Putting this blog into retirement for now and trying something new. Please click on picture of the assclown directly above if you’d like to check it out.

<3 alwayz,

C

Finna take a break for a while from the blog in order to both 1. jump back into the artistic realm of things, and also to 2. dedicate more time to connecting with my loved ones. I’ve found (and Baldwin points this out beautifully) when someone is a writer, they often find themselves dealing in solitude. I’ve come to the conclusion that I am at my best when I know in no uncertain terms, that I am backed by my incredible community of imperfect, insanely loving/human, freedom fighters, because ego and narcissism are kept at bey due to gratitude not leaving them too much room to operate. I’m discovering “me + too much solitude (can and does at times) = my becoming a sh*tty version of myself”.

I wanted to leave those of you who find your way to this blog (with any degree of regularity) with the most updated version of Dr. Jeff Duncan-Andrade’s talk, “Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete.” Working with and learning from him at SFSU changed the course of my life in that he provided me an example of an eastbay mixed race man of color educator who: loved 2Pac/Hip-Hop; played hoops; was deeply maladjusted to injustice; expressed his masculinity without fear and/or it being at the expense of femininity; was unapologetically obsessed with pushing with everything in his mind and body to see that all young people receive a quality education; used any/all privilege he could identify in his own positionality to redistribute resources back to where they had been historically stolen; and strove to identify when and where he was f*cking up by inviting challenge and critique into his life as opposed to running from and avoiding it.

German Philosopher Immanuele Kant says, “Examples are the go-cart of judgment,” and Cornel West says, “Courage is contagious.” I realize Jeff’s work is not a panacea for the social trauma that affects poor/working young people of color in schools, that he is imperfect, never “free of spot or blemish,” occupies a different positionality than me as a Chicano (as opposed to Nikkei) male, and is the result of a ton of amazing support and mentoring in his own life… But the big homie gave (and continues to give) me a courageous example of something I didn’t necessarily believe to be possible until I witnessed it firsthand. His tutelage not only sharpened my moral compass, but far more importantly helped me to begin humanizing and therefor loving myself in this period of my bless-ed life and I am so far from the only one of his students he’s assisted in this process.

In other words, I feel very strongly that if you are able to take the time to watch this in its entirety, you won’t be sorry. =P

Sayonara for now, family. I’m off to make another attempt at synthesizing the brilliant lessons you’ve all un/knowingly taught me. Thank you (as always) for dropping by.

Peace + Balance,

C.Masashi.Senbei

The thing with the ‘n word’: it’s very very confusing for white (me: and/or Asian) kids who have a lot of black friends and are accepted. And I can’t stand here and say that when I was 9 years old, and all my friends were black, and they were telling me ‘you’re basically black,’ that I didn’t believe that. Now I’m at a place where I’m just like ‘not everybody knows me and nobody should ever have to…why should I impose on other people to have to confront that question in their mind?’ You know what I mean?

-Brother Ali

It’s been really beautiful and inspiring to me as a fan of his, to watch this man grow, mature, and develop as a artist and human being over the years through his music. With life often feeling so messy for those (millions) of us who during our youth searched for – most times in vain – an identity that would never be policed by others, Ali has provided me a consistent example of critical hope. He reminds me in no uncertain terms, that like Malcolm X stated, “Stumbling is not falling,” or like Samuel Beckett wrote, “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Too often I create a fantasy-world in my head, wherein I lead myself to believe there are people out there who have it all figured out, who have created an idea or piece of art that is wholely “original”, or who have reached self-actualization without both incredible support and without making dumbass mistake, after dumbass mistake, after dumbass mistake…

In the face of being asked “What (or who) are you?”, told “Be yourself,” “Quit frontin’,” etc. (during my best attempts to express myself honestly) more times than I can comprehend, I am still only in the beginning and ongoing stages of unravelling the tightly-wound ball of ego/fear/insecurity that too often keeps me from extreme gratitude and critical self-reflection. Today, it is crystal clear to me that (as Ali exhibits) moving toward love and justice undeniably require both. I am so thankful for artists like Ali, who practice what they preach and provide me with further evidence that it quite literally “aint that black or white…”

To y/our perfect imperfections,

C

]]> http://colinresponse.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/brother-ali-on-the-n-word/feed/ 0 colinresponse http://colinresponse.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/the-u-s-and-its-allies-will-do-anything-they-can-to-prevent-authentic-democracy-in-the-arab-world/ http://colinresponse.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/the-u-s-and-its-allies-will-do-anything-they-can-to-prevent-authentic-democracy-in-the-arab-world/#comments Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:42:46 +0000 colinresponse http://colinresponse.wordpress.com/?p=5060 ]]>

