We The Voices

Black people in America are one of the most sensitive groups of people on the planet. Touch the wounds of slavery, or brush past the stitches of skin color, and watch us holler like hell.

Don Imus, former radio host/Crypt Keeper look-alike, was deep fried like mozzarella sticks for calling the Rutgers women basketball players “nappy headed hoes.” Old preachers, rappers and media moguls wanted to do to Imus what Mel Gibson did to Jesus in Passion of the Christ. America is always in need of a stern talk about racism. The evils of slavery won’t ever go away. But every time some non-Black says something mean about a Black, there’s no need to ring the alarm. I don’t care what Al Sharpton says.

The fallout from this Imus debacle has lead to rappers commentating on 60 Minutes. Russell Simmons is acting like he never assisted with the creation of the most prolific hip hop record company to date. Oprah is not Black anymore. I watched an episode the other day, and I think she was a strawberry blonde.

Black people are offended by white people, but also offended by different classes of Black people. Personally, I think white people are just confused. I’m Black and I know I am.

But Indians, they are on a whole other sub-continent when it comes to being offended by the media.

Sanjaya Malakar, the lone Indian of this season’s American Idol, was brutally rejected by Indians who found his bad singing and transgender appearance offensive.

Indian headlines read:

“Sanjaya is voted off American Idol - he’s the only one weeping,” read a front-page headline in The Indian Express, above a photo of his famous “ponyhawk” hairdo.

“Finally, Sanjaya sings his way out of Idol,” read a Times of India headline.

I even read an American Idol message board, where a commenter stated she was “appalled” that the only images of Indians on television were Sanjaya and Apu from The Simpsons.

Now, I know of many people who found Sanjaya’s bad singing and transgender appearance offensive. But not once did I attribute that to him being of Indian descent.

More astonishing is the recent arrest warrant issued against actor Richard Gere for kissing Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty on the cheek multiple times in public. In response to the “taboo” nature of public displays of affection in India, protesters have been burning photos and effigies of Gere, calling for his return to India. If Gere returns and is convicted of a PDA, he could face three months in jail, a fine or both.

Shetty is no stranger to controversy, as the former British Big Brother contestant created a spark after seemingly racist comments were made toward her on the show. To make a long story short, TV stations and prime ministers got involved and fans protested.

Shetty’s family released a statement to the media that said they were “overwhelmed and touched” by fans going to bat over their sensitive little Indian. By the way, the offended star won that season of Big Brother. Jermaine Jackson was a runner-up.

Aren’t these things that constantly-offended Blacks do all the time?

And is it really that serious?

Being a member of an oppressed group is always about trying to prove that you are more than a skin color, an old tribal custom, or a stereotype. But I think when groups of people bring up these stereotypes themselves, or are constantly fighting people who don’t want to change, it makes them look like crybabies.

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I was cruising a popular men’s online magazine and I came across a very interesting article written by Matthew Fitzgerald titled, “Are Women Feminizing Men?” The article begins with a description of a 1995 rally in Harvard Square lead by then-Harvard junior Rich Zubaty. The theme of the rally was “Take Back the Penis.” It basically defended men’s rights to be men as well as our right to reject feminism. The article goes on to describe how men have become more feminine in an attempt to satisfy women. He also presents the “Sitcom Theory” in which Ray Romano’s character on “Everybody Loves Raymond” is a hallmark example of the type of man we are destined to become if we succumb to everything women want from us. He wraps up the article by talking about men who act like women, the role of feminism in this process and how “we can take it back.” This whole article got me wondering…

Are We Becoming Punks?

I probably should apologize in advance because my words are sure to offend some women. Ironic, because doing that (apologizing) would just be showing an example of how we are doing things just to please women. But dammit, it needs to be said. As young’ns, we (men) are taught to believe that relationships are 50/50 partnerships. We are lead to think that compromise means both parties give up something to satisfy the whole, that your partner will always consider your feelings before making any decision. If you’ve been in any relationship longer than a year, you learn that this is certainly not the case.

Being in a long term relationship is not unlike being a teenager living at home. You have to take out the trash, put the toilet seat down, you have a curfew and you have to call home to check in whenever you do anything. I can already hear all the dudes snickering. “I ain’t no punk. I come and go as I please. I don’t have to call before I do anything. If I wanna go out with my boys, I go out with them. No questions asked.” Uh huh. And just like a teenager who chooses to break the rules, you are punished. You may not have the type of woman that bitches and nags when you don’t abide by these rules, but she will definitely punish you. Wonder why she wouldn’t have sex with you those nights you came in at 3 AM, smelling like cheap beer and stale cigarettes? Can’t seem to figure out why she blew up at you when you forgot to use a coaster? Think her random mood swings are because of PMS?

