Black People : Taking action for ourselves

:wave:

I think people have been asking the same question in just about every thread, but the problem is that unless the answer looks exactly like something they want, or the answer presented in a way they want and can understand - they completely look straight over it or go against it - as has been the case with the thread 'heaven is between a black woman's thighs' started by Truth, 'What can an activist do when there is no movement' started by chuck, the one on 'women taking responsibility for their choices in men' started by Destee, and the marrying thread started by Kemetry. All of these threads and many more stated what the problem is - but when you offer solutions they weren't prepared to accept them because they weren't what they wanted or they were not presented in way that was acceptable...for them.

For some, the 'solutions' hit too close to home - like in how we are raising our children. For sure, if you been raising your kids in the way you figure was 'right' and someone tells you that is wrong and/or contributing to the problem - then you're going to become defensive and not see that as a viable solution to the problem. That has been the case with the whole 'man of the house' and 'what is a man?' threads along with the current one about child support.

It's a merry-go-round. I present a problem and ask for solutions. Instead you expound on the problem by adding more problems and then blaming it on this and that - feminism, women's choices, sex, women going naked and not covering up, people not getting married, children born OOW, etc. Those aren't SOLUTIONS that's just a blame game. So then the conversation centers on whatever is attacked - women, education, feminism, dead beat men, etc. Again, no solutions, just a back and forth banter talking about what these people have done that contribute to the problem and/or current state social illness and depravity. I've seen that not only here but in almost any place where people try to tackle a problem, including on that 'State of Black America' clip that was presented here (given, i didn't watch the whole show but I'm sure it didn't any SOLUTIONS to the problems).

And I sense some people have been hurt, and use the opportunity to attack some subjects and people indirectly or directly - as is the case I've noticed with a particular gentleman's threads and comments on feminism and interracial dating.

Everything you presented is apart of the problem - white people, religion, the government, him and her. But the problem IS the solution. As jamesfrmphilly so duly noted, the black man (people) is the solution. The black man (people) is the problem - but he's (they) are also the solution, and the solutions comes from within.

I understand why some people ain't gonna wanna listen to me, in particular. I have had the kind of life that people feel contribute to the problems and issues that is failing the community. Like one brotha elsewhere said - who the hell is going to listen to a man rappin about making money and being rich when he broke? In you gonna come about it, then you need 2B about it! By the same token, who's gonna listen to anyone not living the life that other people ascribe too?

That is so true... and I wonder about that. What can a homeless man or woman teach me about having a home when they are homeless? What can someone on welfare teach about abut the value of a $ when they on welfare? What can a high school drop-out teach me about education when they don't have any and have resorted crime and criminal activity to make a buck - and the answer (to me) - PLENTY! Because I've been there or been close enough to it to understand, and I think you can learn and find value in dam everybody. But to someone else - if you ain't living the life then you caint be the life you want to espouse to someone else.

When I respond to these type of threads, I'm cynical and sarcastic. That's the nature of me. But I've tried to come correct and present some solutions as I saw appropriate, by sharing bits and pieces of my life, what I've learned, and how I'm trying to instill what I've learned in myself and my kids. For me, that is where it starts because the problems I've encountered on here with solutions are also the ones I've encountered in real life - STUBBORNESS. People that too offensive as well as defensive. And when you are OFFENSIVE, then people get DEFENSIVE and won't want to listen to you. My children are a lot more malleable - and that's where I can effect the most change, so that's where I try to start. That is where it all begins anyway.

Truth just hipped me onto this wonderful new world of blogtalkradio. I've listened to some of her old shows and perused a few others. Some of it is crap, but it has the wonderful potential to be a solution and a guide. I don't much listen to talk radio at all - over or subvert racist, and stupid black buffoonery, or listen to radio version of 'this week in black america and how they continue to mess it up for everybody else' type crap. But REAL people, amateurs.... now that's different. Sometimes the best folks with the real help and solutions are the ones who haven't quite 'made it' on the professional level, the pro-bono type, the ones still trying to get their name out there and gather an audience or clientele.

