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[18 Mighty Mountain Warriors - Illegal Immigrants]
[The Pinky Show - "How to Solve Illegal Immigration" (HELLA funny!)]
Happy Thangstaken to all my fellow illegal immigrants (whilst not really knowing how to wrap my head around the continuing genocide of indigenous folks, the fact that enslaved African heritage folks didn’t first arrive here of their own free will, and that the U.S. continues to profit from these facts today =T).
Giving Thanks,
Masashi
[DemocracyNow Interview w/ Amy Goodman pt. 1]
Read the rest of this entry »
[Cornel West w/ Tavis Smiley on Music]
Music at its best…is the grand archeology into and transfiguration of our guttural cry, the great human effort to grasp in time our deepest passions and yearnings as prisoners of time. Profound music leads us–beyond language–to the dark roots of our scream and the celestial
heights of our silence.-Cornel West
His autobiography, Brother West: Living & Loving Out Loud just came out. Cop it HERE!
Working my hardest to live & love out loud,
C
p.s.
[Cornel West w/ Amy Goodman on DemocracyNow]
[NY Times - Being Multiracial in America]
Wrote this for Raza580: Educational Equity…
_______
A Severed Nation’s Miseducation in Miscegenation:
Mixed Race Identity Formation in American Schools
If you are to walk into most high schools during their lunch period in the racially, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse San Francisco Bay Area today, you would in all probability find children socializing in groups of many different sizes. If you were to examine closer, the makeup of these groups, you might find the majority of them to be made up of adolescents of racially and/or socio-economically similar circumstances. Upon even further examination, it is safe to say that many of these groups would host an individual or two, whose parents were not of the same racial background. As young people grow older and begin to internalize notions of racialization and race identity, mixed race/heritage individuals will be faced with choosing a “side,” or possibly not having anybody side with them at all. Read the rest of this entry »
*My own reiteration of Dr. Duncan-Andrade’s (Professor of SFSU’s “RAZA580: Educational Equity” course) breakdown of “Macro” & “Micro Agressions” from Frantz Fanon’s world/life/game-changing book, Black Skin, White Masks*
Frantz Fanon was a fucking groundbreaking and revolutionary dude. He was a clinical psychologist who worked with people of African heritage in French Algiers, and documented the ways that oppression and muscle tension were directly correlated. He found that when African heritage people were surrounded by Europeans in Algriers, that their muscle tension would increase. If you imagine a rubber band twisting tighter and tighter it will eventually snap. What he put into words was the fact as oppressed people become wound tighter and tighter they too, eventually end up “snapping” in an inevitable release.
“Iron” Mike Tyson’s style of fighting is representative of what Franz Fanon labeled “Macro-Agression.” In his hey-day, Tyson was a “make-one-wrong-move-and-you’re-done” type of fighter who was (in)famous for ending fights with a single shot to the dome. An example of this “macro-aggression” could be anything from Chinese American Vincent Chin being beaten to death by white auto-workers for being “a Jap who was stealing American jobs in the auto business,” to Oscar Grant being kneeled down on the ground by Police and executed in front of a crowd at Oakland’s Frutivale BART station.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s (that fight was aiight – Marquez is over the hill) style of fighting is representative of what Fanon labeled “Micro-agression.” He beings with a shot to the kidney. Wait. Dance. Shot to the jaw. Dance. Wait. Wait. Shot to the eye. Wait. Shot to the ribs…and so on. Mayweather Jr. wears his opponents down until they have absolutely nothing left.
Fanon wrote that it was these “micro-agressions” that chipped away at oppressed people, caused them to tense and tighten over and over until they “snapped” – on themselves and/or others (usually loved ones and/or people within their own community).
Talk about some culturally relevant education! Professor Jeff Andrade: Master muhf*ckin Sensei/Pedagogue.
Keep your gloves up.
Love.
