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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

RACISM IN THE HISPANIC COMMUNITY!

Eres Latino, Somos Hermanos

This is my boy Cav speaking up about racism in the Hispanic community. He posted on his myspace blog.

"Racism is alive they just be concealin it.."
Kanye West

I hate to quote Kanye... but my use of his statement isnt to big brother, "the man", or any of the monikers used to describe the ominously obscure face of white power and oppression.

This is for my latino brothers and sisters.... operative words:
BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

This aint a disclaimer. But the truth is pungent at times... and because it is coming from me and not a more typical or "valid" (in some eyes) voice for the concern of "hispanic people" does NOT make it any less true.

If it validates me for you... I DO have latino bloodline in my background... among other things. But i Do Not consider myself Latino. I consider myself a Black man first. That is my choice and if you want insight on that then hit me up on a personal level.

but for the record.. there is no "Blacklandia" where "Black people" come from... and furthermore there is also no race called "Spanish". Spanish is indeed a language.... shiiiit.

Yesterday I was alarmed to hear and then read about the tragic story of two, young, darker skinned Dominican sisters who were shot by a bouncer (BOTH of the women unarmed) of a notoriously racist club in the Dominican Republic. One of the young women, a recent college graduate, died.

for information on the incident click the following links:
http://www.hoy.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=89040
http://clavedigital.com/Noticias/Articulo.asp?Id_Articulo=11879
http://www.hoy.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=89040


But here is my spiel... La Verdad if you will....
As a caribbean man... a black man.. your brother... i urge my family in latin america.. particularly those in the Dominican Republic to learn their history.

Here's the thing. We fuckin up... peep the science.
You CANNOT call a Frenchman a Brit, or a Saxon a Slav... because as people.. those folks have SOME idea or at least CHOOSE to acknowledge the history of who they are and what identifies them as a people.

who we call modern day "hispanic" or "latino" are the product of what white people used to refer to as the products of miscegeny. A mixed group of European, Native American, and yess.. AFRICAN... (OHH NOOOO) African slaves.

I went to the Taino Museum in La Romana, DR... it clearly detailed, in english, spanish, and french for all visitors to see, who Latino people are... particularly latino people in countries like Dominican Republic, Panama, Honduras, Brazil, Cuba, .. or even Jamaica and Trinidad (yes there are latino people in the english speaking Caribbean)

I hold my heart when i see the shock and awe on the face of some from these countries, particularly the island nations, when i refer to their countries as "Caribbean" or "West Indian". Somehow magically we have been deceived enough to believe that a new NoNCaribbean Sea is the body of water that surrounds Puerto Rico or DR for that matter...

Unfortunately the connotation of being "West Indian" is equated to non majority spanish speaking countries -- TO BE READ "BLACK COUNTRIES"
MAJOR MAJOR taboo apparently....

I went to DR and my heart sank.... I have been to other Caribbean countries.. experienced people from lands where English may very well be the THIRD language you learn. And in all of those places existed a uniform basic knowledge of other Caribbean nations and their inter related histories. Unfortunately, this knowledge seemed to be ignored, hidden, or just not accepted in the collective conscious on Dominican Soil... such a beautiful country... such beautiful people... being lead into the dark. And who suffers as a result? Domicans do... and consequently WE do...
if you doubt me... just really assess what is happening in 2006 there... fuck that on the ENTIRE island... Haiti included.

Im sure we could all trade stories to support or even negate some of the worldviews I am assessing in this entry.
But clearly... things are a muck.

There is soooo much more I would like to say to all... and I have much more light I could shed.. but my consideration to your time is sincere...

stay tuned. This is the FIRST blog on my site that I ACTUALLY wrote... and now that the floodgates for the truth is opened.. BEWARE.

.... signing .. off?

PS food for thought... ever wonder why Guyana is considered a Caribbean nation even though it is on the continent called South America... ever wonder why Brazil escapes the same misclassification... hmmm?

Cavalier (Caballero) - Brooklyn's Own Knight For Justice

Check Cav out @ www.myspace.com/cavwins

Friday, September 22, 2006

Daily Views, Pop Culture, Rants, and News: Shooting After Jim Jones Rap Concert in VA Beach

Theme music for this incident. Change-GIF www.dagif.com

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GIF - VIEW of a LOSER from ON TOP of the WORLD - Change (ft Kitty)


Daily Views, Pop Culture, Rants, and News: Shooting After Jim Jones Rap Concert in VA Beach

No surprises here. More black brother validating the stereotypical views that have already been placed on us. Please read the article on the 13th amendment.

Monday, September 18, 2006

JAY Z's RETURN AND THE USE OF BROWN SKINNED CELEBRITIES BY THE INDUSTRY: Are We Really Advancing?