NOAM CHOMSKY: The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world. The reason is very simple. Across the region, an overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the main threat to their interests. In fact, opposition to U.S. policy is so high that a considerable majority think the region would be more secure if Iran had nuclear weapons. In Egypt, the most important country, that’s 80 percent. Similar figures elsewhere. There are some in the region who regard Iran as a threat—about 10 percent. Well, plainly, the U.S. and its allies are not going to want governments which are responsive to the will of the people. If that happens, not only will the U.S. not control the region, but it will be thrown out. So that’s obviously an intolerable result.

In the case of WikiLeaks, there was an interesting aside on this. The revelations from WikiLeaks that got the most publicity—headlines, euphoric commentary and so on—were that the Arabs support U.S. policy on Iran. They were quoting comments of Arab dictators. Yes, they claim to support U.S. policy on Iran. There was no mention of the Arab—of the Arab population, because it doesn’t matter. If the dictators support us, and the population is under control, then what’s the problem? This is like imperialism. What’s the problem if it works? As long as they can control their populations, fine. They can have campaigns of hatred; our friendly dictators will keep them under control. That’s the reaction not just of the diplomatic service in the State Department or of the media who reported this, but also of the general intellectual community. There is no comment on this. In fact, coverage of these polls is precisely zero in the United States, literally. There’s a few comments in England, but very little. It just doesn’t matter what the population thinks, as long as they’re under control.

Well, from these observations, you can conclude pretty quickly, pretty easily, what policies are going to be. You can almost spell them out. So in the case of an oil-rich country with a reliable, obedient dictator, they’re given free rein. Saudi Arabia is the most important. There were—it’s the most repressive, extremist, strongest center of Islamic fundamentalism, missionaries who spread ultra-radical Islamism from jihadis and so on. But they’re obedient, they’re reliable, so they can do what they like. There was a planned protest in Saudi Arabia. The police presence was so overwhelming and intimidating that literally nobody even was willing to show up in the streets of Riyadh. But that was fine. The same in Kuwait. There was a small demonstration, very quickly crushed, no comment.

Actually, the most interesting case in many respects is Bahrain. Bahrain is quite important for two reasons. One reason, which has been reported, is that it’s the home port of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, major military force in the region. Another more fundamental reason is that Bahrain is about 70 percent Shiite, and it’s right across the causeway from eastern Saudi Arabia, which also is majority Shiite and happens to be where most of Saudi oil is. Saudi Arabia, of course, is the main energy resource, has been since the ’40s. By curious accident of history and geography, the world’s major energy resources are located pretty much in Shiite regions. They’re a minority in the Middle East, but they happen to be where the oil is, right around the northern part of the Gulf. That’s eastern Saudi Arabia, southern Iraq and southwestern Iran. And there’s been a concern among planners for a long time that there might be a move towards some sort of tacit alliance in these Shiite regions moving towards independence and controlling the bulk of the world’s oil. That’s obviously intolerable.

So, going back to Bahrain, there was an uprising, tent city in the central square, like Tahrir Square. The Saudi-led military forces invaded Bahrain, giving the security forces there the opportunity to crush it violently, destroyed the tent city, even destroyed the Pearl, which is the symbol of Bahrain; invaded the major hospital complex, threw out the patients and the doctors; been regularly, every day, arresting human rights activists, torturing them, occasionally a sort of a pat on the wrist, but nothing much. That’s very much the Carothers principle. If actions correspond to our strategic and economic objectives, that’s OK. We can have elegant rhetoric, but what matters is facts.

Well, that’s the oil-rich obedient dictators. What about Egypt, most important country, but not a center of—major center of oil production? Well, in Egypt and Tunisia and other countries of that category, there is a game plan, which is employed routinely, so commonly it takes virtual genius not to perceive it. But when you have a favored dictator—for those of you who might think of going into the diplomatic service, you might as well learn it—when there’s a favored dictator and he’s getting into trouble, support him as long as possible, full support as long as possible. When it becomes impossible to support him—like, say, maybe the army turns against him, business class turns against him—then send him off somewhere, issue ringing declarations about your love of democracy, and then try to restore the old regime, maybe with new names. And that’s done over and over again. It doesn’t always work, but it’s always tried—Somoza, Nicaragua; Shah in Iran; Marcos in the Philippines; Duvalier in Haiti; Chun in South Korea; Mobutu in the Congo; Ceausescu is one of Western favorites in Romania; Suharto in Indonesia. It’s completely routine. And that’s exactly what’s going on in Egypt and Tunisia. OK, we support them right to the end—Mubarak in Egypt, right to the end, keep supporting him. Doesn’t work any longer, send him off to Sharm el-Sheikh, pull out the rhetoric, try to restore the old regime. That’s, in fact, what the conflict is about right now. As Amy said, we don’t know where it’s going to turn now, but that’s what’s going on.

