@ khalfani

truth is : __________

2011-02-14T10:00:00.002-05:00

there's a word , that many will use today . i choose not to , because i think i've lost sight of how powerful it is .

as a child , i've heard many times : ' sticks and stones may break my bones , but words can never hurt me ' . this isn't the truth . highly inaccurate . sticks and stones may break your bones , but words can either hurt or compliment you in ways things physical never could .

. . .

truth is ; i miss a woman .

. . . alot of men can say this , and be fine the next minute . in my case , every minute i think about it the left side of my chest tightens up , it gets difficult to breathe for a second , and all i have are memories . vivid memories . then i wonder ' what if ' . smh . there's no worse feeling than the one that it may be too late , or you'll have to wait . it being too late means it's the end you didn't imagine coming , and waiting means that at some point she'll be hurt . catch twenty two .

truth is ; i've never told her a word i didn't mean .

. . . i've given her three of my own that mean much more than the world to me . it's complete surrender of self to enter in solidarity with another , and accept it's infinite possibilities .

truth is ; aiming to be whole when you believe you may have found another half of yourself is difficult . as a mf .

truth is , there are some words i wanna use . i choose not to , because i've lost sight of how powerful they are . what i haven't lost , is the will to implement the actions that make these words relevant . what we have is an opportunity to do something amazing .

so , truth is ; sabali is my best friend . patience .

distant relatives | ' patience '

2011-02-12T22:34:00.002-05:00

distant relatives "patience" from nabil elderkin on vimeo.

this album is almost a year old , and is one of the best kept secrets in music of all time . this is both a sad and a great thing , i'd be highly upset if an album so amazing were to be open to be saturated by those turning whats black and white into the mediocre ( the grey of things ) . a great message , an honorable OURstory being told as only the best of bards could tell it .

erykah badu | gone baby don't be long

2011-02-12T22:13:00.003-05:00

erykah badu - gone baby, don't be long from beeple on vimeo.

letter from mecca : truth

2011-01-13T05:38:00.000-05:00

never have i witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient holy land , the home of abraham , muhammad and all other prophets of the holy scriptures . for the past week , i have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness i see displayed all around me by people of all colors .

i have been blessed to visit the Holy city of mecca . i have made my seven circuits around the ka'ba , led by a young mutawaf named muhammad . i drank water from the well of zem zem . i ran seven times back and forth between the hills of mt . al - safa and al - marwah . i have prayed in the ancient city of mina , and i have prayed on mt . arafat .

there were tens of thousands of pilgrims , from all over the world . they were of all colors , from blue eyed blonds to black skin africans . but we were all participating in the same rituals , displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in america had lead me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white .

america needs to understand islam , because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem . throughout my travels in the muslim world , i have met , talked to , and even eaten with people who in america would have considered ' white ' -- but the ' white ' attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of islam . i have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together , irrespective of their color .

you may be shocked by these words coming from me . but on this pilgrimage , what i have seen , and experienced , has forced me to re - arrange much of my thought patterns previously held , and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions . this was not too difficult for me . despite my firm convictions , i have always been a man who tries to face facts , and to accept the reality of life as new experiences and new knowledge unfolds it . i have always kept an open mind , which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth .

during the past eleven days here in the muslim world , i have eaten from the same plate , drunk from the same glass , and slept in the same bed , ( or on the same rug ) -- while praying to the same god -- with fellow muslims , whose eyes were the bluest of blue , whose hair was the blondest of blond , and whose skin was the whitest of white . and in the same words and in the actions and in the deeds of the ' white ' muslims , i felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black african muslims of nigeria , sudan and ghana .

we were truly all the same ( brothers ) -- because their belief in one god had removed the ' white ' from their minds , the ' white ' from their behavior , and the ' white ' from their attitude .

i could see from this , that perhaps if white americans could accept the oneness of god , then perhaps , too , they could accept in reality the oneness of man -- and cease to measure , and hinder , and harm others in terms of their differences in color .

with racism plaguing america like an incurable cancer , the so-called ' christian ' white american heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem . perhaps it could be in time to save america from imminent disaster -- the same destruction brought upon germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves .

each hour here in the holy land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in america between black and white . the american negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities -- he is only reacting to four hundred years of conscious racism of the american whites . but as racism leads america up the suicide path , i do believe , from the experience that i have had with them , that the whites of the younger generation , in the colleges and universities , will see the handwriting on the wall and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth -- the only way left to america to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to .