No, fool. They are because you won’t get on board.

At times, it seems like a lose-lose situation. Do whatever she wants and you lose the autonomy you had during your single days. Go against her wishes and you are instantly an asshole. And this is not even to say that all women are overbearing shrews. But the fact of the matter is that if you do something she doesn’t like, or worse, you fail to do something she expects, her feelings will be hurt and you will have to deal with the consequences.

Having this information in advance most times can be good. But other times it can turn dudes into straight bitches.

There is nothing worse than seeing a dude, in attempts to get with a woman, do any and everything she wants to. Quite frankly, it infuriates me. Sometimes it starts even before they begin talking. These days, cats are rocking the most gender ambivalent/feminine clothing I think I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. Nail bitten manicures have been replaced by French tips. Dudes are waxing their backs, chest, legs, and eyebrows, wearing make-up, colored contacts…GETTING EXTENSIONS?! This is unacceptable on ANY level. Aside from the fact that you’ll lose any and all respect from the fellas, no woman wants a man that is better looking than her!

What is my point? Fellas, it is 2007. Some of us are in college, some of us have just begun our careers and others of us are veterans in our fields. We are more experienced than we are given credit. We have begun to realize our earning potential. We are smarter than we have ever been at any time in history. We should be smart enough to know that it is all about us! Clearly we want the attention and companionship of women, but ­NOT at the expense of our dignity and manhood. It is time that we realize they need us as much as we need them, if not more. This should be used to our advantage. Forget meeting them halfway, it’s time that we make them come to us.

That’s right, women should pursue us. Like I said before, it is 2007. When it is advantageous for them, women invoke their equality to men. They don’t need a man to help them fix their cars. They don’t need a man to move that heavy box from the attic. They don’t need a man to pay their bills. (See a pattern forming?) So, it is only right that we treat them accordingly. It’s time that we start giving them coy looks from the end of the bar. We should befriend women we know that are interested in us. But instead of returning the sentiment, we should put them in the “friends box,” sharing all our dirty little details about our trysts with other women. We should give vague answers and mixed signals.

And ultimately, we should be men!

We should act however we feel. We should curse as loud as we want. We should scratch ourselves in public. We should be crass whenever we feel like it. We should check out any woman we damn well please because you know what, they are our eyes and we should do whatever the hell we want to do with them! No longer will we suppress our primal urges to seek approval from women!

For this to work, we need to all be on the same page. Like any other team, we are only as strong as our weakest link. All the dudes who choose to ignore the fact that we have been taken for granted for way too long are helping to perpetuate the vicious cycle. 2007 should be the year that we take it back for men.
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I got mad whenever people said shit like “I’m not voting for Barack because my vote will get him assassinated.” I got real pissed, because that’s the same assbackwards mentality that prevents the the people with the RIGHT MINDSET from getting heard. It’s the same mentality that keeps the third parties in the dark, rather than giving us the opportunity to at least listen to them — “Why vote for them, when it will just take away votes from (that guy who you don’t really agree with but are voting for because he is the lesser of two evils)?” It’s the same mentality that had people saying, “I don’t like what he stands for, but I’ll vote for Bush because I mean, at least he’s constant.”

WHAT?

You’re fucking keeping yourselves down. You do not have the right to complain about the state of America if you are keeping it the way it is. Here you have the perfect opportunity to have a GOOD PRESIDENT. And you don’t want to vote for him because, oh, “he might get shot?” ANYBODY with the promise of the future, that conservative America–a huge portion of our population–disagrees with, is in the line of fire. What the fuck. So you’re really going to let their ignorant ass thumb push you down? Or is that just a scapegoat?

Hell, I could get shot. I’m a good person with great ideas. I got a lot to say, and I help a lot of people, too! But I’m living in a dangerous neighborhood because I can’t afford not to. What does that make me?

If 50 Cent got hailed as a BIGGER gangster just because he GOT SHOT, what the fuck do you think this means? The fact that a population will even RESPOND that way, the fact that he strikes SO MUCH FEAR into these conservatives that the ONLY WAY TO OVERCOME IT IS THROUGH VIOLENCE, all that proves is that he is WORTH IT. It proves that they are bringing themselves DOWN TO THE LEVEL that they have pinned onto the MINORITIES of America. “Violence is no way to solve problems,” right?

