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[akiyoshi & senbei (circa 1989)]
[Senbei - Masterpiece (prod. Akiyoshi of Dynamic Souls)]
So…I have been in hibernation regarding musica for a minute now: Going back to school and pushing through a slew of life changes including but not limited to, a continuing examination of my own unique positionality/privilege/struggles, reconnecting to spirituality and my heart (“you corny cuz!”), and working to express my identity fully, while not becoming trapped within it (if that makes any sense at all =P).
This song is the first I’ve written and/or recorded in about 5 months and is a tiny window into my current insanity, clarity, self-hate, self-love, intelligence, ignorance, confidence, insecurity, etc., and will (in some form) be on the next Broken Halos Project. This cut is rough and may or may not have different verses from myself and/or Jeimil when all is said and done. =P
Senbei – Masterpiece
Verse 1:
I yawn and wakeup turn off my clock alarm, god is the greatest: “allah hu akbar” / thankful for the morning and the history of my young life, anxious for the glory and the wisdom of my hindsight / was itching for the limelight, but now I play the background, fixing to design life to udder to the cash cow / “got milk?” I need some vitamin d. but me, my smiling has ceased, my stylin’ is bleak, my dream’s designed to free / but it’s not. im paying dearly for it, my masterpiece is blasphemy, I’m slaving yearly for it / but I spent my days with children I was thrilled to go build with, and celebrate my funding til it ran-off (randolph) like childress / damn god, I feel this aching sense of desperation making sense of hesitation’s insecurity / blast off and peel this lyrical cap, a spiritual rap, a miracle in fact, because…HOOK X2:
I love to live inside the rhapsody, searching for the person that I have to be / and I’ll talk to my creator til im fast asleep dreaming how I’ll be a brush stroke in a masterpiece…Verse 2:
I found peace inside a cloudy brain, this aint vision, my rhymes unique sublime I sound insane this aint wisdom / it’s a reflection of the story I was born to tell the planet, resurrection of the glory from my war in hell, god damn it / blissful are their sins if pistols kiss the children goodnight, but wishful is my thinking, simple is my living: just write / let your tale call your voice from silence to ignition. Rep your label, I’ll rejoice in wildin’ AND submission / heaven and hell exist upon the same plane, my lame brain maintained inhaling grams of jane mang / high enough to touch the bottom of the pearly gates, died enough to clutch the bottle from this earthly hate / great, im drinking from a hurting heart’s breaks…wait. I think I see her work of art make / sense of all the madness on this atlas where I’m drowning, meant for these theatrics that we practice in the sound when…HOOK X2
Verse 3:
Another world is on her way and when the days are quiet, I hear her breathing deep and free she sighs inside the silence / and I’ll supply the science, til the future speaks about me, and never be compliant to the foolishness around me / movement it astounds me, ‘cause truth it speaks the loudest, but coolness man its drowns me, during youth my freedom’s clouded / I grew up with children always calling women “b*tches”, and if that shocks u bro or sis: u prolly aint from Richmond / oppression has kinder face in middle-class America. Depression has a smiley face - a ridalin hysteria / to cripple and embarrass you in all the guilt you live in - a sickness that’ll carry you through all the pill prescriptions / and I know its true because I’ve seen it from both sides: I reside on borderlines and watch the scoreboard multiply / at the buzzer im shooting: an act of desperation. In utter confusion I’ll rap to empty space. Sen…bei.HOOK X2
It is what it is. I thank you sincerely for caring enough to listen.
Bless,
Senbei
p.s.
Aki: Your soul is more dynamic than you will ever know. I love you, baby bro.
[Rep. Betty Brown R-Texas: The face of white American entitlement]
via The Houston Chronicle
AUSTIN — A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”
The comments caused the Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday to demand an apology from state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell. But a spokesman for Brown said her comments were only an attempt to overcome problems with identifying Asian names for voting purposes.
The exchange occurred late Tuesday as the House Elections Committee heard testimony from Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans.
Ko told the committee that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent often have problems voting and other forms of identification because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common English name that is used on their driver’s license on school registrations.
Easier for voting?
Brown suggested that Asian-Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible.
“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.
Brown later told Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”
Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie said Republicans are trying to suppress votes with a partisan identification bill and said Brown “is adding insult to injury with her disrespectful comments.”
Brown spokesman Jordan Berry said Brown was not making a racially motivated comment but was trying to resolve an identification problem.