Someone told Alexyss K. Taylor that she was good, but needed to be 'educated' to get her point across more effectively.

:SuN049:

I'm glad she didn't get 'educated' first - she just wouldn't be the same. And this 'educated' person was one of the many following that this 'uneducated' person has following her - so what does that tell you?

I'm all for education, and advocate it to help us succeed financially and career wise, but education tempers a passion from within, and conforms you to societal standards whereby you lose your passion and become dissociated from the people and problems before you.
I think you are right , and all due respect to the poster and other threads asking questions, what we need to do as descendants of folks who did not have the luxury of education or money or anything other then the rags on their back, the whip scars, and chain sores,

And the African capacity of creativity to create something out of nothing

Learn to repeat that process and post more solutions then just more questions!

That creativity is in our genes!!!
 
Well, I'm gonna throw this out there.

1 problem (out of many) is education...the kind of education black
children are receiving.
Letting other groups educate our children is
a critical component to why we are messed up. I am for an afrikan-centered
education
I agree with this part. It one that has to be designed from scratch, with community based support, and implemented in the public school. I am not interested with home-based schooling. Think what you may, but that is one of the main times I actually get my children out of the house and I look forward to it. I don't have the patience to home-educate on that level.

2: We have to dump this idea that the only way to bring about change is by
merely voting.
I partially agree with this. I don't take voting lightly. I remember the struggles I learned about how my people were kept from voting by harassment, intimidation, being beaten, and with systematic things in place like the grandfather clauses to keep them from voting. White women, yes - white women, those who occupy a higher social position than blacks - didn't have the right to vote. White men recognize how much of a FORCE it would have to contend with if it gave the right to vote to white women and so-called minorities - and they wanted to power rested surely in their hands.

I actually feel guilty on days I don't out to vote because I think I've let down my ancestors who have struggled for it - and they are the reason I go out to vote more than anything. They are the primary reasons I am registered... because I can grow quite complacent with the voting system as anyone and not vote at all or be registered. We CAN make a difference through voting.... but usually more so on the local level than the federal. The federal is controlled by money and lobbyist. But even the local system is corrupt and controlled by money, with many of voting for the wrong people or having the wrong people to vote for. I actually hope one day to run for local office... but I know I won't get voted in on my natural beauty and charisma alone and it will time and effort. I'm not settled and not ready to move forward with that now... but I know the importance of voting along with that.

the things .... that separate us have no weight on the scales of MAAT
I have little familiarity with MAAT. I know it means 'justice' and there are principles to accommodate that.
I've read some of the principles and knew that some (many) - I would not follow or could not follow - just like the 10 commandments... so I disregarded them. There are also 42 of them - and that's way too many rules for me to abide by or pay attention too.

Being an atheist, I'm always asked 'well if you have no laws or books to abide by to keep you on the straight and narrow, then what's to keep you from running amuck and doing whatever vile or inappropriate thing you want to do?'

Ah..well.... the police for one. Getting locked up.
I been in jail and it wasn't that bad but I don't think I'd want to do a prolong stint there.

But another... is myself and innate sense of justice.

Since I don't abide by any books or laws such as MAAT, I came up with a list of what is important to me and what I would try to abide by and strive towards.
They are called 'Sacred living Principles' and inspiration was used from MAAT, codes of Hammurabi, the commandments of the bible, along with those of my own heart.

Human nature is good and multidimensional and is not inherently flawed or sinful.

Everyone is born with all the potential skills they need to make moral and ethical decisions and judgments.

Everyone and everything is sacred, divine, and imbued with the power and essence of the goddess/god/great spirit.

You are encouraged to question, inquiry, and exploration to gain knowledge and wisdom in your own right and for your own righteous path.

You are responsible for your own beliefs and your own actions.

Treat the Earth and all that dwell upon it with respect.

Show great respect for yourself and fellow beings.

Work together for the benefit of all mankind.

Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.

Do what you know to be right.

Look after the well being of mind and body.

Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.

Do not destroy wantonly for the furtherance of greed.

