Yet, when famous people disagree, it seems that much worse. Maybe it’s the fact that millions are going to see it. Or, it could have to do with the fact that many expect a lot of them to be much smarter. In any case, there are times where people in the spotlight show just how damning their words can be.

Don’t believe me? Let me show you two case examples.

Exhibit A: #BlackLivesMatter confused by Raven Symone

This isn’t surprising to see coming from Raven Symone. She is the epitome of “black woman disagreeing for the sake of playing devil’s advocate”. Oh, and I was putting that nicely. There are times where I think she is completely clueless or trying too hard to be profound. Other times, I just think that her paychecks play a part in the fallacies she play into. Whatever works for her ego or pocket book, I suppose.

Let me get into where she disagreed with #blacklivesmatter:

“I understand what the ‘Black Lives Matter’ hashtag means. It came in conjunction with everything that was going on with the police in Ferguson. You have to be sensitive in that statement, but he is right, all lives matter… I think you have to open yourself up. It should be all lives matter.” [1]

This comment was in response to her defending the Democratic presidential candidateMartin O’Malley. He stated that “All Lives Matter” during the discussion of police brutalityagainst Black people at a rally. He was met with boos. And rightfully so: would you announce “all rapes matter!” at a forum for healing female rape victims? Exactly.

Exhibit B: Stephen A. Smith vs. #Blacklivesmatter

Now, Stephen A. Smith is another situation altogether. He just doesn’t care what people feel about his opinion. As stubborn and bullheaded as he is, Smith still has some common sense about him. Yet, when it comes to #blacklivesmatter, it doesn’t seem that common sense stayed the common denominator for his words.

Okay, Stephen A. Smith. I understand where YOU are coming from as well.

No More #Blacklivesmatter Exhibits

Alright, I’m going to break this down for those that have very little understanding of what #Blacklivesmatter means and why Raven Symone and Stephen A Smith are full of shit. So, let’s get to it.

#Blacklivesmatter = in life, black lives should matter to everyone. This is not to excuse other races. However, Black people tend to go through a lot of things that make it seem like our lives are meaningless. Especially in situations where we are at the prey of powers that are over us, black people are people just like everyone else. So please, just treat us like soul vessels that you would want to be treated as. Sounds fair, right?

#Alllivesmatter = everyone should be treated fairly no matter what their race, creed, sexual preference, gender, age, or whatever it is that would separate them from the greater majority may be. People have rights. People should actually be able to exercise those rights like politicians exercise their jaw muscles. No one should be greater than the other.

All explanations aside, Raven Symone doesn’t understand that Black people are having too many issues with reminding the world that WE ARE PEOPLE. Of course #alllivesmatter. However, people say #blacklivesmatter because it seems that so many of us forget that fact. And this is truly a problem when those that are here “to protect us” typically want to regard us as less than human.

So, yeah: Raven Symone can have a seat. I will be her personal usher.

Stephen A. Smith is off because he is playing the respectability politics game. You see, he wants to make “being black” synonymous with “people killing each other”. What he, and many others tend to miss, is that crime is about proximity. Thus, most crime is going to be intraracial. So, people tend to commit crimes against people they deal with. Since Americais pretty segregated, that should explain the high percentage of “race on race crime”.

To be serious, if people want “black on black crime” to decrease then there have to be certain measures taken to mitigate the crime. Or, Black people can start committing crimes against other races. Pick which one you want.

#Blacklivesmatter like #Alllivesmatter

If he can’t see between the lines with that one, then I can’t help Smith. Nor can I help anybody else that feels the need to mention “black on black crime”. Everyone should have an issue with people to mistreat Blacks. Personally, I would hope that people would understand this. However, they don’t. Sadly, I bet someone will read all of this and give some type of rebuttal.

Oh, well. #Blacklivesmatter just like #Alllivesmatter.

[Originally posted at Chocolate Covered Lies]

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Activist, Bree Newsome, arrested after removing Confederate Flag from grounds of South Carolina’s State House.

More often than not, it is the female that actually steps above and beyond to make things happen for their families, communities, and society. Think about where Black peoplewould be without the work of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, or Maria W. Stewart. We can take it to Madame CJ Walker or even to Angela Davis and Assata Shakur. Hell, we can even take it further with Ava Duvernay with what she did with Selma. It needs to be recognized that Black women are the societal glue for the Black experience.

Black Women As Heroes in Our Age

Black women are, and have been, showing the world what they should be doing. Serena Williams already had to mention how she refused to play in Charleston back in 2000 due to the Confederate flag. People need to realize that certain issues are actually old. We are talking about 2000. That’s 15 years ago. Yet, it was a Black woman representing for us.