Berry said Democrats are trying to blow Brown’s comments out of proportion because polls show most voters support requiring identification for voting. Berry said the Democrats are using racial rhetoric to inflame partisan feelings against the bill.
“They want this to just be about race,” Berry said.
_______
All the politicians: motherf*ck them fools / I’m a product of the Richmond Public Schools / Saw a holocaust of children, trust misused / Alcohol-to-ism, plastic cups issued…
I believe that people are good (or are at least capable of being so) and that white people are people. Therefore, white people are good (or are at least capable of being so). One part of the gift/curse of being mixed race is that I do not possess the ability to simply give up on white folks or write them off completely. The curse is that when I see things like this, it makes me want to. The audacity of someone feeling entitled enough to ask a race of people to change their names so that it makes their homogenized, sterile, fraudelent, wonderbread world feel “safer” to them not only makes me want to beat the everloving sh*t out of a motherf*cker, but breaks my f*cking heart.
If she was just some idiot ranting I could care less, but this is a politician with power, money and influence. Just for the record: F*CK YOU, BETTY BROWN. U & ALL OF WHITE SUPREMACY CAN EAT A BAG OF DILDOES (sp?).
sincerely,
MASASHI
[eM, this post is for you. I'm not sure I've ever felt better about myself than I did on this day. You make me feel so strong. Thank you, Maganda.]
As of late, I haven’t had the chance to really write anything but papers on research methods and literature reviews on books by Asian American Studies scholars. In efforts to not leave my brain on a journey to implosion, I decided to use this blog in the way I originally intended – as a therapeutic outlet. Doing my M.A. in Asian American Studies at SFSU has been liberating in a way that is difficult to describe. This is my best effort at that endeavor…
———-
I don’t wanna fit in anymore, I wanna stand out. I know my mama gets it, pretty sure my daddy’s damn proud. Due to all their brilliance I’ve come to know I’m cool cousin. Here’s to my chameleons, I love you – show your true colors.
Model Minority Report Pt 2: Observations From my Ascendance from Working-Class to Middle-Class status
Last week I saw a life-changing film, directed by my dude Tadashi “Tadillac” Nakamura, entitled “A Song For Ourselves.” This movie is a documentary about the life of 60’s revolutionary singer/songwriter Chris Iijima, a Japanese American Sansei (3rd generation like my pops) who was HUGE in the Asian American movement against the war in Vietnam. It struck a chord in me in a way that I’d honestly never felt. It was a enormous contradiction to my internalized racism about my own Japanese Americans people in that he:
a) was vocal in his objection to racism; b) sang beautifully; c) was an educator; d) was open and honest about his feelings and not stoic and reserved; e) was able to remain a revolutionary in a middle-class lifestyle and raise a family; f) married a white woman and had mixed children while never doubting his own self-worth in any way, shape or form. There has been a certain hopelessness (Shikata Ga Nai) I’ve internalized about my Nikkei people being passive and invisible and this film was exactly what I needed to trouble those misconceptions. I texted Tad (the film’s director) that night, congratulating him, sincerely thanking him for documenting Chris’ life, and letting him know that his film made me shed tears for the first time since my Bachan passed away, the day after my wedding last year.
Growing up, my Asian American role models in regards to social justice have primarily been of Filipino, Vietnamese, Indian and/or other Asian heritages whose home countries have historically been colonized and labeled “3rd world” or “underdeveloped.” To see an elder Japanese American who was not only a revolutionary thinker, but an activist and an artist/musician do (a)-(f) eradicated a certain degree of my hopelessness about my people and myself. Through mine eyes, Chris Iijima’s story is a full-on contradiction to racist/essentialist categories of Japanese/Asian American men and people in general.
Growing up working-class and attending the Richmond Public schools as a Japanese-white kid, left me extremely guarded. If you did not figure out how to interact with your peers in a certain way and dress and speak in the local east bay code, you might be subject to ongoing violence and/or humiliation (especially if you were skinny and pale, like yours truly). Hearing that people were going to get jumped after school or that someone I had gone to elementary school with had been shot and killed began to feel eerily normal by the time I reached my teens. The news was always incredibly sad and heartbreaking – but still normal none the less. It was clear to me from a very young age that it was very f*cking tough being an Asian/Anglo kid in the Richmond Public Schools, but it was still MUCH more f*cked up for my Black, Latino and Southeast Asian peers.