Allow me to go back in time for a moment to what happened to Michael Jordan when he joined the Wizards. The organization basically brought him on board not because of any business savvy they felt he would bring to the company, but for who he was and what he had done on the basketball court. He is one of the greatest players of all time and more important than that, one of the highest ticket sellers of all time. The Wizards organization brought Jordan on believing he would make them players in the free agent market, feeling that young players who grew up fans of his would want to be apart of anything he was associated with, and bring some much needed fan fare. After one bad draft pick (Kwame Brown) and one bad trade (Rip Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse); the future of the franchise didn’t look so bright with Jordan as President. The organization then came to the realization that the only worth Jordan had to them was as a player. At that point they talked him into (temporarily) selling his shares in the company, stepping down as President of basketball operations and coming out of retirement for the sake of the franchise. The result was a record number of sell out games and an increase in the sale of Jerseys. Once his old body started to break down and he once again retired the company knowing that all he was worth to them, declined to give him back his title as President or sell him back his stock in the company. Could we be looking at the same predicament for Jay Z? Don’t get me wrong, I love to see black folks advance but I’m not one to run with what is fed to me as “advancement”. I see us as Brown skinned Americans being used. I know the saying if you can’t be used you’re useless and all that, but it depends on what you allow yourself to be used for.
For instance, the Brooklyn Nets thing, Bruce Ratner wants to bring the Nets to Brooklyn. He needs to build a new stadium which he knows will cause a problem among current residents who won't want the influx of traffic and congested streets; and who would probably protest in fear of losing their homes. So he gets Jay Z on as a minority owner (meaning he really has no say in the day to day operations of the project) to lure Brooklyn residents into a false sense of security. Believing Jay Z to be such an ambassador of Brooklyn in the Hip Hop community, people from Brooklyn would put more trust into the project with his involvement. They also believed that by adding Jay Z they could attract young players/ free agents who may be fans of his music which they hope will lend some level of influence over their decision making in choosing teams to play for. Def Jam became a sinking ship, so they brought in L.A Reed as C.E.O who is mostly known for breaking in R&B acts but doesn’t really command any respect in the hip hop arena. Execs brought in someone they believed all artists including hip hop artists would respect, Jay Z. They also probably felt that he would give the label leverage in bidding wars for other performers, and his power in the industry would increase the sales of new and old Def Jam artists; as fans would be more inclined to buy an album if they felt Jay Z was somehow involved in the project or co-signed the artist. He’s a pawn in my opinion, a whore to the industry that’s being put back on the strip to push his most marketable asset.

President of Def Jam and all, Jay Z is still an employee and as an employee he can still be fired. We often look at the amount of money these individuals make and allow ourselves to overlook some very important factors. We feel that their money will allow them to put themselves in better positions to make bigger and better things happen resulting in some type of significant power for the Brown skinned American community. You have to first think, are these individuals even working towards community improvement? If someone can sign a check to pay them a hundred million dollars imagine how much money that person is seeing! How can you ever make yourself a relevant player in the game if all the other players move 4 steps ahead for every step you take? It’s not like these “advancing” individuals are taking steps towards independence. They’re not building CD manufacturing companies, they’re not starting their own distribution outlets, they’re not investing money, time, or attention in things like black owned radio stations, or record stores, to ensure that if they get black balled for stepping out on their own, should they attempt to, they still will have relevant places that will except and promote their music. We’ve all been fooled into thinking these individuals to be powerful but in reality, their only powerful to the powerless and in the land of the powerful they have little to no power at all. They’re happy with that though, as long as a brother has more than another brother, he’s happy. At the same time, blacks seem content with having less than a white man because he feels he should or isn’t supposed to surpass. To quote Treach of Naughty by Nature, “The chain remains”.

Posting a comment not enough? Want to debate the issue? Do that @ BLACKFOLKSRUS.COM

Thursday, September 07, 2006

MOST DEF ARRESTED, KATRINA RELIEF & MISPLACED OUTRAGE



I have been seeing post about the arrest of Mos Def at the VMA's all over the net, but I bumped into the actual footage on PROHIPHOP.COM

I give props to Most Def for taking such a bold action to voice his opinion. At the same time, I look at the whole Katrina incident and see more than just right wing politicians disregard for Blacks in America. What I see is Black America still being unable or unwilling to stand on its own two feet. It has been well noted that American politicians could careless about the poor population of Blacks in America. This is something we already knew, yet Katrina happens and all of a sudden it becomes abundantly clear. I think we shouldn’t be demanding and begging for help from a government we know has no real intentions of doing such a thing. I think we should be focusing more so on doing things ourselves, such as what was done in Iraq when the government was paying for contractors to go out there and rebuild the Country. Let us set up some type of program where we send contractors to New Orleans to help rebuild the state, why don't we rent charter buses and get together volunteers willing to go out to New Orleans and assist in sanitation of the disaster grounds, like they did in NY when 9/11 happened (minus the charter buses) Is this such a crazy idea. I mean the price it would cost to rebuild some of the disaster areas and houses in New Orleans, some rappers spend on chains and vehicles. I think it's time for the more fortunate people from the black community to comeback and do something that really makes a difference to the poor population of blacks in America. Quincy Jones, Danny Glover, Bill Cosby, Puffy, Jay-z, Prince, Michael Jackson, some of these artist by themselves could afford to purchase an Island somewhere, but when it comes to their own people those fat wallets get liposuction. They can only make movies, songs, and complain in fits of outrage. None of them wants to spend any money that isn't tax deductible. None of them to my knowledge went running into New Orleans trying to help those people. Even Sean Pen took his boat and a crew of people and went out there trying to assist people (as much as I hate to note that) While Kanye West was at the VMA's calling himself making a statement by publicly stating the obvious. I remember 2pac made a statement on a documentary I saw once about the White House. The comment was related to how there is so many unoccupied rooms in the white house, and at the same time they have homeless people sleeping on the white house steps. We have Black celebrities with houses with damn near as many rooms as the White House that are unoccupied, who come on T.V and complain about people who have lost their homes in New Orleans having no place to go, which in my opinion is worse. A friend of mine who is an artist that goes by the name of Cavalier came to me with a song called don't cry for me. That song was basically his message to white America saying “I’m alright. I don’t need you to come and rescue me. I got me. Mind your business” that song is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. White America loves to hear the story of the downtrodden niggers begging them for hand outs. Pardon my French, but when do we develop a mentality of fuck them we got us. I look at the whole Katrina situation and it makes me outraged not at them, but outraged at us. It has become abundantly clear to me that we don't care about each other enough to sacrifice our materialistic pursuits and values for the salvation of our own people, even in disaster.