I am an asshole. And I still say that voting for him might get him shot, but it will DEFINITELY help America along the way. And the whole point of us selecting who becomes our president is solely for the purpose of bettering AMERICA.

Isn’t it?

Reconsider your fucking priorities.

I’m not going to vote for someone who won’t make me happy, I refuse to vote for someone who will keep me down, I refuse to vote for someone who will not LISTEN to me. The only person that I find promising is Barack. So my fucking ass is going to vote for him. If you want to blame me for the assassination–that is, if it does happen, and it’s not some crazed mentally unfit Republican perpetrating the weakness it found in the liberals leaning on Obama’s side–go the fuck ahead.

I vote so that I feel safe in my own goddamn home in a nation that seems to have no problem with sacrificing lives for the ‘bettering of democracy’.

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A few weeks ago, in response to Don Imus’ honest moment, instead of doing a show on the history and impact of gender-linked insults (e.g. “b*tch,” “hoe”) or race-linked ones (e.g. “nappy,” “ghetto”), Oprah aired a “town hall” discussion on rap. If you missed it: Common looked like rap’s golden boy. Some ladies from Spelman College declared rappers should never ever ever use the words “b%tch” and hoe, regardless of artistic license. Diane Weathers subtly supported censorship. Jason Whitlock made more dubious, unsubstantiated claims on his way to quickly becoming YT’s favorite pet commentator. (Since when are sports journalists heavily sought after as social critics?) Stanley Crouch revealed he’s the real life version of Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks. Oprah looked genuinely pleased that she had “opened up dialogue.” In short, you ain’t miss much.

Presumably, the point of the town hall meeting was to discuss racism and sexism in the context of hip-hop, but that didn’t happen. Unfortunately, that discussion never took place. Instead what transpired was a moral trial on hip-hop’s content with beloved Oprah as judge; Kevin Liles, Russell Simmons, Common, and Dr. Ben Chavis as the defense; Stanley Crouch, Diane Weathers, Jason Whitlock, Bruce Gordon, Asha Bandele, and seven Spelman students as the prosecution; and Oprah’s predominantly White, female audience as jury. (Did anyone else notice Russell and ‘em were outnumbered?).

The show, which appeared in two parts, was so empty and superficial it didn’t even explore the difference many people have drawn between Imus’ bigoted insult and rap’s excessive verbal abuse of Black women. On one hand, Don Imus made a generalized racist, sexist remark about a group of obviously talented, upstanding young women whom he didn’t know. On the other hand, rappers are supposedly talking about females whose behavior they know well. The second case is as inexcusable as the first, but for a very different reason.

Rappers and their defenders poignantly ask, “Why can’t rappers talk about b*tches and hoes, if there are b*tches and hoes in real life; if they really know women who fit those descriptions?” Though there’s a great answer that feminists, including many unheralded Black ones, have worked (and suffered) tirelessly to answer, Oprah’s shallow program couldn’t even provide it because of the courtroom format. There was no spare time during the attack on rap to explain why the sexual double standard, the centuries-old idea which is the root of rap’s misogyny, is anachronistic, malicious, foolish, and hypocritical.

you see, my generation
truly fascinates me.
our narcissistic needs to get
as many eyes to listen in
the voyeuristic nation we
have blindly come to be…

And what we’re faced with daily

is that what is
really isn’t.

we’re drawn to temporary things
yet mourn the loss of vision
we look for instant messages in
mind and body language
without quite understanding that
we’ve passed past definitions.

our dictionaries crawl with
self-edited contradictions
we search these words for windows
to the soul, then think we found them
in societies of literally
nothing
but confessions
archived in our minds,
internalized,
and then accepted

why are we surprised
when little girls look like
grown women?
junior high school students in the stairway
tryna get it
genocide explosion in the hands of
eager nymphets
and street thug kids
with skinny arms
and 90 words per minute

what other choice is given
when they have no narrow structure?
a child’s mind
is not that wide
They grow in stages, fucker.
did we forget
that they don’t get
the concept of adulthood?
so why are we force-feeding them?
they’re CHILDREN. Not just “Younger.”
They should not try and understand
before they’re done absorbing
that’s all they do
their “learning”
is remembering
not forming –
kids are ALWAYS thirsty
yet, we’re catering to hunger.
they’re fucked up little soldiers
just because they don’t KNOW better.

we’re breeding insecurity
to raise manipulators.