It is 2015 and we have a new hero: Bree Newsome.

What occurred with Bree Newsome taking down the Confederate flag was nothing short of heroism. Instead of giving the same old rigmarole, she did something about the flag that many of us wanted gone for decades. She climbed at the top of the pole and took the flag down. Many of us rejoiced at what she had done. We realized that she stuck HER neck out to do what millions wanted done.

Again: it took a black woman.

Yet, there are plenty of us that have something negative to say. In a forum that I am a part of on Facebook, one of my art colleagues drew an astounding picture of the incident. However, some of the males wanted to make misogynistic and despairing remarks while questioning her dedication to the cause. If they would have did some research, they would have known that Bree Newsome is a filmmaker, artist, activist, and many other titles that even she hasn’t mentioned. However, here we are again: men finding a way to turn a situation into something misogynistic.

And you know what? It is getting old.

Fellas, it is time to listen up: Black people are having a rough go at it. Between people either wanting us dead or placing responsibility on us for other people’s issues (racism being one of them), it would be smart to actually SUPPORT the women that are going to bat for us. If you see a woman taking the lead to do something YOU did not do, then you should be cheering her on. This is not the moment of questioning their agendas or talking down on her for being a female. This is the time of action.

How can any man talk down on somebody while they sit in front of a computer while these females are risking their lives/livelihood for our Blackness?

Black Women Are Our Heroes Epilogue

If you came from a Black woman, then you should support Black women. If a Black woman does what you DIDN’T do, then applause is in order. There is no time for questioning, negative commentary, and mental meandering on the situation. The least that men could do is actually give proper respect to those that had the courage/gall to do what you WOULDN’T. Or, you can always try and be quiet.

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Every time something tragic happens, the masses take to social media. The tweeters tweet, the bloggers blog, the tumblrs do…whatever it is that they do. The online world as we know it changes their profile photos to pictures of a victim, a cause, and a consensual feeling that we – society’s underdog – have to fight and make a change…until the next tragedy pops up and takes us away from the immediacy and hurt of our current tragedy. There’s a common complaint that Black folks – especially of the twitter generation – don’t do enough moving to inspire an actual change.

Generation X defines people who were born after Baby Boomers, from the mid-1960s to approximately 1980. After Gen-X came Generation Y, the generation that most people now say encompasses people at a cut-off age of 33 and ending, so far, at 13. However, there seems to be a blurred shift in social standards within Gen-Y; in fact, I would venture to say that there is a generational subset (the one that people are referring to with their complaints of “this generation”) that I often think of as Generationi or Generation-Why? I am of the opinion that early Gen-Y, (1980-1989) seem to be more a bridge between Gen-X and Gen-Why. They are tech-savvy, but the post-Gen-Xers had a difficult time gaining their own definition. These people encompass both the MTV generation and the internet generation. However, they are also the first social media activists. And Gen-Why seems to be a generation of people, especially Black Gen-Why, that we’ve all given up on.

I tend to withdraw from social networking and observe people’s behavior, like the eternal sociologist that I am. However, I am also on the ground daily, fighting many fights that will hopefully, one day, benefit the people. I’ve found it interesting that every time anything happens, twitter gets it first. Any time a celebrity has a child, or a major court case happens online, people check twitter before checking the news. I, myself, am guilty of it. We are now socialized to interpret information differently because of social media.

The benefit of the information age is that, with how quickly technology evolves, we are able to distribute information much more quickly than ever. This can be both beneficial and completely terrifying. In fact, the young subset of Generation-Y is certainly much more of a shock culture than any of the previous generations, in part because of how quickly we can spread information and our potential reach. How many people do you know who do not have Facebook? Or a smart phone? The younger generation is being taught to have the most fans and to get the most shocking, next hot “thing” out before anyone else. They’re brought up to believe that this is acceptable, even in subtleties. Just the other day, I was on twitter and I saw a person who’s twitter handle was something to the effect of Emmett Trill. (I only assumed that the kid belongs to this age bracket, but I was so disgusted that I just had to turn my cell phone off for a little while. It saddened me.)

There is a breakdown in how older people understand people belonging to this age group, and that’s where the communication proves faulty. My aunt is a notorious example of this. She thinks that she is the entertainment news – she sends mass text messages to the entire family about celebrity news. One day, she sent a mass text about a car accident that my cousin had been in (during which, he totaled his vehicle) and no one knew about it. I think that there is a general level of misunderstanding of the evolving mores and folkways that social media has placed upon us; we have to accept that our communication styles are changing and we have to desire to understand each other. Why are we so hard on these kids for wanting to make a difference in the ways that they think will work?