As my mother went on to Graduate School for an MSW and my father rose in the ranks at the then Richmond Unified School District, our lives got better and financial burdens began to lessen. While we never moved from our home in the Richmond Annex, I recall coming home from my first year in college and being surprised to see a new computer and the house IKEA’d-out. It felt as if I left home a working-class kid and returned to a middle-class home I didn’t recognize. At this point I was 18 years old and the majority of my identity thus far was based in the fact that YES – I was an East Asian, whiteboy, but I wasn’t “rich” like the other white and/or East Asian kids at my school, had a beautiful girlfriend that dudes were extremely jealous of, was a DJ, had vast knowledge of everything Hip-Hop and was the only player on the JV basketball team who was not of African American heritage. I had carved out a niche that for a skinny, pale Japanese/white kid, looked a lot more fruitful than getting my ass beat in front of cute girls for my Nikes and laughed at like some of my other East Asian and/or Caucasian peers.
These last 8 years since graduation from college have been a “pain + love = growth” (thank you Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales!) experience. I have watched my life get better over time due to my/my family’s access to higher education, whilst still witnessing through work and personal relationships, the struggle, strife, terror, and devastating hopelessness of race and class oppression. I must admit that while I built up a certain intolerance and indignation toward middle-class people, I now have no choice but to think as one of them and understand the difficulties of a new positionality in America. I now live in a large home with my wife, my little brother and his partner, that was once owned by my Bachan (grandmother), and it will someday belong to us. I walk through it today with tremendous feelings of guilt as well as gratitude.
Knowing the her/histories of my peoples, it is not unclear to me why I feel the way I do. Many Asian Americans and Japanese Americans in particular, hold many values regarding hard work and struggling through difficulty without complaint. After leaving the internment camps when WWII ended, my Jichan was a gardener and my Bachan a nurse, both of them working long, difficult hours to purchase a home and put food on the table for my father, aunt and uncle. I recall both my Bachan and father telling me when I was very young, “you don’t take shortcuts, Colin.” Laziness was rarely, if ever, tolerated by either of them as I grew up. Nothing was going to be handed to you, so you’d better be ready to work your ass off.
As for my mother’s (white) side, both of my grandparents were/are very revolutionary people and I continue to feel their large shadows (of love) over me. My grandfather was Christian Minister and a Professor of Liberation Theology at Stanford University. He and/or my grandmother have spoken to and with the following people, just to name a few: Martin Luther King Jr., Fidel Castro, Stephen Biko, Elie Wiesel, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. It is wonderful to know that my white relatives played such a role in being allies to oppressed people, but it has also left me with many remnants of white/Protestant guilt, and my own feelings that anything good that comes to me is not deserved and should be going to someone less fortunate. When we moved into our new room upstairs at my late Bachan’s home, I was overcome with guilt and my Pinay wife/partner who was raised poor/working-class was overjoyed and ecstatic. Funny noticing the different ways we internalize sh*t. Our kids are gonna be hella sexy, but possibly f*cked in the head. =P
Asian Pacific American Hip-Hop’s Garden of Good & Wevils Pt. 2: My M.A. thesis on The Formation of Asian American Hip-Hopper/Emcee Identity
A while back, I wrote an essay about Asian American emcees and to make a long story short, I addressed the ways that if an individual is neither Black, Brown or raised poor/working-class, rapping MIGHT not be the place for that person to figure out their identity. My stance hasn’t changed since I wrote this, but my class position has. Making a rap song in my late teens about seeking escapism through drinking and/or drugs because openly showing fear and grief made one a target (and numbing out seemed the only option), was relevant to many other Hip-Hoppers, regardless of their race. Therefore my Hip-Hopper “authenticity” stayed in tact regardless of my Asian/Anglo heritage. Now, as I take strives forward in my identity and understandings of oppression, the music I have created most recently speaks to issues such as homophobia, sexism and internalized Asian American racism. In other words, my honestly expressing myself back then was accepted as ‘authentic” Hip-Hop, and how I honestly express myself today to some, may not be.
I have come to many realizations during my semester and a half studying Asian American history, sociology, Marxism, feminist, queer and ethnic studies theory. One of these realizations is that having the opportunity to examine these things in a space where it is not only unquestioned, but encouraged, is a great privilege. It isn’t breaking news, but there millions of people of all backgrounds who are not only discouraged from thinking about feminism and LGBTQ oppression but are humiliated, jailed and/or even murdered for doing so.
