Generational Curse? or What is the new definition of Blackness?

On March 12, 2011March 12, 2011 By dancingpalmtreesIn Carnal, Creativity, Education, Explore, Gifted & Black, Innovation, Inquisitive, Intellectualism, Knowledge, Sacred, soul, Spirit, Spirituality, Understanding, Wisdom

Generational Curse? or What is the new definition of Blackness?

Our young people are being fed a steady media diet of mindless drivel which they mistake for supreme wisdom, truth and as an acceptable lifestyle. In the name of “Keeping it Real”, morals, decency and values have been cast aside. Fame & fortune gotten through illicit or illegal means has becomes society’s new aspirations & goals.

Who do our young people worship and hold in high esteem? Snooki, Brittany, Lilo, Kendra, any rapper, Housewives of ________ (fill in the city), Lady Gaga, and of course the latest apostle Charlie Sheen. Of course then there is Hip-Hop. Music that started out as fun, a bit light hearted and fill with societal messages has now become a medium in which our people continue to degrade Black women, uphold illegal lifestyles and program our children into idiocy and foolishness.

Spirituality, Intellectualism, the pursuit of Knowledge are laughed at. Young African Americans have a narrow view of what Black means. Do the Millennials conceive of Black in terms of the baroque painter Juan de Pareja, Aleksander Puskin, Alexander Dumas. Do the names Charles Drew, Hugh Masekela, Maya Angelou, Diana Sands, Diahann Carroll, Verta Mae Grosvenor, Douglas Turner Ward, Roscoe Lee Browne, Cicely Tyson, James Earl Jones, Gloria Foster, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, Calvin Lockhart, mean anything to the younger generation or have they been conscripted to the dinosaur age? Is Malcolm X and Angela Davis just posters or pictures on T-Shirts?

Despite Disco and Blaxplotation films all the time I was growing up it was stressed and imprinted on us that we must be a credit to our race. We must uplift the race. We had an obligation to do better. Be better. Education was held in high esteem. Teachers were venerated.

Now the new order of the day is how low can I sink, how many clothes can I take off, how much illicit sex can I have and download it onto the Internet, how many curse words can I use in public, how much can I offend and disrespect our elders, in general how low can I sink to be authentically “black”. I find it very sad to see our children not only believing but living the hype.

To Be Young, Gifted & Black

By Donny Hathaway

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaMzGFVccSQ

Thoughts on Love, Romance and the Song of Solomon

On February 25, 2011 By dancingpalmtreesIn African American Queen, African Goddess, African King, Dark Skin, Ethiopian Goddess, Female Divinity, Feminine Divine, Goddess, Royalty, Sacred, Songs of Solomon & Sheba, Spirituality1 Comment

Thoughts on Love, Romance and the Song of Solomon

As February comes to a close and Valentine’s Day has passed my thoughts this morning brought me to the Old Testament, specifically the Song of Solomon. Why would erotica be part of the Old Testament canon? But the Song of Solomon is more than just erotica; it is a love poem, a testament to love, desire and sexual passion between a Black man and a Black woman. Most Christians have been taught that this book is an allegory, a representation of Christ and the church, which could be one interpretation, after all I’m no Bible scholar, and for me the sensual descriptions of the lover’s bodies reveal its true nature.

The way her face, breasts and stomach are captured in vivid detail by the Beloved leans more towards Eros than agape. The Song of Solomon is the longing of two lovers separated, yet joined desperately seeking to be physical reunited to once again ignite the flame of fervor, and quench the fires sexual craving between them.

In my mind the lovers are King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon to inquire of his wisdom and as the story is sometime told, the two became lovers, their lovemaking resulting in the birth of a son once Sheba returned to Ethiopia. Yes we all know that Solomon had many wives and concubines, too numerous to count, however Sheba was different. Queen Sheba of Ethiopia was intellectual equal, one who not only desired wisdom but was able to communicate the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of her people, her culture to this Hebrew King, thus she became the desire of his heart. Two minds on the same plane, not jockeying for position, become one. When a man meets the feminine version of himself he seeks to unite bringing together one side of his mind with the other. Solomon’s greatest error was in allowing distance and time to come between him and the woman God meant for him to reign with in this life. Imagine how history would have been changed if these two great leaders had joined energies. What a mighty force two people, one flesh to contend with!

Unchained Melody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-idDbIfGvw