C
[Maya Angelou talking about when she met 2Pac]
One of my mentors told me about this video and it is truly moving to me. To know that she met Tupac in the midst of him being involved in an altercation is one thing, but to know that her speaking sweetly to him made him weep openly and uncontrollably is an incredible reminder. It is a reminder that there are hundreds of thousands of young men of color who are capable of remarkable greatness, being lied to and being led to doubt their sense of self-worth. Some reading this won’t require that reminder because of the world they operate within daily, and if this is the case, I hope these videos serve as a testament to the strength and resilience of youth and the wisdom and brilliance of elders.
[2Pac's Malcolm X Dinner Speech, circa 1992]
“I’m so ahead of my time, my parents haven’t met yet…”
Rest In Power,
C
I have given up on trying to not do too many posts on and about this woman.
So(ul) Amazing,
C
[A good example of an Asian male tearing down the establishment as the masses cower in fear at his strength & the fire he spits.]
[A good example of an Asian female tearing down the establishment as the masses cower in fear at her strength & the fire she spits: Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai]
Godzilla & Golden (Yellow/Brown) Earthlings…
The 5th Annual Asian Pacific Islander American Spoken Word & Poetry Summit: Bay 2009 was absolutely f*cking beautiful. I knew I was in for some sh*t when I read the registration packet info put together by head organizer/poet/artist/jack-of-all-trades/my brother from another, Drizzletron. He writes:
THERE WAS ONCE A REVOLUTIONARY ASIAN BROTHER whose presence shook the world as we knew it. During the occasional moments when he would surface, he was always greeted by screaming crowds, and entire blocks closed for his passage. He was known for the fire he spit, the passion in his voice, and his ability to single-handedly destroy the establishment. His name was Godzilla.
The Volume Control 3 fundraiser/showcase was truly mind-blowing. Sun repped for Korean Candians, Erican Benton brought us back to Guahan, Bao Phi left us all in tears, Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai reminded us to stay awake and ready, Skim & Denizen Kane made our hearts dance, Kiwi & DJ Phatrick added 15 minutes to our lives with a remix of “Man in the Mirror,” and Jeimil and I didn’t get booed off stage. Pretty f*cking fantastic if you ask me. =)
With all that beauty being displayed, I must say that it was the youth that made this weekend so special to me. Hearing them dialouge in the workshop I attended on “Asian Americans, Identity, Consumerism and Pop Culture,” seeing them bust their pieces on the mic, and witnessing them interact with each other was indescribably beautiiful. HOPE is some sh*t I cling onto whenever I can get some, and this weekend provided me with enough to get through the rest of the summer (and possibly then some!). this is so f*cking necessary right now, especially because I am working as a Barista at a place we’ll call “Beet’s Coffee”.
Grindin’ (Coffee Beans)…
If you’ve never worked in service before you may not experience white, male, middle-class, and/or upper-class entitlement as regularly as you might had you worked for 4 years at “Jumba Juice” and 2 at “Starfux”. There is truly nothing like an old white dude with an earing and a Bob Marley T-shirt (I heart Berkeley/Albany/El Cerrito “liberals”) demanding that I stop helping another customer (Latina woman) to make him a “sample” of loose leaf tea for free because he “comes here all the time”. Muhf*cka probably has a “Free Tibet” sticker on the back of his Prius. *sad face*
Not ALL customers are d*cks however. The funny thing is, for the most part I actually enjoy talking to people, asking them how their day is going and genuinely making a connection, even if it is incredibly brief and only on a surface level. My co-workers are incredibly laidback, don’t take sh*t from anyone who is outtapocket and despite any differences we may have, have been nothing but welcoming and helpful to me as I ‘learn the ropes’ in coffee beandom.
What is somewhat disturbing to me is the affect that caffeine has on people, myself included. At first, I feel euphoria: freedom from sadness and apathy, and literally feel ready for anything. I feel smart, confident, and am able to recall and take note of things I might not be able to at 8am without coffee. A few hours later…FML. Every sh*tty thing that happens is amplified. I drop a 5 pund bag os beans and it spills all over the floor: I want to lie on the ground in the fetal position and give up on life. My stomach hurts, my brain farts. My eyes are deaf and my ears burn. Crash.