As my life experience continues to shift, I find myself in a space today that asks if emceeing is where I still locate my identity. I am fully aware my perspective may change, but as of today I am doubtful that Hip-Hop needs a middle-class Japanese/Anglo rapper who raps from this privileged space of being able to question heterosexism, homophobia and internalized racism. Half of me believes Hip-Hop does or should have a space for this, half of me believes it does not. One thing I am sure of is that I don’t wish to rap unless I believe 100%, that my appropriation of Hip-Hop as a mixed heritage Asian American male is something that helps Hip-Hop and isn’t taking from it. I love H.E.R. too much to take any part in her destruction.
The second part of questioning my own role in the realm of emceeing is related to the ways in which emcee identity once served in giving me an outlet to find culture. As a mixed heritage person I recall the thrill of finding acceptance in a community. As a young person, being both ethnically ambiguous and raised working-class placed me in a position where I many times felt inauthentic amongst middle and/or upper class monoracial Asian and Anglo Americans. “Hip-Hop, you saved my life…”
My Asian American Studies M.A. Thesis is about The formation of Asian American male Hip-Hopper/Emcee identity. I seek to identify the forces that push and/or pull Asian American males into this identity. I was both pushed and pulled into a Hip-Hopper/Emcee identity due to my class status and the location of where I grew up, how I was racialized by others, how I saw my own people racialized as well as outsider observations of African American masculinity that were predominant in my schools and neighborhood and community. In the process of studying this phenomenon, I am taking note of the forces that push and/or pull an Asian American male (me) out of this identity.
Pain + Love = Growth, indeed.
If I am to delve into this study in the most efficient, pragmatic way possible I will need to strip away any and all hopes or aspirations of caring about whether my subjects like me, my music, and/or my study or not. As a critical researcher in my attempts to illuminate what drives Americans of Asian ancestry into a Hip-Hopper identity, I must be “willing to be hurt.” I am in essence asking my interview subjects, “who are you?” and “why are you doing this?” They may ask the same of me and wonder who I am to question them in any way. The simple answer is: I am no one but somebody who loves Hip-Hop, loves Asian American men (no homo…phobia) and also believes that they are both capable of so much more than we have yet to see.
Pain + Love = Growth, indeed.
“Uncle Tamagotchi” Pt. 2: New thoughts on Michelle Malkin (and being pissed that she is the #1 way people find their way to Colinresponse)
Blud. Everyday when I look at my blog stats, the number one way (white, male, conservative – I’m guessing) people find their way to my blog is when they do a google search for “Michelle Malkin.” A year ago, I wrote a post on people I labeled “Uncle Tamagotchis,” or Asian heritage “Uncle Toms,” or “sellouts” if you will. What ensued was a barrage of insults from white men who were coming to the defense of Mrs. Malkin. I responded as an angry, confused, exhausted person of color might by writing them off entirely, dismissing anything they said as racist and ignorant. While much of those feelings were true and justified, my point of defense was largely flawed because when they said things that were in fact oppressive and racist, I accused them of being racist themselves, instead of pointing out the ways that what they stated, was in fact racist. This gave them an escape route to not address what they had said and we went back and forth in a circular pattern that exhausted itself and went nowhere.
Because these past 7 months have been spent reading dozens of books on race, politics, family, community and identity, writing about them, and then critically analyzing my identity and life experience, I have somewhat of a new outlook on Michelle Malkin. While I still think she is a closed-minded idiot who serves capitalism like its her cotdam job (because it is), I no longer find myself in a place where I feel I hold her in a higher degree of wackness because she is of Asian ancestry than I do a white person like Bill O’Reilly. They are equals as far as dumbass jerk faces go in my book.
While Michelle Malkin doesn’t benefit from white, male privilege in the same way that O’Reilly does, she seems to have discovered a way to cater to it that makes her a sh*tload of money, thus making life better for her and her family. I understand fully, that it is not as if she does this for no reason. I do not condone anything she says or does but I have come to realize that as Asian Pacific Americans, we all have our own personal external and internal battles. Her sh*t just looks hella f*cking different than mine. In the end, I think what makes me most angry about her is that she gives racist, wealthy, conservative white men a way to state that capitalistic class oppression has nothing to do with race or gender, all while they objectify this petite Pinay woman, telling her how sexy, exotic and “right-on the money,” she is. It makes me wanna throw up in my mouth at how sad her behavior makes me, and how furious her white, male defenders make me.
