*stares collective in black confusion*

😂😂😂😂😂

Dead

YO

www.MidLoveCrisis.com (via onlinecounsellingcollege)

Report finds the Chicago police department is really, really racist

In November, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the formation of a Police Accountability Task Force, a five-member panel designed to “review the system of accountability, oversight and training that is currently in place for Chicago’s police officers.” On Wednesday, that panel released an 18-page draft of its executive summary to the Chicago Tribune. Here’s one takeaway: The Chicago Police Department is really, really racist.

Fun Psychology facts here!

police are actually taking away and dismantling cameras from reporters so they cant film what is happening

This has been taken off Twitter! Save it!

Signal boost this. Don’t let the police get away with breaking the law!

My God…Did he really say this?

Fitting from the NRA.

Can all the black men who love black women and vice versa reblog this so we can find each other?

Nothing but love in my heart for Black women

I’m hea🙋💁

Where my Black Queens at?

*follows everybody that reblogs this*

Hey my future husbands 👋🏿👋🏿

*waves to my future wives*

Soo hit me up boy

Hmu 😀

My God…Did he really say this?

You want to be heroic? Don’t give up on your friends when it becomes hard to talk to them.

You want to be brave? Talk about important things even if starting the conversation is awkward.

You want to be awesome? Spend more time blessing other people than you do enjoying life for yourself.

Real heroes are more concerned about the folks in distress than they are about their own comfort and safety.

police are actually taking away and dismantling cameras from reporters so they cant film what is happening

This has been taken off Twitter! Save it!

Signal boost this. Don’t let the police get away with breaking the law!

10 Unbelievable Photos From Ferguson More.

U.S. Martin Luther King Jr being attacked as he marched nonviolently for the Chicago Freedom Movement, 1966, which was the most ambitious civil rights campaign in the North of the United States, and lasted from mid-1965 to early 1967.

If only he’d been well-spoken, pulled his pants up and didn’t wear a hoodie… oop… wait…

Please really look at this. Look at how many men are on him. Look at how you can see he is not attacking anyone. Look at how he is dressed. Imagine the fear he has that this moment may have been his last. Remember that he was assassinated by forces within the U.S. gov’t because of his mission. Before you pull that string on that MLK Jr. watered-down quote teddy, look at this, look at what’s happening today, and really fucking think.

"But you see now baby, whether you have a Ph.D., D.D., or No D, we’re in this bag together. And whether you are from Morehouse or Nohouse, we’re still in this bag together." Fannie Lou Hamer. Photo taken in 1963 

Giving thanks to Kyra Gaunt for the reminder. #Ferguson #MikeBrown #DontShoot

Malcolm X

Taken from Hakim Jamal’s book “From the Dead Level: Malcolm X and Me” (page 180)

Dear white people: Don't ask me to write for your comfort

Outlets will sometimes reach out to me because they liked something I wrote, but will request that I write differently from how I write. If they read something I wrote on racism and white supremacy, they will request that I “tone it down” if I choose to write for them. This request is common. Tone it down basically means, “you might scare or annoy white people”. This is what it always means, and they think requesting politely makes it less offensive.

I understand that how I write as it pertains to race might be an issue for many white people, but that is entirely their issue, not mine. Nothing I write is untrue, offensive, vulgar or out of line. I have no time for puerile hatred, lies or vulgarity. What I am is candid and honest. The fact that many white people get offended by the truth is an issue they need to rectify. Part of the rectification process is hearing the unfiltered truth without me holding their hands and whispering sweet nothings in their ears.

Why is placating and assuaging the feelings of white people so important? I’m living life of the margins and I write about people on the margins. Don’t marginalize the one thing I have which is my voice and expect me to work with you. The world should not revolve around the sensitivities of white middle America, or white people anywhere, and neither should the truth.

What resonates with me are the responses from black and brown people who echo my sentiments through their lived experiences when I write something. Anytime I write about racism, white people bring up hypothetical scenarios on “reverse racism”, while black and brown people share their lived experiences. In the minds of white people, this is comparable.

Feedback from black and brown people also resonates with me because these are experiences that are rarely heard outside black and brown spaces because it does not toe the line of white approval and white sensitivities. Our narratives don’t end up on the margins by accident. It is systemic and deliberate. Everything is about white consumption, comfort, and control, including blackness and black arts. Harmony and bliss means doing things on the terms set forth by white people. If you go along, then things will be fine. Challenging the status quo and putting forward the reality for the marginalized will cause fallout because it does not toe the line of white hegemony.

Even in many spaces that are touted as African (websites, events, record labels, seminars etc), there is white hegemony, and they lay down the law. So much so, the very notion of black spaces and black enterprise is seen as revolutionary, and not as the default. White people get upset at this notion, while they simultaneously participate in and uphold spaces that cater to them only. How many seminars, lectures, discussion panels and exhibits on African art and literature is curated, displayed and run by white people? Most of them. These are the “progressive whites”. They haven’t taken a second to pause and ask why all these African spaces are controlled by white people. The truth might make them uncomfortable, so they won’t acknowledge it. They’re just really into African stuff, while totally cultivating and creating African spaces where there aren’t any Africans in the vicinity, at least not at the helm. It’s quite something to see “African websites” post things on the internet about diversity when their entire staff is white. Is this due to a lack of self awareness?

I might make some white people uncomfortable with my bluntness, but I need to remind them that I’m not here for their comfort. I’m not a pillow. I don’t mince words and I speak honestly. This will offend white sensibilities by default, because whether they know it or not, the voices they usually hear are reassuring ones. Black people toe the line for white hegemony because it is a matter of survival. They need jobs. They need food on the table. Their bosses are white. Voices that aren’t reassuring are stamped out. You won’t last in a white majority space as a black person speaking this way, and boy do I know it. You have to be palatable and agreeable to white hegemony. White people are used to things happening on their terms, doing whatever they like, and subservience from everyone else. This is presented as harmony, or the portmanteau du jour, “post-racial”. This fantasy isn’t my reality.

Don’t ask me to write for your comfort.

I’m reblogging this because it is relevant. It’s a reminder that I’m not here to make you comfortable as a white person. You being uncomfortable with reality is your problem. Instead of contacting me about about “reverse racism”, how you’re personally a good white person, how talking about racism is racist etc, ask yourself why in the wake of the extrajudicial killing of a Black teenager (Mike Brown) by a cop, you’re still talking about yourself and your feelings.

This isn’t about you or your opinions. No, it doesn’t go both ways. For the love of god, stop contacting me about things going both ways and reverse racism. Black power and white power are not synonymous. Stokely Carmichael was not a Grand Wizard of the KKK or a neo-nazi. White people aren’t being harassed, assaulted and killed wholesale by law enforcement and vigilantes for being white. This isn’t about white people. Decenter yourself. Decenter whiteness. Decenter white opinions on Black lives.

If you’re a good white person, then occupy yourself with rectifying bad white people and work towards dismantling white supremacy. Speak out against injustice. You might claim to be a good white person, but how good are you when your time is spent violently inserting your opinions about our lives and our victimization at the hands of white supremacy, while centralizing yourself? That isn’t something good white people do. If you do this, you’re not a good white person, no matter what you tell yourself.

If you’re a good white person, then acquaint yourself with this quote from Malcolm X.

"I don’t sing about politics; I sing the truth."                                                                            - Miriam Makeba

I saw the wonderful documentary Mama Africa last night, on the life and work of the late Miriam Makeba. What an inspiring, radiant and beautiful human being. She was a towering presence in music, politics and history—and I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so universally loved and honoured. 

And she was married to Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture).

Legendary.