never have i been so highly honored . never have i been made to feel more humble and unworthy . who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an american negro ? a few nights ago , a man who would be called in america a ' white ' man , a united nations diplomat , an ambassador , a companion of kings , gave me his hotel suite , his bed . by this man , his excellency prince faisal , who rules this holy land , was made aware of my presence here in jedda . the very next morning , prince faisal's son , in person , informed me that by the will and decree of his esteemed father , I was to be a state guest .

the deputy chief of protocol himself took me before the hajj court . his holiness sheikh muhammad harkon himself okayed my visit to mecca . his holiness gave me two books on islam , with his personal seal and autograph , and he told me that he prayed that i would be a successful preacher of islam in america . a car , a driver , and a guide , have been placed at my disposal , making it possible for me to travel about this holy land almost at will . the government provides air conditioned quarters and servants in each city that i visit . never would i have even thought of dreaming that i would ever be a recipient of such honors -- honors that in america would be bestowed upon a king -- not a negro .

all praise is due to allah , the lord of all the worlds .

sincerely ,

el - hajj malik el - shabazz ( malcolm x )

kwanzaa : kuumba

2010-12-31T14:13:00.000-05:00

kuumba ( creativity ) : to do always as much as we can , in the way we can , in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it .

be creative .

kwanzaa : nia

2010-12-30T15:03:00.000-05:00

nia ( purpose ) : to make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in
order to restore our people to their traditional greatness .

this joint describes it , perfectly .

kwanzaa : ujamaa

2010-12-29T19:16:00.000-05:00

ujamaa ( cooperative economics ) : to build and maintain our own stores , shops , and other businesses
and to profit from them together .

in my opinion , one of the most important principles . growing up in a predominantly african american neighborhood , one thing i've come to notice is that we don't produce anything we buy , and we LOVE to buy things an not produce . even if we're selling something , it's only because we're the middle man . -_- . cooperative economics means cluster development , investing in your community no matter what .
shall we ?

kwanzaa : ujima

2010-12-28T15:12:00.000-05:00

ujima ( collective work and responsibility ) : to build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems , and to solve them together .

simply put .

kwanzaa : kujichagulia

2010-12-27T09:29:00.000-05:00

kujichagulia ( self - determination) : to define ourselves , name ourselves , create for ourselves ,
and speak for ourselves.

simply , define who you are . it will be one of the most difficult things you'll do in life , but in defining who you are you find the TRUEST liberation .

kwanzaa : umoja

2010-12-26T14:27:00.000-05:00

' umoja ( unity ) : to strive for and to maintain unity in the family , community , nation , and race . '

u - n - i - t - y , let lauryn tell it . i'm dedicating every day after this one to creating unity in my family . hitting up a family member i haven't spoken to in a minute , letting them know i love em still . what's a community without ' common + unity ' ? as far as my nation i haven't gotten there yet , but setting out a plan doesn't hurt much . i vote , then act accordingly afterwards . as for race , i'm tired of sob story ol' ' masta still owes me ' type black folks . i'm trynna eat , martin luther king junior himself stated that he feels he was ' leading our people into a burning house ' through segregation and it is our job to be the firemen ( and women , lol ) . learn who you are , your history then add to it ! thats what i'm up to .

nah mean ?

' in the matter of color '

2010-11-23T11:32:00.000-05:00

' race and the american legal process : the colonial process '
a . leon higganbotham jr .

a difficult read , to say the least .

' in the matter of color ' is a time series / cross examination of the steady process of legalizing the oppression of negroes . this study is of the colonies ( in order by time of establishment ) virginia , massachusetts , new york , south carolina , georgia , and pennsylvania , where as early as 1622 the process of transporting africans into the colonies solely for financial gain came into being .

a difficult read , for obvious reasons . it could be the constant and consistent treatment of african peoples as property only to be supported by the laws and religion of each colony , or the perpetuating reminder that the purpose of african peoples being in the colonies was for one sole purpose ; financial gain . the enigma of these times is the subjection of human beings to a status seen as not equal to another based off the color of skin . . . when in actuality the property that was ' the african ' , is contradictory to the reasoning of the settlers leaving in the first place .

' we hold these truths to be self evident , that all men are created equal ' , which is only possible with the de-humanizing of africans . moral of the story .

it takes everything in me to not take this history personally , but as an american . . . this is my history .
on both ends . the oppressed and the oppressor .
what happened , happened and i'd rather be informed fully , no matter how painful it is , than to be upset with no just reasoning as to why .