Myspace
Facebook
look at me, look at me!
THIS is who I am and this is who I’ll always be
Tell me what you want and I will be it thoroughly
But tell me secretly — I mean, I have a sense of self
(my Self is a conglomerate of everybody else)
we’ve come to trust the digital to
dangerous degrees
released our guard completely but
Why the hell wouldn’t we?
Our citizens confess their deepest thoughts regularly
expose themselves so easily
and quickly, if we’re lucky
anonymously
speak to us with familiarity –

Shouldn’t a network full of them
be fully trustworthy?

But see
The Internet
is not a network anymore
It’s life in different format
but it’s parallel to yours.

Our dating websites? Pixelated bars
populated
with the same people looking to get physically related;
our forums boards are schools of trust that
we participate in,
socialize
develop those “at-school” or “real-life” friendships;
Our search engines: our libraries.
Radio, deliveries,
they’ve found a way to replicate
our luxury and daily state. The difference is
new history: Each person has a story made.

We chronicle our lives
and crystallize
our permanent mistakes
and find ANOTHER way to leave behind
ANOTHER detailed stain
The biggest problem isn’t that
we’re running out of space –

We’re now AWARE
of our own selves
in every single way.
Society now asks us to
reflect that every day.

That’s great for exhibitionists like me,
(textibitionists) who update almost constantly
(I mean — it’s for YOUR sake)…
But what I didn’t see till now was that we’re ALL the same,
and sometime long ago
the separation fell away
We’ve taken what we learned from
all our profile updates and we
applied this new psychology
to REAL LIFE TODAY

And this is why I turn to every friend made
with suspicion:

Our generation
has MASTERED

the
Art

of First
Impressions

It’s not our fault, we’ve only learned
– absorbed –
what we have seen
survival of the fittest, this
is what you know of me
and we approach each other, because inevitably
we’ll run into each other in real life or fantasy,
and by the time we do collide
we’re trained to sense your needs
and edit our own flaws and bold our goods accordingly.

Since we do not quite know just yet
how bad this war will be,
I urge you to prepare yourself with proper weaponry
I cannot yet suggest which sword or pen you should select
but I can let you know which shield
would be the best defense…

I ask that you tread softly with
a sense of wariness.
not run with pure suspicion, but
take heed to sentiments.
It’s not her fault she’s different from
the girl that you first met
it’s not his fault he’s weaker than
you’d come to last expect

Every person living now
in Generation None
has layers — many layers
that take years to come undone

Every time this person lets
their grip slip on their guard
a whole new negative shines through
and hardens with the good
And what you may not realize
is that you do it too
as soon as you begin to trust
you give out something new.
Every time the air between
the two of you should change
you BOTH scramble subconsciously
and BOTH accommodate.

Do you see the
Catch-22?

what you must do
is understand
that people now TAKE TIME
to thoroughly reveal themselves
and trust from the INSIDE.

Don’t think you’re being lied to,
We’re not manipulators
we’ve simply fallen victim to
this new-age human nature
A self-defense response to our
insecurities, but
our own misunderstanding
asks the cycle to repeat…

On April 21, 2007, students at Turner County High School, in the small southern Georgia town of Ashburn, did what no former students had been able to do – the Kid ‘N Play with a student of the opposite race at the first integrated prom in the schools history. A good thing too, because the white students at the White’s only prom were screwing it up famously.

Prior to this year, Turner County High School decided to keep up with the thoughts and intentions of pre- (hell who are we kidding, post- too) antebellum Southern teachings of separate but “kinda” equal by having two separate proms: one for the white students and one for the Black students.

“It’s always been a tradition since my daddy was in school to have the segregated ones, and this year we’re finally getting to try something new,” said Lacey Adkinson, a freshman at TCHS. An anonymous student mentioned, though off the record, that they also decided that if it would save on the water bill, they’d try something new by letting the “coloreds” drink at the same water fountains, but walked away saying something about cooties.

Lacey’s older sister, Mindy, added, while wearing a shirt that said ‘Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are my Homeboys:’ “There was not anybody that I can remember that was black,” she said. “The white people have theirs, and the black people have theirs. It’s nothing racial at all.”

She added, “I mean, my best friend’s nanny is Black so it isn’t like we DON’T like them!”

