drugs is the Editor In Chief on, seriously.
Evelyn was engaged to a basketball player who never married her; Continue reading
Where Was Trayvon Martin Shot?
After scouring through pages of info on the Trayvon Martin murder today, once again I noticed a glaring omission.
We know what Trayvon was wearing, the hoodie of course, what he had in his possession, Skittles and an Arizona Tea we know that he was suspended 3 times and was on a 2 week suspension for an empty marijuana bag.
We know that Zimmerman “reportedly” had a Broken Nose and Gash on the BACK of his Head, we know that he was kicked out of Seminole University, we know that his father is a retired judge, mother a court clerk, we know that he has been arrested 3 times; one for resisting arrest with violence, which is a felony, one for resisting arrest non-violently and one for domestic violence, we even know the make of the gun that he carried and used to commit this heinous crime.
There’s a great article on Think Progress chronicling this story.
But what we still don’t know is, Where Was Trayvon Martin Shot?
What body part did the bullet strike? Was he shot in the Chest, the Stomach? Where did the bullet strike him? Or was he shot in the Back?
If the latter is the case, then we know that what Zimmerman has been saying is a complete lie. But regardless of where he was shot he still was being pursued by an unidentified strange man with a gun, so he had the right to defend himself.
Update:
After being told where he got shot by someone on Facebook, I changed my search keywords to include where he got shot and I found a bunch of articles saying that he was shot in the chest at close range, Google be damned! Didn’t want people using the same keywords as I did and coming to the same erroneous conclusion as I did, where he was shot is known, it’s just not part of the narrative unfolding.
Stand Your Ground Trayvon Martin
As this story has been unfolding over the past month something is being lost in translation. We’re wearing our hoodies, we’re calling for justice and we’re angry that the system has failed us once again.
Black activist and leaders like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Tavis Smiley, Cornell West, and others have spoken out, and even President Barack Obama waded in on this tragedy that has galvanized the African American populace across the nation. The New Black Panther party has even put an ill advised $10k bounty on George Zimmerman’s head, because if something happens to him the BPP will be blamed for it and will be promptly arrested which will bring tension to it’s highest point since OJ’s trial. And still something has been looked over in the narrative that is unfolding.
Even with Geraldo Rivera’s idiotic, down right hypocritical stance against the hoodie no one has mentioned that George Zimmerman was the aggressor. By his own admission in the 911 call, when he told them that he was following Trayvon, he should have been pegged as the aggressor, arrested and locked up for first degree murder.
The law that police say is keeping them from arresting Zimmerman should be applied to Trayvon Martin with 100% impunity. Continue reading