' there is a nexus between the brutal centuries of colonial slavery and the racial polarization and anxieties of today . the poisonous legacy of legalized oppression based upon the matter of color can never be adequately purged from our society if we act as if slave laws never existed . '

- a. leon higginbotham jr .

vip | yes please .

2010-11-21T17:20:00.000-05:00

autofashion fourth annual vip festival from joey fyc on vimeo.

one day . one day . . .

fifteenth floor of joy

2010-10-24T22:11:00.002-05:00

i'd love to agree that
as men we need more lawyers ,
and more doctors
but i don't .
i say we need more poets to preach to our daughters
serenade our mothers . . . you know , a drink of fresh water
we need bards , who truthfully spit bars about the power in our honor
to no end ,
no periods ,
one or two comma's .
we more isis ,
less rihanna .

see , words are the water that help planted seed take form .

i'd love to get lost in the math and science projected by others persona
but woman your rhythm got me trippin
god is one hell of a mathematician
praises due to whoever took their fine pointed pen
and took some time to come up with the divine that is you
what it means to be a man can easily be misconstrued
it's difficult , but i'm glad we have someone to be warm to

and thats my position .
it feels like i'm flying
but i'm still grounded firmly where i stand
not on cloud nine , but on the fifteenth floor
with joy being much more than i can hold in my hands . . .

twenty two . balance .

2010-10-13T09:28:00.000-05:00

obvious .

i'm 22 , thats balance . i'm thankful for it .

balance , by definition is ;

a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution ofweight, amount, etc.

word . have i found it yet ? nah , but i'm getting there . for the last summer and some months , i've been reading wildly in no apparent direction and the things i've learned in such a short amount of time amaze me . not fluffing my feathers or flexing my prowess , i'm saying that even in such a short amount of time there is so much knowledge to be gained , and with knowledge comes the next step of setting an agenda , then application . slowly , but surely i'm working through those stages .

i wish i could share everything , but my mind comes first . once the mind is free ,

everything else follows . balance .

not very ecstatic , but definitely thankful for another year in the books .

i found it crazy how relevant this track on one of my favorite albums is ( minus the alcohol and drugs ) .

let go . . . and let god ? will do .

2010-10-08T13:06:00.000-05:00

law forty eight

assume formlessness

' by taking a shape , by having a visible plan , you open yourself to attack . instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp , keep yourself adaptable and on the move . accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed . the best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water ; never bet on stability or lasting order . everything changes . '

everything changes .

word .

rally to restore sanity | march to keep fear alive

2010-09-22T12:15:00.001-05:00

#epicwin

in humor , we have found common sense .

' a message to my brothers '

2010-09-21T13:49:00.003-05:00

look ,

i don't blame the plants for not growing
when the soil is barren
there’s an ill collective understanding
a never ending cycle fueled by ill planning
and i think it's time we took a look at these problems and aim to solve them so ,
here's my say ;

fellas our decline is a never-ending cycle of repetitive repetition
fueled by ; strength confused as being aggression
seeking freedom through license
politeness confused as compassion ,
battling with those who wish they carried your likeness
and this unjust , unrealistic definition of ' being a man ' has gotta get dropped
long story short we been got .
believing that a man is only as much as he can hold in his hands

can’t deny the obvious , we no longer have the luxury of changing the channel .
these this world is politics, and this life is all mathematics ,
which just so happen two of our worst subjects
it’s all about understanding the rhythm and vibrations , intertwining relations
i mean , getting we see picture but don’t seek to comprehend the captions
too much knowledge to learn that we can’t afford turning our backs on
if we don't wrap our heads around what it means to be male in a black body
we will no doubt continue to keep this cycle rolling
and not all movement is forward progress

so i ask you , what is it that we are pursuing ?
in what direction are we moving ?
no doubt we are reaping what we’ve sewn , only so little can be said for what we’ve been doing
cause having dreams and aspirations is great and all ,
but if we don't wake up and put our feet on the ground and get to moving forward it's gone be too late for us all , <

i don't blame the plant for not growing
when the soil is barren
it’s an ill understanding going around a never ending cycles fueled by what the definition of a man is ,
and i think it's time we took a look at these problems and aim to solve them so ,
here's my say ;

it’s easy to look through someone else’s glasses and not like what you see . . . and all we think is
' i have got to get better , i have to make a change ' . . . and my brother ,
we'd all be right sayin that , but remember ? not all change is progress !
this is the beginning of the process and stress makes everything urgent ,
so preemptively our understanding is a mess and things get out of control far beyond what can be guessed
we move with no spine !
we move with the wrong template ,
we live by the unoriginal form , with the lack of the full original definition
some of the best lessons are learned through repetition ,
but we have GOT TO MOVE ON
i’m tired of singing this old and tired song ,