Some of the students had been waiting for the opportunity to have an integrated prom for some time. One student, Senior Class President James Hall, echoed the same luminary dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King: “It’s been a dream of all of ours.”

Sweet dreams, James. Sweet dreams.

However, not everybody in Ashburn was ready to make that leap into the 21st century. Ohhhhh no. Despite having the first integrated prom in the school’s history, the white students still had a White’s only prom. One student, 18-year-old hopefully a senior Nichole Royal said that the Black students could have come but they didn’t.

“I guess they feel like they’re not welcome,” she said.

Um. Duh.

Nichols said while her parents were in support of the integrated prom, some of her friends weren’t allowed to go.

“If they’re not coming tonight it’s because either they had to work and they couldn’t get out of it or because their parents are still having an issue because they grew up in south Georgia,” she said.

All in all, the students and parents were more than happy to leave 1950 in the past and see what this whole “integrated dancing” thing was all about. Said one anonymous parent of a white student exhibiting acceptance, “I mean, we have to let ‘em learn together we might as well let ‘em dance together. Besides, them darkies got rhythm! You ever see that one boy, Michael Jackson? Yeee haw can he do a mean jig!”

Who knows what tomorrow will bring in this small south Georgia town. Maybe cell phones. Maybe light poles. That is unimportant as for the first time in TCHS’s history, the white students will actually have the proper guidance when DJ Unk’s “Walk It Out” comes on. And that is a victory for us all.

Original article can be found here. All quotes and italicized text come directly from the aforementioned article.

I believe it was one Mason Betha who brought back that feel good, slap happy styled music with his asstastic mess of a song, “Welcome Back“.

It is with this musical melage in mind (complete with horrible beat and Welcome Back, Kotter theme music in tow) that I’d like to welcome you back to part two of the first one and only, We The Voices.  And don’t worry, we’ll do all the clapping for ourselves.  In case you forgot (or didn’t know in the first place), we’re not only better than you, we’re not humble either.

Oh yeah, we lack tact as well.  But what do you expect, I wear my sunglasses at night and I smoke crack (with Whitney) in the bathroom.  Basically, I do what I want.

Yeah, I switched tenses in the middle of that last paragraph.  So what.  Re-read the last line of the last paragraph.  It’s not a game.  You see, now that we’re back we have some things we’d like to let you know.

For one, we’re not going away again.  B, we intend to be bigger and better than ever and hopefully see the small goals that we laid out in the first place make way for the bigger goals we didn’t even know he knew.  We have because we had and we do because we did.  We do this for our culture.  And we fully intend to return to doing this for our culture to let you know what we looked like when we wasn’t doing it for our culture but for our individual cultures, which if you add up altogether probably looks a lot like doing it for our culture.

Welcome back to part II.  Part 1 is dead and gone.  It’s a wrap, like MIMS career.  Sometimes you have to destroy and rebuild in order to maintain.  It’s been done.  We have done it.  We are back for the first time and hopefully this time can be our last first kiss.  From editorials to music to poetry to news you can (or cannot, we don’t discriminate) use, We The Voices is back in effect mode like Phife and Al B. Sure.  We’re here to entertain and to educate.  But we’re back because we are the streets.

Well, us and The Lox.  I cannot claim the streets first.  Besides, it’s been done.  We haven’t.  We are it.  It we are.  Are we it?

I just said it, damn.  Reading is fundamental.

We The Voices - where good things come to get greater.

It was written.

Enjoy.

Coming Soon!

As strong women, in order to be a survivor we must carry ourselves a certain way. We must always portray an attitude of confidence, intelligence, and most importantly security. We must always rise above the cattiness that may come with the hoe from around the corner who slips her phone number into our man’s pocket, or who asks us what store our shoes came from; only to mock us by saying we paid too much money for them and should have gone to Payless. The most attractive attribute women can carry these days is to be so sure of themselves, as far as where they came from and where they’re going, that they cannot be phased by pettiness and haterism from other women.
So I present to you a case study 101 for all you secure, confident women out there:

Would you be able to be survive being a member of Destiny’s Child?
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I know y’all are tired of them Maroon 5 and Coldplay CDs, right? You ready to expand your white world beyond John Mayer? Well, you know your boy gon’ take care of you. Here’s a list of white folks y’all should give a listen to. Initially, I tried to rank them in preferential order, but being that the music really is markedly different from artist to artist, I just couldn’t do it. Maybe after hearing them, you can rank them for me.
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