Meh…Life goes on.
The Cool: On Stripping Away Unneeded & Unwanted Armor That No Longer Serves Me
My thoughts on leaving emceeing behind for good (or at least until I can tell it makes sense for me to do it again) are not all sacrificial and for the “good” of Hip-Hop. Much of this decision is relegated to the fact that my wanting to combat the oppression of women, LGBTQ folks and gender roles in general doesn’t seem possible at this time through the expression of emceeing as a now middle-class, Japanese/Scottish/Iriquois American. It appears that in order to leave behind the “cool” I once was forced to don as armor during my youth is no longer necessary and actually may hinder my relationships with loved ones and colleagues. As Tim Wise states, “indignation (being hella f*cking pissed off) does not wear well on white people,” and while I am not a “white” person, the privilege from my fair skin and socioeconomic status now place me in a position where my anger and frustration displayed through a Hip-Hop lens is beginning to look and feel awkward to me.
My last project, Shikata Ga Nai, like every Hip-Hop project I’ve been a part of, is very special to me. I feel that it is the closest I can be to who I was in my youth and who I am today while still being “authentically” Hip-Hop (feel free to agree or disagree). As my mind and identity begin to continue shifting and changing, due to race, class, education, etc., I am unsure if my artistic endeavors will be able to be fully expressed through rhyming. I may need to sing, paint, sculpt, draw, produce (Jei, Slavename, MemphReigns, what it dew!), etc. I definitely will be writing and if you follow this blog, it is my hope and belief my writing will grow and delve deeper each time – expressing my truest thoughts and opinions on love, service, justice, freedom and my relationship to power and powerlessness. I hope you’ll be there with me, and if you read this sh*t in its entirety, I’m guessing you will. And for that, I thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart.
Peace. Love. Blessings.
Colinresponse
[Natalise - China Doll]
A highly problematic example of a very confused person’s internalized racism and sexism being used to make money… Pahee showed me.
I saw this video a couple weeks back, but I’ve sitting on it, because I wanted to think of an appropriate response… It’s the video for Natalise’s “China Doll.” In it, she plays this stereotypical Asian female character, starting right off the bat as a bad driver with a terrible accent… and it kind of just devolves from there: dragon lady, tourist, math nerd, masseuse, nail salon worker, you name it. The video is just crammed full of images that’ll make you cringe. I mean, I get it. I think.
Now, I’m familiar with Natalise’s previous work, and from what I’ve seen, she’s talented and attractive, and has the potential to be a real breakout pop singer. But this song and this video… are awful. I kept waiting for the reversal, that bang moment where all this stuff gets flipped and subverted, and we see that her intention all along was to make fun of these stereotypes, but it never quite happened. At least, it was never apparent to me, in a way that really nailed it. And with lyrics like, “If you want to have a shot at my Fortune Cookie/You better act a little less like a Rookie…” Wow. Sorry, Natalise. Really really really not diggin’ this one.
I can see her attempts at trying to make fun of the stereotypes attached to Asian heritage women, but at the same time she is portraying herself in a way to attract attention and in no way contradicting any of these racist stereotypes. At no time during this video is there any flipping of the (old, tired, oppressive, Orientalist) script. Apparently she went to Stanford and one might infer she could a get a B.A. in not being a f*cking idiot, yet…she prolly got it in Business-Economics. *SIGH*
This (internalized) racism is killin’ me inside,
C
p.s. Making $$$ from sick, twisted, racist sexual fetishes does not go.
[One Vision]
2009 has already brought a plethora of joy and happiness into my life, but as we all know there can no joy without hardship, no love without hate. Life seems to be a fluctuating balance of good and evil – slamming us down just when we think we have it all figured out, and calling upon us to fight mercilessly when oppression combined with apathy makes injustice come to fruition.
I’ve been meaning to write about the issues below for some time, and finally took it upon myself to sit down and muhf*ckin git down.
Taken from the article in AsianWeek Magazine:
BERKELEY, Calif. — A weekly celebration of Thai culture and cuisine may come to an end next month, as zoning issues and complaints from a vocal group of neighbors are threatening to shut the doors of what many view as a Berkeley institution.