and it's to everyone’s detriment whether they know it or not .
because the spineless , ill defined man just might one day ask for your hand
and the pickings aren’t ripe enough .
who’s to teach our sons how to be men ?
who’s to sing to our daughters to of fatherly love !?
then they hand us any ol' solution that builds higher walls to this box

look ,

we are a product of oppression, oppression creates certain maladies
times of desperation and needed liberation will lead to the accepting of fallacies
we cannot move forward , through accepting what isn’t yours ,
and has never worked in the past
so stop kicking your own ass ,

my brother ,
i dare you to learn and love who you are .
in doing so you will shoot for the moon , and land on the stars
you will find your queen , you will raise royalty
you’ll find that you , cannot be bullshitted even by the best bullshitter
you will learn that knowledge of yourself , is the only wealth worth having and
everything else , will fall in order . . .

understand . black man .
we live by the mutated form , with the lack excitement caused by connections to the original definition
some of the best lessons are learned through repetition ,
but we have GOT TO MOVE ON
i’m tired of singing this old and tired song ,
i don’t blame the plant for not growing ,
especially if the soil is barren
but if that plant has an avenue of moving through the correct understanding ,
then i must hold our plant accountable .
remove yourself from this soil ,
cause here ? there’s nothing to be grown .
lets move on , and find our way home .

my brother

" if you'n know how ta' rhyme , you better learn how ta' add . . . it's mathematics "
- mos

a black woman's smile | ty gray el

2010-09-20T14:05:00.000-05:00

a black womans smile

in all of god's creation there is nothing more alluring, more appealing, or attractive;
nothing more beautiful, more charismatic, more charming or captivating; nothing more delightful, more elegant, or exquisite;
nothing more fascinating, more gorgeous, more inspiring, or intoxicating; nothing more magnificent or lovely than a black woman's smile.

ty gray - el
" a black woman's smile "

kendrick lamar - she needs me

2010-09-16T09:50:00.005-05:00

what ? me , racist ? noooo | word .

2010-09-06T15:03:00.000-05:00

please watch this . it's funny in the most horrid way possible .
- khal

law nine .

2010-09-04T18:47:00.000-05:00

' compliments of dr. carlton usher '

win through your actions , never through argument

' any momentary triumph you think gained through argument is really a pyrrhic victory : the resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion . it is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word . demonstrate , do not explicate . '

- robert greene | joost elffers, " 48 laws of power "

i was hesitant to share this information , then i realized that a majority of people wouldn't take this knowledge to heart . a counter productive method to take if you value the group , but i'd like to believe that some sense of self progress is important before the group . in short , i pray that at some point everyone that reads this will have read this book ( all 48 laws ) and understood it as a tool to be used in your own self freedom .

this is so important to me on so many levels , because in the learning process it's been difficult for me to not debate everything thats wrong when i initially meet it . there is a lesson to be learned in patience , it's a powerful tool i HAVE to learn in order to survive . . . or maintain sanity . lol .
make your point , but not to your own detriment .
i can argue words all day , as for my actions they are concrete .

queens - women of soul .

2010-08-04T21:24:00.000-05:00

this is my dedication to the women who've thrived in being musicians without selling themselves for something they aren't . the african ( american ) woman has to deal with the most when it comes to adversity and to see these couple shine through means alot to me . the list is a bit incomplete , but these are a few that stand out to me . . . enjoy .

india arie

erykah badu

corrine bailey rae

esperanza spalding

jill scott

jealousy

2010-08-03T20:02:00.001-05:00

they say abscence makes the heart grow fonder . i say only if there was something worth being fond of in the first place . distance , when regret is involved , often breeds jealousy and animosity . the " what if's " and the " should have's " continuously go un answered . . . it grows and grows with no way to vent .

it all stems from one major responsibility people often look past . the equation of regret involves not just what you have done to me , but what " I " have allowed to happen to myself .
cognitive dissonance .
it happens .

faux - pression : racism and the cult of white victimhood

2010-07-20T21:20:00.000-05:00

Faux-pression: Racism and the Cult of White Victimhood

By Tim Wise

July 20, 2010

To hear conservatives tell it, there's a one-sided race war going on in America, and white folks are the targets. From President Obama's secret plan to use health care reform as a way to procure backdoor "reparations" for slavery, to his equally secret plan to wreck the economy as a way to pay white people back for centuries of racial oppression, to his personal responsibility for a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois, in which two black kids beat up a white kid, it's open season on white America. And of course, in case you weren't convinced, surely that tax on tanning bed customers that was part of the health care bill should suffice to make the case: after all, it's a clear slap at white folks and the result of the President's deep antipathy towards those of us lacking sufficient melanin.