Looking outside myself, I see hordes of people coming into a beautifully manicured drughouse. Addicts line up with long faces and grow more impatient the longer they wait in line. The next time you are in a coffee chain before 9am, watch how people look as they wait by the espresso bar, and watch further as they their pain melts away when their name is called.
Numb to the pain with my morning medication
Succumb to the game of these horrid ethics, blatant…
In the end, despite it all, I am glad to have some income coming in and know that I am incredibly blessed, pprivileged, and fortunate to even be employed right now. Sh*t is no joke right now and I pray that someday soon, we’ll look back at right now and laugh in amazement at how absolutely f*cked our economy was. Til’ then I’ma stay GRINDIN’.
If you’ve read this blog before, you prolly already know that this year has been one of transition, questioning the world, myself, my own identity, and a lot of “pain + love = growth” (Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales) for me. I’m finally coming to a place of feeling centered and good about myself, but not in a way that allows me to feel superior to others intellectually or otherwise (much to the contrary). I have begun to embrace the fact that I am many times completely confused, ignorant, capable of making multitude mistakes, and despite it all, still a good person and worthy of love and respect. I have a trillion people in my life to thank for this understanding, but none more than my partner, eM and my family. I am currently in the process of thanking everyone individually in my own way. It’ll take a while, but I’ma definitely see that it happens.
Another reason I have found so much peace within and without as of late is due to (you guessed it!) a book.
Ego Trippin’ with Eckhart Tolle…
["I think, therefor I am"(?)]
So after hearing about this book from a number of different homies, most notably, Gregory “Slavename” Mitchell, I hopped on over to Moe’s Books on Telegraph and picked up a used copy for pretty cheap. I can’t lie that although Oprah is my wifey’s shero, I find for some reason that her book club sticker has tended to turn me off to most of the books they adorn. This case was no exception, but the cheap price and all the good things I had heard from folkers forced me to give it a chance.
I’m only halfway through Eckhart Tolle’s A New World: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, but have already recommended it to a number of different friends and fam. To me, Eckhart Tolle takes from the most useful/practical applications of Buddhism, Christianity, Psychology and Philosophy and applies them to the world in its current state.
What has really helped to bend my mind over backwards is not only the self-refelction and evaluation that this book assists the reader in, but the self-reflection and evaluation of how the reader evaluates and reflects on his or herself.
Apparently when early Philosopher Rene Descartes said “I think, therefor I am,” he was on to something but not entirely correct.
The philosopher Descartes believed that he had found the most fundamental truth when he made his famous statement: “I think, therefore I am.” He had, in fact, given expression to the most basic error: to equate thinking with Being and identity with thinking.
-Eckhart Tolle
In other words, the second we are aware that we are thinking, we are not in the same place of simply being concious. We are concious that we are concious (is this too much?). A better way to say it would be to “I think that I think, therefor I think that I am” (Ambrose Bierce).
MORE THAN ANYTHING, this book has helped me to see the myriad ways that my fears and EGO have gotten in the way of my fully expressing my truest self. The way the book explained being trapped within your own thoughts and how much attention you put toward thinking about the past or future has assisted me in being more present and observant of hwo I interact and think about and with others around me. PEEP GAME:
When the ego is at war, know that it is no more than an illusion that is fighting to survive. That illusion thinks it is you. It is not easy at first to be there as the wittnessing Presence, especially when the ego is in survival mode or some emotional pattern from the past has become activated, but once you have had a taste of it, you will grow in Presence power and the ego will lose its grip on you. And so a power comes into your life that is far greater than the ego, far greater than the mind. All that is required to become free of the ego is to be aware of it, since awareness and ego are incompatible. Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. This is why we may also call it Presence. The ultimate purpose of human existence, which is to say, your purpose, is to bring that power into this world. And this is also why becoming free of the ego cannot be made into a goal to be attained at some point in the future. Only Presence can free you of the ego, and you can only be present Now, not yesterday or tomorrow. Only Presence can undo the past in you and thus transform your state of conciousness.
