You get to plan a dinner party for 4-8 of your favorite writers/artists/musicians/other notable figures, whether dead or alive. Who do you seat next to whom in order to inspire the most fun evening?
I’d seat these Black Literary, Harlem Renaissance, Educators, Social, Political and Cultural Leaders in a semi-circle horseshoe fashion. That way they would be able to see, hear, discuss and listen to each other’s outlook on the state of the African diaspora in general and the state of Black America specifically.
I’d make liberal use of today’s innovative technology enabling this discussion to be broadcast worldwide.
Given their diverse lifestyles, experiences, and viewpoints we would be like sponges absorbing wisdom, knowledge and understanding I know the resulting dialogue and debate would be scintillating!
This is another non-PC post dealing with racial attitudes. If you’re white this blog post is gonna Fuck with you to the utmost. I pull no punches and make no apologies for my words. If you don’t like it feel Free to Unsubscribe. I don’t give a flying Fuck.
Often my colleagues of Color and I will talk about the racist comments and insults we get on a daily basis while performing our jobs as Security Officers at the museum. One encounter by a Black co-worker who is a retired Marine Officer and who is multi-lingual especially sticks out. A white visitor told him he was an Uppity Nigger. His response, “I come from a long line of Uppity niggers and am proud of it.” I’m sure that white patron had no answer for that one.
Basically during my tenure at the museum patrons have cursed me in every language know to mankind and called me everything but a child of God.
Now let me back track to my encounter this past week with a dumb-ass old white woman who had the nerve, gall and audacity to come up to me and compare my beautiful cornrows to a Medusa sculpture. I was raised to respect my elders but there are times when you just want to slap the shit out of old white people whose minds are still stuck in the early 20th or 19th Centuries. Then there are the trust fund babies and wealthy white folks of privilege who have that “To The Manor Born” attitude to most workers of Color and especially Black workers.
Dear Folks of the Caucasian Persuasion. Do Not Touch my Hair. This is not a petting zoo. Do not ask me stupid questions like, “Do you comb your hair?” Do Not compare my braids, locs or cornrows to Medusa and I won’t say anything about your wrinkles, age spots or your open audacity and stupidity to think you can come up to any random Black person that you don’t know and just spew the first idiotic thing that issues forth from that pie hole in the middle of your face. And No you Do Not have the right to become offended if I call you out on your arrogance and foolishness. Keep your ignorant racist sexist dumb words and attitude to yourself! Don’t get it Twisted. Mammy and StepAndFetchIt are long gone. In fact do me a favor. Shut the Fuck Up and stop commenting on my appearance! Don’t Fuck with the African Goddess! I am a Proud Uppity Black Woman with Attitude. Don’t you forget it.
I don’t have too many problems with other working class whites. We are more or less sailing in the same ship but if you’re Black and you commit the smallest infraction of the rules we get thrown overboard. Most of the problem lies with the 1%. The “Beautiful People.” The Society Matrons. The Trust Fund Babies. Tea Partiers formerly known as the “Moral Majority.” You know them. The patrons who attempt to give you half chewed gum and candy or some sort of other garbage thinking you’re a fucking janitor. I tell them them the trash can is located in the nearest restroom.
Caucasian Americans let’s get re-educated. No I don’t look like another Black person you may know or see on TV, in the movies or in magazines. Black people have the most diversity of skin color, hair textures, and hues than any other race on earth. Unless that particular Black person is an identical twin there goes the notion that we all Look Alike.
If you don’t know me. Don’t touch me. Keep your hands to yourself. Hey you never know. The Black might rub off!
Yes I speak proper English and not Ebonics. Sure I can lapse into slang but only around my friends. Stop saying how you’re incredibly amazed at how “articulate” I am. That’s a back-handed compliment which is really an insult in disguise. Quit being so condescending.
No I absolutely Do Not take or sell drugs. Black does not equal drug addict. However it is obvious that you do since you seem to know so much about illicit drugs. No I’m not here to be your sex slave. Don’t even go there! For I will put your sorry ass out of my galleries. If we were out in the street my foot would be up your ass! You may have gotten away with raping my Great, Great, Great Grandmother back in slavery days but today I will not only knock you silly but cut off your minuscule package and shove it down your throat.