The older generations, even older Gen-Y folks, have given up on the younger generation; they define their online activism as naivete and assume to know what they feel to be enough to make a change. To use a word that I don’t often use, this is unfair to the younger adults who aspire to make a change; I am of the opinion that they aren’t given enough credit for the intelligence that they do have. Of course they don’t feel like taking a photo with a hoodie and skittles will change whether or not George Zimmerman is found guilty for murdering Trayvon Martin. I think that there is movement being disregarded by people who don’t see the point in the symbolism of changing their profile photos or engaging in online discourse. How much of a difference in curing breast cancer is wearing pink ribbons? Is changing your photo for HRC making a difference in gay and lesbian rights? Obviously, the solution to the problem is not in online advocacy, but that method of advocacy is a form of solidarity; it is intended to send a message of unity. (Conversely, I do understand that awareness groups wear ribbons in an effort to raise money and that is a very real difference. A start is a start.)

In addition to the changing of profile pics, etc., being forms of solidarity, I think that it is very important to note that they are very legitimate forms of non-violent protests. The way that we are communicating is evolving, and we are all evolving with it. However, our understanding of one another – especially in our expectations of communication – have not evolved and that is where Gen-Why gets hit hard. Back in the day (and sometimes today, too), one of our main methods of making an impression on society was picketing and allowing the opposition to be assaultive toward us as we turned the other cheek. There was even a clear division within our communities because, as this was mostly Martin Luther King Jr’s method of encouraging us to overcome injustice, a major section of the Black community was not for being assaulted and not defending ourselves. Non-violent protesting then was even seen to be outrageous; I believe that as the kids of today try to set their paths and figure out how to reach the masses, they are doing what they can with what they have. Let them protest, and let them know their non-violent protests are not in vain. After all, online activism and silent protests are responsible for holding corporations responsible for the people that they support. These methods of advocacy, while from behind their computers and smart phones, are responsible for Paula Deen being held accountable for her racism and for the Occupy Movement that is still active, even if you don’t see them online.

The media that we ingest has evolved and so have the values of the younger Generation-Y, for better or for worse. I am very much of the opinion that they are not being examined under the proper lens. They are difficult to figure out but I think that it is important for anyone not of that generation to remember that they are also figuring themselves out. They may even be afraid to engage in the forms of advocacy that we, the older generations, deem to be valuable because a lot of people feel as though they have no knowledge or experience. It is our responsibility to work with them.

So when Troy Davis is executed, our legislation is passed stripping our civil rights, and most recently, Trayvon Martin is killed (and his killer acquitted), Generation-Y (and “Why”) take to social media — which in and of itself does not resolve any of these major systemic problems. why does Generation-Y get so much flack for blacking out their profile picture or sending out texts or tweets? Let’s encourage them to get in the streets (as they have and are) as well as encourage their evolving methods of activism.

The best question, in my opinion, is how to we bridge the communication gap within our communities to resolve the problems that we are faced with?

(And stop comparing Trayvon Martin to everything else. We do not live in a culture that is everything or nothing. I believe that they are trying. Shaming them for not trying hard enough won’t get them to try more.)

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It is said that Louis XVI, at the end of the day the Bastille fell, wrote in his diary, “Nothing happened today.” People rarely understand or even notice great historical transitions as they take place. Revolutions of belief are even more elusive, because they take place in people’s minds. You don’t always know what’s going on, even when it is your own mind that has been the scene of the upheaval. It’s quite possible, for example, to move from seeing science as absolute and final truth to seeing it as an ever-changing body of ideas — a big time shift — without losing all confidence in the scientific facts: for all practical purposes, light remains 186,000 miles per second, gravity will still splatter yo ass if you jump from a high-rise, and ontogeny goes right on recapitulating phylogeny. It’s equally possible to move from seeing religion as timeless truth to seeing it as the product of a certain culture and still happily worship at your church or temple.

People all over the world are now making such shifts in belief — or more precisely — making shifts in belief about beliefs. And this is what’s happening at the #OccupyWallStreet (OWS) site.

The first time I visited OWS, I was immediately impressed by the qualitative feel. It’s very difficult to articulate, but the way I explain it is that OWS is not merely a “protest” in the sense of a reenactment of political protests. There’s more happening there. True libertatory movements are preceded by a collective consciousness-raising. It is a process in which old accepted ideas and dogma are questioned; a process that develops a new language, a new perspective with which to deal with contemporary issues. And, more than anything else, this liberatory, evolving, clearly evident at OWS, is what’s most important.