The Berkeley Thai Temple, formally called Wat Mongkolratanaram, has called Russell Street home for almost thirty years, but it may be forced to end its popular Sunday food offering if the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board denies its request for a Broader Land Use Permit on Jan. 22.
The Sunday food offering is part of a tradition that gives Thai Buddhists a chance to earn “merit” by providing time, food and donations to the monks at the temple.
“We started out very small, because it was only for the Thai Buddhist community,” said Chinda Blaschczyk, who has volunteered at the temple for almost a decade.
But word of mouth has made the Thai brunch popular among the larger Berkeley community, attracting upwards of 600 brunch-goers every week eager to exchange monetary donations for a vast variety of authentic Thai cuisine.
Complaints from a small group of neighbors have complicated what would have otherwise been a routine permit request, citing litter, parking issues and odors as reasons why the zoning board should force the temple to scale back its Sunday brunches.
(Click HERE to read the article in its entirety.)
This is a classic case of ridiculous xenophobia. If the Thai Temple was a Unitarian Church that did BBQ cookouts each weekend, I somehow get the feeling these neighbors wouldn’t complain of “offensive odors.” Some of the neighbors have made claims that the Thai Temple puts “addictive substances into their food.” That shit is called garlic and onions, u sh*tner….
*SIGH*
Here is a word to the East Bay Anglo bretheren who reside in this community and are working to shut down the Temple:
If you are afraid of anything that lies outside of a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, homogenized Amerikan identity, it probably wasn’t a great idea to live in Berkeley you ignorant jerkfaces. Working to shut down a landmark like this in Berkeley, CA under the guise of “zoning permits” is some racist, scurryass bullsh*t, no matter which way you slice it.
I think most people know Berkeley for being “radical,” “against the grain,” and all that, but as all of my homies from Berkeley will tell you, there is an underbelly of socio-economically privileged folk who are intolerant, ridiculously conservative and scared to f*cking death of anything and everything different from their Marsha Brady/Cosby Show lifestyle. I am working on having attention for people like this because simply blasting them does not usually equate with changing their minds, but F*CK… Until I get better at that: F*CK yall blud…seriously. F*CK yall. Try using the blessings in your privileged lives to love and serve others instead of bathing in entitlement. In the words of my late Bachan: “Honestly…”
_______
MURDER WE WROTE: THE GAZA STRIP
[Democracy Now: Gaza Strip Report w/Amy Goodman]
Israeli F-16 Attack Kills Father of Palestinian Journalist; Israel Bombs UN School, Killing Three
The UN says around a quarter of the dead are civilians, but that figure only counts women and children, excluding adult males. Today, we will look at one of those men killed. I am joined by Fares Akram. He is the Gaza correspondent for The Independent of London. His father was killed in an Israeli F-16 attack on Saturday. His wife is nine months pregnant. We also speak with UNRWA’s Christopher Gunness on the Israeli bombing of an UN school that killed three people.
[Took this in front of the Israeli Consulate Building in SF during a Protest of the Gaza killings last week]
The constant, unbroken support of Israel by the American government is simultaneously frightening, sickening and heartbreaking. The homie Phatty has a great post on this story.
From where I stand and from what I’ve read, Israel’s unabashed hypocrisy, terrorism and genocide of the Palestinean people seems to be a built out of fear from being targeted for destruction during the holocaust and being met with with contempt/Anti-Semitism no matter where Jewish people have gone in the world, combined with outright racism, classism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and oppression.
One might infer that a group of people who have suffered so cruelly under Hitler and the Nazi regime might think twice before perpetuating the same type of unfettered hate and cruelty. It is as Arundhati Roy states, “a failure of the human imagination.”
[This sh*t is REAL. Please stop looking away.]
________
OSCAR GRANT – R.I.P.
[Oscar Grant, 22, was killed January 1 in a shooting at a subway station in California's Bay Area.]
(CNN) — A New Year’s Day shooting in which a subway police officer fired a deadly shot into the back of an unarmed man has the San Francisco Bay Area demanding answers as authorities appeal for patience.
“It’s a clear shooting in the back that should not have taken place,” Burris said, characterizing the incident as a case of “overagressiveness by police.”
KTVU obtained at least two videos of the incident and its prelude. One video, which KTVU reported came from a train passenger who wished not to be identified, shows three young men against a wall in the crowded Fruitvale station.
[KTVU Coverage of the ACTUAL shooting.]