You insult me to my face and make snide remarks behind my back. You extend your hand in supposed friendship and support, with that phony shit-eating grin while telling me “I Voted for Obama!” Really. Oh joy! How white of you! You know what? I don’t want to be your friend. You would not survive a week No Not even a day in my Black skin. You need to back the Fuck up and get out of my face with your hypocrisy. My patience is gone and Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.
Warning! This Post is Not PC. If you get easily offended stop reading now. Contains Brutal Language.
Judges 4-5 New International Version (NIV)
”
4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading[a] Israel at that time.5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor.7 I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’”
8 Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”
9 “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh.10 There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.”
Matthew 11:12 King James Version (KJV)
12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
DeBorah The African Warrior Queen
I come with Words of Peace and Praise of Thanksgiving upon my lips
Along with a Sword in my right hand.
Third Eye Opened in the midst of a Changing Life,
I refuse to play the victim any longer!
Pale riders your rule has come to an end. StepandFetchIt and Mammy are long gone. Ethiopia and Nubia Rule once more.
I will defend my Queendom unto death for there be more with me than against me.
Though I be petite in frame, know this my enemies, Don’t sleep on the size!
Victory is mine.
All bullies shall feel sharp cold steel against their necks.
Negotiation has come to an end! This time all abusers shall be repaid 100 fold for their unholy acts.
Never again shall my precious temple of mind and body suffer desecration!
Arise My SiStars!! Arise My Warrior Queens!!
The Thieves shall be banished from my Holy Temple!
Ready for Battle!
Prince ~~ Thieves in the Temple
Matthew 21:12-13 New King James Version (NKJV)
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God[a] and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’[b] but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”
Post Script ~~ Dear Folks of the Caucasian Persuasion. Do Not Touch my Hair. This is not a petting zoo. Do not ask me stupid questions like, “Do you comb your hair?” Do Not compare my braids, locs or cornrows to Medusa and I won’t say anything about your wrinkles, age spots or your open audacity and stupidity to think you can come up to any random Black person that you don’t know and just spew the first idiotic thing that issues forth from that pie hole in the middle of your face. And No you Do Not have the right to become offended if I call you out on your arrogance and foolishness. Keep your ignorant racist sexist dumb words and attitude to yourself! Don’t get it Twisted. Mammy and StepAndFetchIt are long gone. In fact do me a favor. Shut the Fuck Up and stop commenting on my appearance! Don’t Fuck with the African Goddess! I am a Proud Uppity Black Woman with Attitude. Don’t you forget it.
French National Anthem – “La Marseillaise” (FR/EN)
My blogging buddy K.B. who lives in Paris is safe, alive and well. He is grateful to all Americans for their prayers, encouragement and support.
I totally disagree with the hate towards France being spewed on Facebook!! Yes we all know that France was a Colonizer back in the 18th and 19th Centuries but the people alive today, the people maimed and killed in those horrible attacks have nothing to do with with what happened centuries ago. Yes we do need to learn and heed the lessons of the past. Colonialism and Slavery must continue to be taught in schools so we recognize wickedness and choose another path. On that note yesterday I left a group that I thought was about the positive because of the evil statements made against France. People who return hate for hate are little better than the oppressors.
Winston Churchill – We Shall Never Surrender (Full Speech)
Governments often make problems that make others suffer. My parents, grandparents and great grandparents went through racism and Jim Crow but they did not hate this nation, their country. As a Black woman I experience bias, racism and bigotry often but that does not give me the right to lump all white people in the same pot as an excuse to hate and spew venom. As a Christian I represent Jesus Christ so I can never do this. My spirit and soul do not allow me.
Love Train [Original 12″ Version] – The O’Jays (1972)
Many of those murdered in France and on the Russian airplane blast were innocent children. Hatred solves nothing. We cannot go back and change the past. Also keep in mind on 9/11 many French, European and other nations supported New Yorkers and Americans. Being Pro-Black does not give me the right to be anti-white or anti-European. Why? Because the Love of God and His compassion is in my heart. Most people of color have experienced bias and bigotry in some form but I refuse to deny aid, support or prayer to those in need. I pray for everyone. I’m still praying for the innocent Russian people killed in that airplane explosion. Hate is divisive. Please do not use this tragedy as an excuse to incite or fan the flames of hatred. I wholeheartedly and unashamedly support and stand with the people of France and victims of terrorism worldwide! Show Love to all.
