February 2007

Almost a week ago now Lazaras Jones was killed… murdered actually… 2 and a half blocks from my house.

It happened last Monday night around 9:30 on a busy street outside a liquor store.

He was with friends when the guys got out of the van and began chasing them. His friends escaped but Lazaras apparentally slipped on the ice… and was killed when a hammer crushed his head.

He was 13… and wasn’t in a gang.

Last Thursday night I went out to that corner for a community stand in. Over 200 people showed up. Chicago’s Ceasefire organization spoke, a local alderman, a priest, and Lazaras’ aunt… his mother was there but didn’t wish to speak.

So I ask- WHY?

At the stand it there was talks of “turning in the gang members who did this” and “stopping the violence”… but I was almost angry when I heard this… gang violence goes so much deeper… a stop-the-violence campaign may help a little, but it won’t ever stop the violence completely.

And I thought, while standing on that corner on that cold Chicago evening… what needs to happen in my city so that this never happens again?

I looked around at the teenagers crying about Lazaras’ death. I talked to a few, I hugged a few, and a prayed for all of them. Gang members aren’t simply “evil teens” but teens that have been sucked in to an evil system of abandonment, abuse, poverty, and violence. And I knew that some of the teens there could be gang members- or could become gang members. And they could kill.

I pray the violence stops, that the community continues to stand against it… but even more, I pray that people begin searching for the real roots of the problem and stop blaming the “evil gangbanging teens” without considering the system that produced them.

Learn more:

News Video

Newspaper Article

Update: Area churches have gathered together to raise $10,000 in reward money for information on Lazaras’ death that leads to a conviction. 6 area churches decided to do this to show the Chicago community that they will not allow teens to be killed on their streets without something being done… To me, this is a beautiful example of the church. Multiple denominations, neighborhoods, and ethnic groups gathered together to sacrifice and give as a stand against violence here in Chicago. So beautifully united in the common cause of justice.

This is an article by Divinity Barkley, a student out at USC and a friend of a friend from UW-Madison. In my next few posts my reasons for posting this may come to light, but in the mean time, it’s profound and well worth your time to read- no matter what your color. So here’s Divinity’s “Nigga, Nigger, Nigguh”:

I’m currently writing a 60 page thesis on the Politics of Naming. The paper focuses on Group Naming (i.e. the Black vs African American debate), the history of naming during and after slavery, the significance of naming in West African culture, naming practices and rituals on the African continent, the use of racial epithets (specifically the recent use of “coon” and the n-word among African American youth), and the rejection of the slave name by high-profile African Americans like El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Kwame Toure, Amiri Baraka, Assata Shakur, Muhammad Ali, Molefi Kete Asante, etc. I will also be focusing on name discrimination and the relevance of black sounding or what some scholars are calling “ghettoized” names. Lastly, I am arguing that Afrocentricism is a viable political philosophy that speaks directly to the needs of the African American community.

My thesis is arguing that African Americans must take ownership over naming and self-identification in order to (1) restore cultural integrity, (2) achieve group solidarity, and (3) claim political power.

So, I am about halfway done with the paper, which is due in late April, and I have just started the section that focuses on the n-word and am finding it difficult to write. Among my many sources, I just finished reading Harvard Prof. Randall Kennedy’s book entitled “Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word.” In the first chapter, Kennedy lists several jokes taken from a white supremacist website named KKKomedy Central. Here are a few of the “jokes”

Q: What do you call a nigger boy riding a bike?
A: Thief!

Q: Why do niggers wear high-heeled shoes?
A: So their knuckles won’t scrape the ground!

Q: What did God say when he made the first nigger?
A: Oh, shit!

Q: What do niggers and sperm have in common?
A: Only one in 2 million works!

Q: What’s the difference between a pothole and a nigger?
A: You’d swerve to avoid a pothole, wouldn’t you?

Q: How do you get a nigger to commit suicide?
A: Toss a bucket of KFC into traffic.

Q: How do you stop five niggers from raping a white woman?
A: Throw them a basketball.

**please note: this is not some historic website. this shit is up and running right now**

Prior to writing this paper, I was on the fence about the n-word. I was one of those people who said WE can say it, but I’ll fuck a white person up if they say it. I just learned that Agatha Christie’s play “And Then There Were None” which I had a lead role for when I was in 8th grade at McKinley Middle School was originally titled Ten Little Niggers. That fucked with my head. After my research, I have done some reflection and decided that I will not use this word to describe or address other people and I do not want it used to describe me by anyone, regardless of their race.

