How do we hide?

We are growing up in a time where communication is everything. We can chat with friends and family across the world or even just next door and never leave our bed. It's amazing.

I myself have 3 email addresses, a blog, a facebook, a cell phone you can call or text to, a formspring, a twitter, a skype, and an AIM handy for iChat, not to mention the land line that close friends use when all else is failing.
When I look at that list it looks like so much. too much. but this is not out of the ordinary for teenagers and young adults like myself. We thrive on the ways to send information the fastest. We have been blessed with these options.

So with all the communicating and instant messaging, video chatting, and comment boxes why is there a disconnect in our generation? We are all tweeting, and blogging, and chatting but about what?

And I guess I should be more clear as to who I am talking to exactly, although I sometimes refer to our generation as a whole it often narrows down to my generation as a young African-American Adult. My question is for those that fit that mold.

What are we going to use all this communication to accomplish??

Marcus Garvey
Phyllis Wheatley
Martin Luther King
Malcolm X
Nikki Giovanni
C.T. Vivian
Nat Turner
Sojourner Truth
Rosa Parks
Huey P. Newton
Alex Haley
Stokely Carmichael
Diane Nash

These are just a few people who fought for us and committed their expertise to our enlightment. The things they sought to acheive were obvious; the right to vote, the right to go where they please, the chance to tell the truth, the right to an education, the right to know our history, the chance that we might be proud of our skin, the right to be considered more than 3/5 of a man.
Ultimately, they were all fighting in their own ways for life and freedom for US ( you and me).
and because so many of these things are AVAILABLE to us today, does that mean that the fight is over??
Do we have ANY responsibilities??? Or has the good fight been fought??

What will we do with the power we have been awarded through all of this technology? When will our rappers rap music that seeks to save us/better us?? Do you even feel as though that it is necessary??

Because when I take a look at this world and our community I worry for the children I will bring into this world. I worry that the music so popular today will have completely infiltrated the music industry with no chance of return and robotic buffoons will be dancing to their nonsense and will enter society creating more trash that will send our community into absolute stagnation, forever talking, tweeting, and chatting but going no where.

stagnant. clogged. Frozen. still. motionless. dormant. static. flat. unchanging. never growing. DEAD.

I am afraid we will chat ourselves to death unless we find something to stand for. something to be honorable about.

What ones of us will be remembered as people who made tomorrow a better place. Not just more entertaining but actually BETTER?
Which ones of us will be revolutionary? Does anyone even care for revolution anymore?

Are we happy with where we are? Are you happy?

I don't know the answer to all these questions but I think the point is to begin by being aware that perhaps there is something bigger than BET that we should be striving to discover.

I sometimes feel overwhelmed by all the race issues and class issues in our world. I am hurt and disappointed by Black American's who do not care to discover their roots. I am angered by those who dismiss Africa. I am outraged by those who feel that slavery is too shameful to claim as their history. I am afraid for those who do not realize that 60 years ago we had nooooooo respect in this country and we were being hosed and lynched. I am confused by people who can do math but can't understand how recent 60 years truly is. I am baffled by those who choose to believe that all is now equal, that Obama means that racism has died, that MLK's dream is a complete reality.

It all makes me feel like the world I live in is sick and deranged. I begin to feel out of place and unwelcome here and I want to hide from it all. Roll under a rock. Travel to an isolated island (an island off the coast of Africa preferably)  and start a new civilization.

...but then I get a text, or my Jennifer Hudson ring tone plays, I get a red flag notification on facebook, an email, a tweet, a skype chat....and I can't leave.

I can't go and hide from all that is happening in the world and with my people. My friends and family, brothers and sisters.
I can't hide with all this technology and all this communication. So since I am here I have to figure out how to make it worthy of history.

How do we manage to hide from the true issues that are driving our lives when we are always so accessible? How do we manage to talk about nothing when we are always communicating? How do we hide?

Sometimes We Feel Like SHIT.

Sometimes you feel like shit and in the event that you do, I hope you run into someone who actually cares to listen to how shitty you feel and why.

So often, we just want the quick answer:
-"How are you?"