Well, there’s another category. The other category is an oil-rich dictator who’s not reliable, who’s a loose cannon. That’s Libya. And there, there’s a different policy: try to get a more reliable dictator. And that’s exactly what’s happening. Of course, describe it as a humanitarian intervention. That’s another near historical universal. You check history, virtually every resort to force, by whoever it is, is accompanied by the most noble rhetoric. It’s all completely humanitarian. That includes Hitler taking over Czechoslovakia, the Japanese fascists rampaging in northeast China. In fact, it’s Mussolini in Ethiopia. There’s hardly any exceptions. So you produce that, and the media and commentators present—pretend they don’t notice that it has no—carries no information, because it’s reflexive.

And then—but in this case, they could also add something else, which has been repeated over and over again, namely, the U.S. and its allies were intervening in response to a request by the Arab League. And, of course, we have to recognize the importance of that. Incidentally, the response from the Arab League was tepid and was pretty soon rescinded, because they didn’t like what we were doing. But put that aside. At the very same time, the Arab League produced—issued another request. Here’s a headline from a newspaper: “Arab League Calls for Gaza No-Fly Zone.” Actually, I’m quoting from the London Financial Times. That wasn’t reported in the United States. Well, to be precise, it was reported in the Washington Times, but basically blocked in the U.S., like the polls, like the polls of Arab public opinion, not the right kind of news. So, “Arab League Calls for Gaza No-Fly Zone,” that’s inconsistent with U.S. policy, so that, we don’t have to honor and observe, and that disappeared.

Now, there are some polls that are reported. So here’s one from the New York Times a couple days ago. I’ll quote it. It said, “The poll found that a majority of Egyptians want to annul the 1979 peace treaty with Israel that has been a cornerstone of Egyptian foreign policy and the region’s stability.” Actually, that’s not quite accurate. It’s been a cornerstone of the region’s instability, and that’s exactly why the Egyptian population wants to abandon it. The agreement essentially eliminated Egypt from the Israel-Arab conflict. That means eliminated the only deterrent to Israeli military action. And it freed up Israel to expand its operations—illegal operations—in the Occupied Territories and to attack its northern neighbor, to attack Lebanon. Shortly after, Israel attacked Lebanon, killed 20,000 people, destroyed southern Lebanon, tried to impose a client regime, didn’t quite make it. And that was understood. So the immediate reaction to the peace treaty in Israel was that there are things about it we don’t like—we’re going to have to abandon our settlements in the Sinai, in the Egyptian Sinai. But it has a good side, too, because now the only deterrent is gone; we can use force and violence to achieve our other goals. And that’s exactly what happened. And that’s exactly why the Egyptian population is opposed to it. They understand that, as does everyone in the region.

On the other hand, the Times wasn’t lying when they said that it led to the region’s stability. And the reason is because of the meaning of the word “stability” as a technical meaning. Stability is—it’s kind of like democracy. Stability means conformity to our interests. So, for example, when Iran tries to expand its influence in Afghanistan and Iraq, neighboring countries, that’s called “destabilizing.” It’s part of the threat of Iran. It’s destabilizing the region. On the other hand, when the U.S. invades those countries, occupies them, half destroys them, that’s to achieve stability. And that is very common, even to the point where it’s possible to write—former editor of Foreign Affairs—that when the U.S. overthrew the democratic government in Chile and instituted a vicious dictatorship, that was because the U.S. had to destabilize Chile to achieve stability. That’s in one sentence, and nobody noticed it, because that’s correct, if you understand the meaning of the word “stability.” Yeah, you overthrow a parliamentary government, you install a dictatorship, you invade a country and kill 20,000 people, you invade Iraq and kill hundreds of thousands of people—that’s all bringing about stability. Instability is when anyone gets in the way.

via DemocracyNow.