I know what it is to be treated with the wide brush of stereotypes.
Working with the general public can be a challenge and if you’re a Black Woman wearing a uniform, a uniform that designates a form of authority more challenges come your way.
My Great, Great Grandfather William Henry Halstead left his life as a Free farmer and joined the Union Army for the benefit of his enslaved sisters and brothers and for his descendants unseen and yet unknown. But maybe he did know that Stephen and I would reap the benefits of his sacrifice. My Dad Edward G. Palmer left City College and joined the Air Force to fight for an America that did not even consider him a man but duty and honor came first. Thanks to the sacrifices and Love from my ancestors my generation of Black Americans became the first generation to benefit from the Civil Rights Movement. I’m carried on the shoulders of giants.
My Mother, Grandmothers and Aunts rose above the indignities of Jim Crow.
Sadly some look at me and see only color or gender. I’ve been approached by white males thinking that I’m a drug dealer or available for sex. Obviously I had to set them straight. They needed to be firmly re-educated.
But I’m more than race, nationality or gender. Like most people on this earth Black, Brown, or white I’m a human being of complexity. That’s why I had to speak out against vile remarks being leveled at the French people. God created people. Humans created race & divisions.
I’ve come to think that the reason God placed me in the museum was to root out my preconceptions, illusions and delusions about people of other faiths.
Over the almost 8 years I’ve worked there the Ladies and Gentlemen I’m closest to are Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu & Jewish. By being around and in close contact with co-workers outside of my faith I’ve learned a lot and mostly not to be judgmental. I’ve even visited their Houses of Worship and learned that these faiths are not so different from Christianity. If I had been born in Iran, Egypt, Bangladesh, India, I would be a practitioner of that faith. We are all people who want the same things in life.
One God. Many Paths.
Earlier this year I spent two weeks in the hospital. The reason I’ll keep private but the person who visited me and took me home is Gay. Again another lesson of acceptance. Every time I’ve prayed for help God sent someone from another race, faith, gender, or sexual orientation to assist me.
I could lower myself to the level of bigots, haters, slanderers & spew a fountain of venom and vindictiveness but I choose not to. I choose if not to Love everyone but to at least to respect all people regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation. When I make mistakes or say the wrong thing I go back and apologize. Nobody is perfect but these errors in judgement provide me the opportunity to examine myself.
I’m sure as I make my way towards March 2018 and retirement God will have even more Life Lessons on my path towards Enlightenment.
I can definitely relate to what Jacky O’Shaughnessy says in her video about women, aging, body image and dating. Like her I’ve been dumped for younger women and/or rejected because I’m not thick or curvy. Traded in for a PYT (Pretty Young Things). Finally I had to tell myself I will never have boobs or butt like other women. I will always be petite and I am getting older. But you know even though I don’t fit in and I’m not the “flavor of the moment” Despite numerous rejections and declining social life I would not change anything about my body. I will never get enhancements or augmentations.
America is a youth obsessed culture that will never change and men buy into that when making choices regarding which women to date or not date.
Gradually as I’ve gotten older I’ve begun to accept my body and focus less on how men see me but I have to admit that it does bother me when men in my age group for for the 20 and 30 somethings. I’m human and want to be accepted but then again we live in a society where a woman loses value as she ages. Men focus entirely on looks, body type, youth & fertility. As a result I rarely date and no I’m not open to online dating. Where can I find self validation? Only through my writing, photography and spending time with my brother Stephen who loves me no matter what.
I also greatly admire 79 year old Body Builder Ernestine Shephard. As my readers know from my previous posts I try to keep up my exercising, mainly walking as much as my work schedule will allow. Readers know that the reason I’m staying in shape is for me not to please some man. The only man I must or need to please is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So despite my faults and flaws I’m staying fit for me and me only so I will have a better life as I get older. My objective is to stay healthy. A healthy life is all encompassing not a trend but a lifestyle so I will keep at it so I can feel better about myself.
Espiritu en Fuego/A Fiery Spirit 