SONG THIS MAKES ME THINK ABOUT: WHO U R-GIF

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GIF - VIEW of a LOSER from ON TOP of the WORLD - Who U R
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Again this is just my personal views thoughts and opinions I’m no journalist. I just write what I see and write how I feel. I know I really ran off at the keys with this one. If anybody knows any actions that any black celebrity’s haven taken in Katrina relief. Excluding charity donations, and benefit concerts, please feel free to post a comment about it. Such acts need to be publicized and

Monday, September 04, 2006

HIP HOP SLANG DIALECT OR JUST BAD ENGLISH

Dialect: Variety of a language spoken by a group of people and having features of vocabulary, grammar, and/ or pronunciation that distinguish it from other varieties of the same language.

Dialects usually develop as a result of geographic, social, political, or economic barriers between groups of people who speak the same language. When dialects diverge to the point that they are mutually incomprehensible, they become languages in their own right. This was the case with Latin, various dialects of which evolved into the different Romance languages French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian….

Hip hop slang in my opinion is what could be characterized as a socialect, which is a dialect determined by social factors rather than by geography. In the opinion of others outside of hip hop it’s a sign of ignorance or lack of education, or just plain bad English. What causes the division?
All be it of me to speculate, but what I have come to find is that the unacceptance of Hip hop slang as a dialect is a result of an unwillingness of high class society to accept the idea of what is deemed to be a low class society having the intellectual capacity to actually develop a dialect (in other words arrogance). Often times Hip hop artists and supporters are portrayed as unintelligible and as a result are often perceived as such. If someone you believe to be stupid speaks in a manner that you’re not accustomed to hearing, you might in all likeliness chalk it up to stupidity. The resistance towards hip hop slang as being viewed as a dialect comes from other angles as well. Many, which view themselves to be educated and accept the ideas that have been fed to them of what is an educated manner of speaking, also view hip hop slang as an unintelligible or uneducated manner of speaking the English language. Furthermore you have the fundamentalists who in my opinion fear the idea of hip hop slang being viewed as a dialect because, as I stated in the passage above, dialects have been known to turn into languages once they have reached a mutual level of incomprehensibility, which wouldn’t pose such a threat if the hip hop dialect was confined to a specific demographic. But the acceptance of the hip hop culture nationally and internationally is what, in my opinion, alarms fundamentalist. As hip hop receives more and more worldwide exposure through publications, T.V shows, radio stations, and other modern media, it bears the potential to change itself from being perceived as American culture to being accepted as a foundation American culture.

If you ask me it isn’t what it is, it’s what people have been taught to believe it is, that compels resistance against hip hop slang being accepted as a dialect of the English language. When in reality what we except as English is actually a dialect of the British English language and even that is a stretch. If you look up the origin in which many American words derive you’ll find that the English language is a bastard language comprised of mispronounced and borrowed words of other languages, sort of like Hip hop slang.

Let us know what you think, Hip hop slang; Dialect or just bad English

BUY OR SELL


Buy or sell


(SELL)
BEYONCE “RING THE ALARM” - Just like most of the music out right now, hot beat; lyrics questionable.

“She gon' be rockin' chinchilla coats
If I let you go
Get in the house off the coast
If I let you go
She gon' take everything I own
If I let you go
I can't let you go, damn if I let you go”
Guess she got that independent shit up out of here, question!



(BUY)
Lyfe Jennings “S.E.X”- This a joint for all those Joey Badafucos out there cradle robbing and all those hot in the ass young girls gased off that hardcore album


(SELL)
Cassie “ME AND YOU”- Yo this chick looks like a homosexual boy in his preteens, and she can’t sing. Who signs these people!

(SELL)
CHERISH “UNAPPRECIATED” – This joint sounds like something one of my exes wrote, I knew one them chicks looked familiar