2.

i completed peter nathaniel malae’s novel, “what we are” last night and the book shook me to my core. it’s helped me to come to grips a multitude of sh*t including, but not limited to, the following things:

A. when one feels isolated, invisible or demonized (as many mixed heritage people i have known, loved, despised, and/or felt indifferent towards do), one of our first human reactions and psychological defenses is often to create a laundry list in our heads of qualities that make us “better,” “smarter,” “different,” etc. than those we feel excluded by; that it is an ongoing battle to identify if and when this happens; and that if one is lucky/privileged/supported/blessed enough to pick up on it when or after it occurs, healing and pushing away from such counter-intuitive behavior could and should be engrained into our life’s work if at all possible.

B. masculinity is NOT evil, as some of those i love and will fight with/for forever, appear (in my mind) to believe. masculinity at the expense of femininity is what i would argue to be evil. masculine energy continuing to dominate the feminine will undeniably violently end us all, but as malae points out, this world may also very well be utterly doomed without it.

C. the united states of america is currentlly a sinking titanic, and the string quartet that plays as we all go down is lulling us to sleep as we go complacently into the freezing waters (those of us that made it onto the decks anyway).

D. i am not 1/1,000,000,000th as important as i ever thought i was. and neither are you. and that’s actually totally, perfectly okay.

E. the worst kind of artist (with regards to moving a culture/society/planet forward) is one that craves recognition in the form of pity. i can’t listen to most of my old music because of the ways i notice it too often (for me anyway) infected by emotions that feel useless.

F. “Prison makes the good turn bad, the bad turn worse, and those with freedom act all high and mighty.”

3.Young adulthood in 2011 is insanely f*cking hard/beautiful. I’ve never been so insecure or confident in my entire life (and I doubt very highly I’m the only one).

A (very safe) bird’s-eye-view.

C

Such a huge fan of Geo and Sabzi. Brand-spankin’-new “Cinemetropolis” album available for digital DL now. Official release June 14. 411 here.

I put that on my mama…when I grow up I wanna be just like Yuri Kochiyama,

Senbei

If we end up showing politicians and policy makers precisely how to address the “problems” existent in urban education and public schools – and no one allows us the resources to do so – things will get very, very ugly, very, very quickly. Not a threat by any means. Simply the truth as I perceive it.

I also can’t help but notice that when the interviewer begins speaking about what “a group of socially conscious Asian American film festival organizers” have crtiqued about Jeff’s work, his body language seems to (ever so slightly – to me at least) imply that he is ready to go on the defensive…and I do not blame him for a single second. It is not beyond my scope by any means, that a large number of Asian Americans (myself inculded today) have found relative comfort within (assimilated?) middle-class American identity. I would argue that what this means is that in order to not become/remain what Paulo Freire termed the “sub-oppressor,” we must actively, humbly, humanly, imperfectly work to (as an eloquent wordsmith once put it) “chiggity check y/ourself before I/we wreck y/ourself.”

With safety comes complacency, conformity, cowardice, and even worse, indifference to the suffering of others. It hits me dead in the heart when Jeff speaks about the ways in which the young people he loves and serves actually do more to educate him and assist him in his own growth and healing than he does for them. Earlier today, I quite literally reminded a young sister I have been working with for the past year that, “I will have your back for the rest of your life and I am honored to work with and learn from you.”

Love and education are similar in that the more you give, the more you receive.

-Rick & William Ayers

In Your Life Forever (should you require it),

C

She must be f*cking seasick from all that swag surfin’.

Art begins with resistance – at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.

-Andre Gide

2. working to be an ally to folks who face differing and/or completely different forms of oppression than you is a messy business. you have to be prepared to stick your neck out and take risks that might make you look and feel like a complete f*cking assh*le at times. i’ve undoubtedly slipped and fallen on my face (and continue to) more times than i can count or care to remember. however, i believe with all my heart that if less people occupying varying and various positions of privilege had “played it safe” before my generation was born, the young people i work to love and serve wouldn’t require me or my time in the first place. the paradox of b*tchassness (no patriarchy).

3. i sat in a circle with a group of amazing young people of color and listened to them appreciate myself and one another today. if that kind of love/liberation is corny, gay, weak, b*tchmade, etc., then i’m a fruity, brittle, cheesepuff tamale.

4. S/O to the homie for this scrumtulescent bday gift:

5. plz don’t feed the trolls.

6. this is me at the front door of our office at least 2x a week. one might think i’d have figured it out after a while. i think of this cartoon whenever it happens. winning.

7. wifey just finished watching “the voice,” so i’m out. peace!