Into the breach of white hysteria--heightened by Rush Limbaugh's claim that Colin Powell only endorsed Obama as an act of racial bonding, and that the President only appoints people to high office or the Supreme Court who hate whites--now come two stories, spun for maximum effect by the right and its media mouthpieces at FOX News. To wit, the so-called scandal surrounding the Justice Department's handling of voter intimidation charges against the New Black Panther Party (NBPP), and the recent allegation that a black official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Shirley Sherrod, admits to having mistreated a white farmer who was seeking government help, at least in part because of his race.

Since the Panther story broke, and today in the wake of the white farmer incident, I've been inundated by angry e-mails, demanding to know when I was going to join the fight against "black racism," and speak out as forcefully about bigotry aimed at whites as I do about bigotry aimed at people of color. One e-mail suggested that I needed to issue an apology for previous columns I'd penned, in which I had argued that reverse racism was a myth, since people of color are generally powerless to turn their biases into concrete action that truly injures white people. Obviously, the author said, things have changed. Now a black-led Justice Department in a black-led administration does have the power to collaborate with anti-white racism, "as in the case of the Black Panthers," and a black official in the Ag Department has the power to "deliberately mistreat" a white farmer and then brag about it.

But as it turns out, new evidence has surfaced indicating that the uproar about Shirley Sherrod has no merit. Right-wing blogger Andrew Brietbart posted edited video of a speech in which Sherrod ostensibly made fun of a white farmer and joked about not doing all she could to help him. But in fact, the rest of her story as told during the speech (which Brietbart conveniently did not post, and which FOX News has also ignored) details how she learned from her interactions with the farmer that her initial cavalier attitude about his situation was unfair, and how once she realized that, she went all out to help him save his farm. According to the family itself, she did just that, and they consider her a friend. In other words, the story was about not making assumptions on the basis of race and not discriminating. But in the hands of the right, Sherrod is a bitter racist out to hurt salt-of-the-Earth white farm folks, evidence be damned.

Likewise, the New Black Panther Party debacle is rooted in a level of intellectual mendacity that is rare even for a right-wing that has demonstrated its willingness to race-bait black folks for years without compunction.

In the case of the New Black Panther Party, the so-called intimidation of white voters by black militants led to an injunction against the leader of the Philadelphia chapter--the only one who was carrying a potential weapon, a nightstick, outside the polling place on election day, 2008. In other words, punishment was forthcoming and King Samir Shabazz, the only Panther against whom a case could have been made, has been legally held responsible for his actions. This, in spite of the fact that not one voter ever stepped forward to indicate they had been intimidated, or threatened, or blocked from voting. Even the Civil Rights Commission's leading conservative Republican says the right-wing/FOX feeding frenzy over the story is unwarranted.

But despite the vapidity of the story, FOX has hyped it with over nine hours of breathless coverage, giving airtime to those who continue to insist that the Obama Administration "dropped the charges" against the Panthers because of a political/racial directive not to pursue cases involving white victims. This, despite the fact that it was the Bush Administration that dropped the criminal charges, and the Obama Administration that successfully got an injunction put in place against Shabazz. And again, despite the fact that not one white voter has even hinted that they were victimized. Interestingly, FOX has given spokespersons for the New Black Panthers--a small group with no significant reach or influence--continued airtime over the years, with more than 50 appearances on various of the network's shows. In other words, the right sees the political payoff in keeping whites afraid of black anger, and has done everything they can to feed white fear, both before and after these immediate stories broke.

However, as phony as these stories happen to be, there is actually a more important point to be made regarding racism, how we do (or don't) understand it, and how media chooses to cover it as a subject.

So let's consider the distinction I've made in those previous essays--the ones that had my electronic adversary so angry--between white racial bias and institutionalized racism against people of color on the one hand, and occasional bouts of black or brown racial bias on the other. My argument has never been that folks of color can't be philosophically racist. Nor have I said that they cannot, on occasion, practice racial discrimination against whites. What I have said (and frankly what the New Black Panther story and the Shirley Sherrod incident confirm, even if they had happened exactly as the right has spun them) is that there is a fundamental difference, in practical terms, between these various types of racism.