Freedom, transformation, positive social change doesn’t spring from a set of demands or goals. It isn’t envisioned solely from an oppositional stance (merely being against something). It comes from a process that facilitates the collective mindset transition to a new way of thinking that can then lead to a new conceptualization. The base of OWS has been around for some time now. We are an emerging group of people, global in scope, struggling to transcend nationality, race, and contemporary culture, and connected by shared values. We are the sons and daughters of those who have participated in the social and consciousness movements that have emerged since the ’50s: the civil rights movement, the environmental movement, the women’s movement, the jobs and social justice movements, the peace movement, the organic food and alternative health care movements, the new spirituality and self growth movements, etc.

Simply put, the same mindset causing the problem cannot be used to effect a solution to that problem. And at OWS we are engaging this process of change and reconceptualization. I like to think of OWS as a collective affirmation of the ideals and vision of society so many of us had been trying to grasp individually. One of the first signs I saw at OWS stated: “For the first time I feel like I’m home.” And if you aren’t here (or at a similar event) it’s hard to grasp that feeling, but it’s palpable.

People say that there are no OWS leaders, no coherent message, or clear set of demands. I, for one, hope that there’ll never be “leaders” in the old sense of the idea. I would like to think the process is the guiding principle, and, borrowing from the 12-step movement, I would rather see “trusted servants” rather than leaders. The demands, the goals, the messaging — that will be part of the outgrowth of the process of critical thinking. If you really need a meta message, what better message than that a just and civil society cannot exist when 1 per cent of the population holds the other 99 per cent in thrall?

My father, a “community organizer” before there was such a phrase and before it was professionalized, would often tell me that if mainstream America had a cold that meant our community had pneumonia. It’s a common realization in the Puerto Rican and African American communities I was raised. When the shit hits the fan, we are disproportionately affected.

As I join the thousands who’ve decided that Wall Street should be confronted for the crimes that have been committed against the people, I feel somewhat saddened that I don’t see more Latin@s, African Americans, and other people of color because there are a long list of reasons that all of us should be concerned, disappointed, and angry about what Wall Street has done to our country.

The real wage of the average American worker has remained stagnant (and in recent years decreased), while the gap between the rich and the poor has risen to levels that not seen since the Gilded Age. We live under the preposterous delusion that those who caused the financial crisis should be the only ones to receive assistance. Labor unions have been decimated, and while the joblessness problems persist, corporations are sitting on trillions in capital that could be used to hire American workers.

The African American and Latin@ communities have every reason to be on the front lines in this battle. Black unemployment has skyrocketed to near record levels and nearly half of all black children are living below the poverty line. Black and Latin@ wealth has continued to shrink, as the burst of the real estate bubble left many of us either homeless or upside down in their mortgages.

Most egregiously, Black families have been destroyed by the prison industrial complex, where Wall Street firms earn billions each year from slave labor. A half century ago — before the Civil Rights Movement, before the War on Poverty — blacks in the United States were imprisoned at roughly four times the rate of whites. Today, a generation after the civil rights gains, African Americans are incarcerated at seven times the rate of whites. Along the margins of society imprisonment is the norm, not the exception. There are the million-dollar blocks: city blocks documented by social scientists in which the state spends at least $1 million incarcerating residents of that block. One out of every six African American men has spent time in prison, one out of every thirteen Latinos. Millions of people of color have lost their right to vote. For many of us, reform doesn’t really make sense. The system as it is now, is not so much as “broken” but “rigged” to prey on the vast masses of us with the black and brown faces at the bottom of the well.

We have reason to be angry and OWS is our chance to join with those who dare challenge the pimps who profit from the devastation of our youth and subsequent creation of a New Jim Crow. And it’s not like our leaders are anxious to help us. Today instead of a Martin Luther King we have shuckin’ and jivin’ Herman “Git a Job!” Cain and the “moderate” Barack Obama; instead of a Cesar Chavez we’re left with come mierdas (shit eaters) such as Linda Chavez. Today instead of the Young Lords and the Black Panthers, we’re left with the NACCP, which took millions from Wells Fargo, a bank accused of targeting communities of color with predatory lending practices. We cannot afford to wait for a leader to unchain us from our shackles, we must do that ourselves.

No matter how you look at it, or whatever criticisms you have (valid or not), the #OccupyWallStreet movement belongs to all of us. We — Blacks, Latin@s, indigenous people, Asians, and other people of color — we need to seize the moment with our brother and sisters at OWS and put it all on the line because we’ve fallen asleep and we have lost and have so much to lose.

If Dr. King or Cesar Chavez were alive today, they would be right down on Wall Street with the protesters, demanding justice, freedom and equality. In fact, if you look into the eyes of those who’ve become inspired to resurrect the spirit of conscientious activism in America, you can see that Dr. King’s dream is alive down on Wall Street right now.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…

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