To those black people who say that we can take back the power of this word by using it internally, I would challenge you to really ask yourself if you can ever render this hateful word powerless. Even if you greet 10 million black people as the n-word, let a white person say that word, we be ready to lose our gotdamn minds. Aside from the fact that this logic promotes embracing a term that has and is still being used to denigrate our people, it will never cease to be a contemptuous word. I don’t care if you pronounce it with an “er” or an “a” at the end. Furthermore, alot of black people at USC that I hear use the word often are not using it to express “affection” for other black people; rather, they use it disparagingly.

For the record, I also object to black people referring to other black people as “coons” or describing the way someone acts as “coonin.” Certainly, we must be educated enough to know the history of this term and to still be degrading each other with these hateful terms in the 21st Century at an institution as prestigious as USC is simply ridiculous. I do not think that this note will stop anyone from using the word, but my hope is that it will stop you from referring to me as a nigger, nigga, or nigguh. If you do refer to me as that word in my presence, odds are that I will let out the repressed angry black woman inside of me and whoop yo ass. I don’t care what “race” you are. Divinity is a lot of things but I aint nobody’s n*****.

In our country?!? Yes, my friends, this happens in our country.

Imagine going downtown in one of the most glamourous cities in the world. Movie stars live there. National media is created there. Stories are told about it… and everyone knows where it is. It’s so familiar to us that we call it by it’s nickname. It’s LA.

If you have never been to LA you would probably assume that downtown LA is a beautiful magical place. Maybe you think it looks something like this:

There are palm trees, giant houses, miles of beautiful beaches, shops so expensive you can’t even afford to look at the clothes, and of course, celebraty sightings.

But there is another side of LA that goes unnoticed. Just a short walk from the skyscrapers of downtown is the urban camp ground called “skid row”. It’s barely believable that this goes on in our country, much less one of our most visable cities.

So take a look at the video- and see the other half of one of our country’s most glamorous cities:

http://video.msn.com/v/us/fv/msnbc/fv.htm??g=03a81527-cefc-47a6-b1f1-c055d0c908bf&f=05&fg=rss

About 10,000 people live in Skid Row. This is real daily life for people. A family in a tent on the sidewalk. This is not just old men. This is children, moms… everybody.

Educate yourself- find out more about skid row:

http://www.latimes.com/search/dispatcher.front?page=1&first-page-size=5&Query=skid%20row&target=photo

http://www.latimes.com/search/dispatcher.front?page=2&Query=skid%20row&target=photo&first-page-size=5

http://www.latimes.com/search/dispatcher.front?page=3&first-page-size=5&Query=skid%20row&target=photo

http://216.35.221.77/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5360851

all credit for this blog goes to bekah bolin- hope you don’t mind that i stole your info- but i wanted to spread the word 

i have been amazed lately
God keeps putting these women in my path-
women who cannot help but dream big things for the future
they are fueled by passion and driven by a vision
they believe another world is possible
and just maybe they can help make it different

lately i have been so so blessed to be included in the dreams of others
my dreams have been revived by the dreams of others
and my passions have been renewed by theirs’

i love dreamers
i love idealists
i love those women who are not afraid to question the status quo
who aren’t afraid to rock the boat
who break boundaries
and become more than anyone thought they would be

i love those who catch a vision
who hope for the future
and know their vision is from above

i love those who aren’t afraid to give themselves to something bigger than themselves
who aren’t afraid to fall limp in the arms of the One
who are willing to get swept up in His glorious mission

Another World is Possible
so dream on my dreamers
dream on
because your dreams are beautiful beyond words
and you can change the world

i’m going to warn you now
this post is neither inspiring or even really worth your reading
but i’m going to guess that you will read it anyways… you made it this far
so here goes…

my mouth hurts
it started a few weeks ago when i noticed my mouth didn’t feel quite right
i knew my upper wisdom teeth had been coming in
but now it seemed like they weren’t going to come in easily

after sticking my finger in the back of my mouth
and opening my mouth as wide as i can and looking in the mirror
i concluded that yes, indeed, my wisdom teeth were almost all the way in
and they were making the other teeth angry

so i called my mom
yes, my mom
and asked her to call my old dentist
and figure out if i was supposed to have them removed sometime back

i was

so now
with a hurting mouth
and no dental insurance
it seems like i need to go get them removed

so it’s a bad day for teeth
(and probably for my savings acount… )

if there are any dentists out there who would like to do some wisdom-teeth-pullin’ for free, you know where to comment!

ok, so i don’t know how i would ride my bike with that mug of coffee, but i can sure try!

there is my weemee (just because everybody’s doin’ it)

it’s 4 degrees outside and that’s about as warm as it’s going to get today

the windchill is -14 degrees

and our heat is maxed out at 55 degrees in our apartment
brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr… i wish i were in LA today