Racial bias on the part of black folks, even the most vicious and unhinged bigotry on their part, is pretty impotent. King Samir Shabazz hates white people and thinks "cracker babies" should be killed. And yet what kind of power does Shabazz have? None. He is in a position to kill no one, and if he were to try he would go to jail. Forever. That's not power. Power is when you can deny people jobs, housing, health care, decent educations, or their physical freedom via the justice system, thereby wrecking their lives. And there are virtually no black folks--and certainly no black folks wearing berets, fake-ass military uniforms and carrying nightsticks--who can do any of that. But there are white folks in positions to do those things, and who do them with or without bigoted intent regularly, as I have demonstrated in previous essays and books.

Likewise, even the NBPP's ability to intimidate white voters (in theory, since there were no such white voters in the instant case) pales in comparison to the actual denial of the right to vote to millions of black men--one in seven nationally, and as many as one in four in several states--because they are ex-felons. As law professor and scholar Michelle Alexander discusses in her brilliant new book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, despite serving their time and paying their debt to society these people of color are disallowed from voting forever. Not by white thugs standing outside a polling place, but by perfectly legal actions taken by state legislatures many years ago, for blatantly racist reasons, and which the courts have said are acceptable despite their racial impact.

And even on the individual level, while the Panther leader has been legally sanctioned for his actions, and while the story about King Samir Shabazz has received non-stop coverage on FOX, the Bush Justice Department really did ignore voter intimidation allegations against the anti-immigrant Minutemen in Arizona in 2006. And that case--in which the Minutemen stood outside the polling place with loaded weapons, questioning Latino voters about their ability to speak English--received zero coverage on FOX News, despite assurances by FOX's Megyn Kelly (the most animated of those pushing the Panther story) that the "voting place is sacrosanct." Apparently not for Latinos, and not for the millions of black men who can no longer vote because of antiquated and racist laws. Oh, and not for the voters of color who former Supreme Court Chief Justice and conservative hero William Rehnquist intimidated at the polls during his early days as a Republican activist That is the difference between white and other racism, and it matters.

So too, even if Shirley Sherrod had been a horrible anti-white bigot in the Department of Agriculture (and interestingly the incident about which the right has made such a stink didn't even happen when she was in that Department, but rather, nearly a quarter century ago when she worked for a non-profit agency), the fact would remain, the impact of her "bigotry" would have been small potatoes compared to the institutionalized discrimination meted out to black farmers for generations. On the basis of overwhelming evidence that black farmers were treated differently and worse than their white counterparts over the years by the USDA, those victimized by the government sought legal remedies. The first lawsuit was settled during the Clinton Administration, while a second group of farmers--cut out of the first case for technical reasons--recently procured from the Obama Administration an agreement to settle their claims for a little over $1 billion. Even the USDA's own Commission on Small Farms has acknowledged the history of persistent and "blatant" discrimination against tens of thousands of black farmers by the agency. Yet Congress has still not released the monies due to these actual victims of racism, and seems in no hurry to do so. And the media has given the story almost no coverage, unlike the Sherrod incident, which, as it turns out, had no basis in fact to begin with.

Once again, a case of individual racism--which turned out to be phony anyway--gets the attention, while the institutionalized mistreatment of people of color goes ignored.

The pattern is familiar. In every generation whites have hyped fears of black anger, black bigotry and the supposed desire of African Americans to exact revenge on whites. From fears about slave rebellions, to claims that integration would lead black children to knife white children in the hallways and rape white girls, to paranoia about Obama's secret plan for "white slavery," the cult of white victimhood has long had its charter members. Sadly, nowadays the cult has the attention of the media and a white public already anxious about changing demographics, the presence of a black president and economic insecurity. Unless the targets of their race-baiting (including the President) show the courage to push back and expose them for the venal fear-pimps they are, their methods will only get more extreme, their lies more bold, and their ability to inflict lasting damage on the nation more definitive.

Tim Wise is the author of five books on race and racism. His latest is, Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat From Racial Equity (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2010)

agreed - khalfani

serene and kodak : nobody

2010-07-20T21:15:00.000-05:00

two mixtapes you need to be on the lookout for , " what we dream for " by serene & "one hour photo" by ya boi kodak

the song will be on both mixtapes
yaboikodak on twitter @YaBoiKodak
serene on twitter @Songs_By_Serene

what we dream for - > 7/24
one hour photo - > coming soon
--Mile High Club Ya Boi Kodak

download HERE