-"Oh, I'm fine!"

and you're not. But no one wants reality. WE NEED IT
 but often facade is so much easier to swallow.
Far less time consuming
takes way less energy
Requires little commitment
and you don't even have to stop walking to hear it.

So again, I hope the people around you care about you enough to dig deeper when you give them that I'm fine-bullshit

 I hope they look at you crazy and say,

"come on now, you look like shit"

Me FiRi GHANA

It's cool to be Ghanaian. Me FiRi GHANA-A sight that promotes Ghanian pride. I can dig it. Check them out HERE. Their site is driven by the vision of Ghana's first president, Mr. Kwame Nkrumah. I can dig that too.

"The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent".

-President Kwame Nkrumah

I will have to tell you all more about Dr. Nkrumah some other time.

MY HAIR

This evening I had an interesting conversation with a rather interesting lad and it reminded me of this piece I wrote a while back. Also, my last post about the Black is Beautiful blog sort of sent me in this direction as well.

MY HAIR #1

I would like to believe that I am not my hair.

but as I watched it fall to the floor I became it

it became me

and I am becoming a new person because of it

and the look is quite becoming

if I might add

the look of a woman with a shaved head

the look of a woman with an afro in a crowd of permed hair.

I'd like to believe I am not my hair 

but my hair is all of me

you can see my tight black fist in the air and picture my fro 

or you can see my fro and imagine my fist floating just above it 
to compliment it

MY HAIR #2

I am proud to say I am my hair.

I am these napps and these kinks.

I am what God gave me

 It is all of me

It grows with out pressure 

It's not suped up on drugs 

its sober

though I am a fan of Ms. Madame CJ walker

I am not a billboard for her company

My hair does not blow in the breeze 

in fact it shrinks when its wet

that's just the way it is 

and I could never play Repunzul because of it

nor could I be a mermaid

the librarian turned sex kitten

the nerd turned prom queen

the hair flipping diva

or the varsity cheerleader.

no 

But I could play a slave

or a mother

I could play a lover

and a friend

I could play a free spirit

the unique

the confident creative one

I could play a sistah

a Panther

a disco dancing show stoppin 4 wheel skatin 70s cliche  soul sister

I could be the "different" one. 

and I understand that 

-Jacqueline Naami

Beautiful Black Women

So bored as I was I decided to google "black women afros" because I myself have an afro and was interested in different ways to rock the natural. It was during my quest for insight that  I came across this blog entitled...

BEAUTIFUL BLACK WOMEN

THOUGHTS OF A WHITE B'WOY

THIS IS THE THOUGHTS OF A WHITE B'WOY. A B'WOY THAT WOULD SAY; THE DEFINITION OF TRUE BEAUTY IS THE BLACK WOMAN. 

Okay, so he means 'these are the thoughts of a white b'woy"- but I'm not here to point out his typos (i have plenty myself. punctuation never quite hit home with me).

Anyhow, I find the entire thing kind of interesting...take a LOOK!

I Get Out

-Lauryn Hill

a beautiful song worth listening to. Hear what she is saying or read it here.

That THING

my favorite feature about myself is well rounded

firm

so firm to hold it is to know it

and everybody just can't stroke it

private

it is me most naked

learn it

hold it

mold it

probe it the right way and you will hear me say things 

you never knew I could say

if you're really lucky I might even sing for you

push me and I might even scream at you

you'll never know 'til you try it

and be careful 

don't provoke it

there is a time for everything

rough  now

gentle later

vice-a-versa

I hope you are a good reader

the signals 

I drop them

but no red flags

you must keep watching

see my favorite thing I treat it

give it soft places to lay

nourish it with goodness

not cheap shit

I like that stuff you've never heard of

that stuff you can't be robotic to find

conscious

I'm on that constant conscious nourishment grind

trying to find the perfect stimulation

so as to never grow bored

always learning

always learning a better way 

and that thing that I speak of is cultured

you can tell almost as soon as you see it

and  'I' before 'E' often it precedes me 

they say -she got that good thang- before I even enter

and if you want to know that thing that is mine

you gotta come with it

after light wine or heavy drinking

you may find way to glimpse it

but  my MIND is far more intriguing if I let you see it

-Jacqueline Naami