-Eckhart Tolle (“Beyond Ego: Your True Identity”)
ALMOST too deep, I know, but that’s only a single muhfuggin paragraph sun! It’s funny because a TON of what I’ve read in this book has helped to put words to things I have beenn trying to understand for a minute now (ie: wearing clothes 2X too big, never smiling, and looking pissed-off all the time made sense as the only East Asian/whiteboy on the basketball court in Richmond as a teen so I wouldn’t get punched in the face, but this would also look like someone I’d wanna punch in the face myself if that same person were 27, married, and living in a beautiful home in El Cerrito). Yadaididig?
I am (most of the time) today, in a process of noticing when my ego jumps into an old “survival mode” of emotional patterns, and by doing so, stopping that sh*t in its tracks.
Dr. Eckhart Tolle, even though you light-weight look like a Hobbit, I thank, salute, respect, and appreciate you and your works wholeheartedly.
Fighting to be Godzilla for my Golden Sisters and Brothers (and gender non-specific family) while grindin’ and awakening to my life’s purpose,
Senbei
p.s.
Me and wifey are to the east coast for a week to see family and celebrate our 1 year Anniversary! 
Yeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
p.p.s.
[The homie MC Phatrick by The homie JA Tadillac]
p.p.p.s.
[The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition: The song I've been waking up to every day as of late.]
["Confining life to an eternal present is an insiduous form of soul murder."]
[Dr. Cornel West w/ Tavis Smiley - Family]
If you are a follower of this blog, you can probably tell that Hope on a Tightrope has had a profound impact on my life. Whenever I feel myself begin to move off-kilter and lose my sense of balance, I turn to the words of people like Dr. West, Arundhati Roy, Paulo Coehlo, Cee-Lo Green, Tupac Shakur, bell hooks, my grandaddy Robert McAfee Brown and a slew of others who always seem to stay brilliant and resilient in the face of the catastrophic.
Family is something I have been working to try defining and understand deeper, as well as stuggling to not define and worry about because it may be something whose beauty does not need to be articulated. When pondering what “family” means, I tend to think of people with two mamas or papas, people with a single parent, people who have been adopted by folks of a different ethnic/racial heritage, or like myself – people who have family with differing racial/economic/historical backgrounds.
Where Dr. West hits home (as he always seems to do) is that he believes that:
The family is a major vehicle through which history and memory can be preserved in the face of a marketplace that erases history and defaces memory.
-Cornel West
I am in a state of tremendous gratitude due to how blessed I have been to have such an amazing family, and see clearer now than ever, that blood and genetics many times has very little to do with who your “family” is.
“…we are who we are, because someone loved us.”
ColinResponse
["You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people."]
[Cornel West w/ Tavis Smiley - Philosophy]
“The condition of truth, is allowing suffering to speak.” This is yet another track from the companion CD to Cornel West’s latest book, Hope on a Tightrope. I love Dr. West’s words here and find comfort in his thought-process because he acknowledges the American people’s hunger and thirst for a new set of philosophies. As a country, we have grown (belligerently) drunk with distraction and anything that will numb and allow us momentary escape. If “justice is what love looks like in public, and deep democracy is what justice looks like in practice,” me thinks it’s safe to ask “where’s the love?”
Philosophy is a meditation on and a preparation for death.
-Plato
To philosophize is to learn how to die.
-William Fontaine
He or she who learns to die, unlearns slavery.
-Seneca
In a (pain + love = growth) process of watching my unarticulated assumptions die and turning them loose,
ColinResponse
p.s.
The greatest Americans have not been born yet
They are waiting patiently for the past to die-Saul Williams