I’m f*cking speechless. All I can say is that BART PD PIGS truly need to reassess their training regiments… There will be a Protest TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7 @ FRUITVALE BART STATION FROM 3pm-8pm. Please try to come through and show support if you are able.
________
It’s a New Year and we appear to already have our work cut out for us. Let’s MOVE.
To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.
-Arundhati Roy
Get Up, Stand Up,
Senbei
[If Bill O'Reilly is talking sh*t about you, you MUST be doing something right! Whut it Dew CITY!]
Many of you have prolly already seen this, but I felt it necessary to post about this pseudo-reality mockumentary done by the good(?) folks over at “The O’Reilly Factor” about San Francisco, CA. Way to find the 5 people most desperate for some attention in SF, and edit your film to make it seem that these individuals represent the entire city, surrounding area and state of Cali.
And for sh*ts an’ giggles… VINTAGE David Chapelle in San “The Sucka Free City” Francisco:
[Part 1]
[Part 2]
[Part 3]
[Keep it SUCKA (Bill O'Reilly) FREE]
["Chop a lotta game..."]
F*ck Prop. 8,
colinresponse
p.s. Dave Chapelle: Where they be at? We miss u so f*cking much big homie!!!
[McThizzface]
Disclaimer:
I know I’m in grad school right now and have been spending the majority of my time figuring out how to write in a way that will not be ignored by academics/people with power and influence (aka forget you grew up in Richmond and learned how to speak for the first 18 years of your life), but I’ma use this blog as a vehicle for my honest expression in my most honest of muhf*ckin voices…(YEE, muhf*cka! YEE!).
Good f*ckin’ lord, blud. I am truly not sure what to make of everything going on right now in Amerika. Sh*t really seems to be on its way to (or past) hitting the fan. McCain and Palin never cease to amaze me in the ways that they will hurl every insult and negative accusation at Obama in their candidacy, but when face to face with Biden and Obama in debates, never bring these things (ie: Bill Ayers) up! Until November the 4th, its gonna get pretty McNasty out here, sun. Yeesh.
The homie J-Bloom put me onto this vid of greatest-rapper-of-all-time-who-you-always-forget-to-put-in-your-greatest-rapper-of-all-time-lists, Scarface of Facemob, the Ghetto Boys and Houston, (don’t mess with)Texas. Art = Honest Expression = Art.
[How douchebaggy does that hat look on anybody BUT scarface?]
Senator John McCain’s my name and aint a damn thing changed / a veteran whose better than Osam-OBam-Oh what’s his name? Hussein’s his name / insane’s his game, to change is lame, I braved the rain: / tortured by the GOOKs and the Vietcong / abortions mothers choose and I think that’s f*cking wrong / I’ll sacrifice a million children if I have to / to cap the lives of Iraqi fighters – permamnent like tattoos / You wanna live on welfare? While Cubans merc you? / Then vote to make our healthcare universal / I’m the man to be in charge when tragedy strikes ’cause I was born when Blacks and womyn didn’t have any rights / I have to be right. / I’m old, I’m white, a man and rich as devil’s food / The bass too loud! / please make me proud and turn up all the treble fool! / register and choose McCain to vote for the chance / to stay the course and say in chorus: / “no sir, we cant!”
To further my point here as far as the insanity of McCain’s hinjinx, I feel it necessary to post my broshot Adrizzle of iLL-Literacy’s vlog about the 2nd Presidential debate. Get ‘em boy!
[Gotta love (to hate) that good 'ole fashioned U.S.A. racism!]
I know I spend a lot of time on this blog venting about what’s wrong with where I live, but the reason I do so is because I KNOW it can be so much f*cking better than this. I’ve seen the amazing human capacity in my newborn baby nephews and nieces, my wife, parents and brother and in the resilience of my sisters and brothers of all different walks of marginalized life. I am hopeful for celebration on November 4th but have not resigned myself to being setup for disappointment again. What I mean by this is that while I am thinking constantly about the positive thoughts and energy I believe people will need to shine outward for McCain to be beaten, I also fully subscribe to preparing for the worst. This means creating plans of action to protect ourselves/loved ones in the case that McCain/Palin wins and tries to keep gay people from marrying, building more prisons, taking away the right to choose and funding many more wars in many more places around the world.
Yes We Can (make sure we aren’t all assed-the-f*ck-out if Michelle isn’t our First Lady come November)!