Now the issue was what if I run into trouble trying to live up to these principles? How would I recognize them?
I had to give a clue to the type of detriments I was working against.
So them I came up with 'DETRIMENTS TO MORAL ACUITY, SELF IMPROVEMENT & SELF ENLIGHTENMENT.'
The inspiration for that came from the biblical '7 Deadly Sins' but in writing them I used and rewrote some of the stuff from Levay's Satanic principles I found online.
GREED – The over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything
to the point of waste, especially for personal gain. Theft and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation are all actions that may be inspired by greed.

DESPAIR – To lose all hope or confidence; an unwillingness to act or care. It
includes apathy, depression, and joylessness. Feelings of failure about not being able to utilize one's talents and gifts.

WRATH – inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred, anger, rage, and
generally wishing to do evil or harm to others.

ENVY – an insatiable desire to have what another has. It is resentment that
another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it.

CONCEIT – identified as a desire to be more important or attractive
than others, and showing contempt for those you perceive as not measuring up.

WILLFUL IGNORANCE – being content in your own limited amount
of knowledge or (mis)information and refusing to gain additional knowledge, information and wisdom to enhance your decisions, judgments, or outlook.

PRETENTIOUSNESS – making or possessing inflated claims to impress another
or gain material possessions.

PROJECTION – projecting your reactions, responses and sensibilities onto
someone else.

SELF DECEIT – to willingly believe in more favorable lies or misinformation
that you perceive about yourself instead of facing the more (probable) disfavorable truth.

BLIND CONFORMITY – willingly and blindly accepting or following another’s
tenets without question or consideration.

SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS - a belief that your wisdom, knowledge, virtue and
morality is right/just and trumps (is above) all other beliefs, knowledge, wisdom, virtue, and morality; especially those counter to your own.
 
the idea of rugged individualism, and self actaulization is a lie so good,
that even Hitler could not design.

Those that oppress the dark skinned masses of the planet, work from a collective, and those dark skinned masses when they come here work with a collective for their survival as well as the prosperity of their families back home

While we debate collective over individual, those same ethnic groups will leave us in the dust, while they and their children are counting dollars that have made a 360 in their community,

and we will be broke, having these kinds of chats on a library computer,

still wondering what to do
 
I partially agree with this. I don't take voting lightly. I remember the struggles I was learned about how my people were kept from voting by harassment, intimidation, being beaten, and with systematic things in place like the grandfather clauses to keep them from voting.

I actually feel guilty on days I don't out to vote because I think I've let down my ancestors who have struggled for it - and they are the reason I go out to vote more than anything. They are the primary reasons I am registered... because I can grow quite complacent with the voting system as anyone and not vote at all or be registered. We CAN make a difference through voting.... but usually more so on the local level than the federal.

The difference, I believe, will come when we become more politically
astute and knowledgeable...not just to government, but to the ways of the world.

Mayer amschel rothschild once said,"Give me control of a nation's money and I
care not who makes her laws". In the same vein one can say, 'give me control of
the people appointed to office (local, state and or fed) and I
care not who the masses vote for'.

Overstand the powers that be don't care about demo or repub, left or right,
....for both are made to work in the interest of the power elite. Our
ancestors died so we can vote, this is true....they've also died so that we
raise our level of consciousness and sense of reality.

The federal is controlled by money and lobbyist. But even the local system is corrupt and controlled by money, with many of voting for the wrong people or having the wrong people to vote for.... but I know the importance of voting along with that.
Yes...to fight against money-backed corruption,
we got to have money, local or federal. Money to
back the kind of changes to work in our interest.

What 'we' deem as corruption is someone else working in 'their' interest.
For example, the corrupt education system works in the interest of
white domination. It even corrupts white folks (call it collateral damage).

...I didn't say not to vote. I am saying that significant change will come when we
do more than vote, like that which I've advocated in a previous
of post. And to your point, our ancestors died and risk life and limb to vote, they've also
died for other things as well and to that degree is why I say we have to dump this
idea that the only way to bring about change is by merely
voting. Even in the time of slavery to jim crow there were some black financial institutions
and business. I recommend john sibly butler's "entrepreneurship and self-help among black
americans: a reconsideration of race and economics".
 

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