‘Til November my people: stay strong and don’t drop your guard, but also don’t be scurred to turn to your neighbor and just “hug-it-out.”
["Can You Feel The Bigotry Tonight?"]
Un mundo mejor es posible,
Senbei
[A "Post Turtle" (via an email from mah mama)]
While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old rancher, whose hand was caught in the gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Palin and her bid.
The old rancher said, ‘Well, ya know, Palin is a ‘Post Turtle.” Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a ‘post turtle’ was. The old rancher said, ‘When you’re driving down a country road you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a ‘post turtle.’
The old rancher saw the puzzled look on the doctor’s face so he continued to explain. ‘You know she didn’t get up there by herself, she doesn’t belong up there, and she doesn’t know what to do while she’s up there; and you just wonder what kind of dummy put her up there to begin with.’
*SIGH*
In the long run, its not really the turtle’s fault it can’t do sh*t when put in a high position; however, we do need to become weary of a turtle who thinks she got up there by herself… =T
[www.psychopseudochristianlooneybinsfromalaska.org]
If you missed the VP debate last week, it went a lil sumpin like this…
[The Jumpoff Street Battle (via illdoctrine)]
If you haven’t done so already, REGISTER TO VOTE!!!
Better Luck Tomorrow,
Senbei
[FAUX NEWS vs GOD'S SON]
[Esco being interviewed on The Colbert Report & performing "Sly Fox"]
[Nas addresses a crowd in NYC in regards to FOX NEWS' racism]
[Nasir calling Jesse Jackson "the biggest playa-hater..."]
James Rucker of ColoOfChange.org had this to say:
On Wednesday, Fox got a taste of what can happen when folks who care about racial justice come together and push back. Here’s how it unfolded on Wednesday:
1:00 p.m. Your signature was printed off at a New York City Kinko’s along with 620,126 others–filling 19 big boxes.
2:00 p.m. The signatures were piled in front of Fox’s national headquarters at 6th Avenue and 48th Street.
3:15 p.m. Hip hop star Nas (whose new album had just risen to #1 on the Billboard charts hours earlier) joined over 100 ColorOfChange.org members and delivered the petitions to Fox on behalf of ColorOfChange, MoveOn, and Brave New Films.
3:30 p.m. Fox refused to accept the petitions. (Sometimes, the truth hurts.)
4:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. News of Fox’s racism and the star-studded petition delivery made its way around the world–with stories in Vibe, Rolling Stone, Billboard, USA Today, Associated Press, Reuters, Bossip, Huffington Post, MTV, OpenLeft, and over 200 other places.
11:30 p.m. Stephen Colbert welcomed Nas as his guest on the Colbert Report and dedicated over half of his show to Fox’s racism. The boxes containing our signatures were stacked prominently on Colbert’s set in place of his normal interview table and chairs–and he conducted the entire interview surrounded by petitions! Then, Nas performed his new song “Sly Fox,” which is all about Fox’s racism.
Watch what you’re watching
Fox keeps feeding us toxins
Stop sleeping
Start thinking outside of the box
And unplug from the Matrix doctrine
But watch what you say
Big Brother is watching…
-Nas
99 days left(!) until Bush is gone.
C+
CHUCK NORRIS sucks balls. Last week, he was seen endorsing Republican Presidential nominee Mike Huckabee and making an ass of himself, when he called out John McCain. Now I’m no supporter of McCain or anything he’s a part of, but I DO know that he has actually seen war, been held in captivity and tortured unlike the current President (who sends working-class people to war) and Chuck Norris (who makes movies about killing poor Brown people). Look at this square-bear:
There is nothing worse than a dude like Chuck making stupid loot off of Asian culture while people like Bruce Lee who are MASTERS of the sh*t, invent a television series (“Kung Fu“) and have their part given to a white dude (David Carridine). I have hated this culture vulture ever since I saw my first Bruce Lee movie. If you’ve never seen “Return of the Dragon,” then peep this clip and overstand me (the best part is when he blows the chest-hair out of his hand…LOL):
And here is Conan O’Brien with one of the most HILARIOUS bits I have EVER seen on television in my whole life (slavename and thecheddarbox feels me).
At least Bruce Lee killed Chuck on-screen before he died. =)
Senbei
p.s. John McCain IS HELLA OLD though.
p.p.s. “American Ninja,” was actually a real movie. Cultural commodification does NOT go. =(
