Supporters: 1. Become a Fan of Urban Teachers Network FB page! 2. Spread the word!
UTN active participants: 1. Become a Fan of Urban Teachers Network FB page! 2. Spread the word! 3. Start or join a regional UTN network.
We will also need regional facilitators to organize UTN support groups in their communities.
Regional Organizers: Contact us at UTN@hiphopcongress.com to express your interest in organizing a UTN support group in your community.
INFO: Hip Hop Congress (HHC) is a 501 (c) 3 Non Profit Corporation representing the merger of artists and students, music and community. The Hip Hop Congress mission is to use Hip Hop culture to inspire young people to get involved in social action, civic service, and cultural creativity.
As a national and international organization dedicated to its mission, Hip Hop Congress has chosen Education as a central initiative promoted by its artists, chapters, partners, and donors. As the educational system continues to fail American students (particularly low-income and students of color), alternative curriculum and solutions are needed.
From this emphasis, HHC is working to organize and support an Urban Teacher Network (UTN) where educators and youth mentors can form networks to share ideas, curriculum, and build after-school extracurricular and mentor programs for the youth they teach and reach. The UTN is also designed to be a space where teachers facing the daily challenges of their field can find comfort in the company and support of colleagues with similar experiences. UTN members will create regional support groups and meet regularly in order to build alliances and power in like-minded educators wanting to connect and build a movement to enrich the lives of urban youth inside and outside of the classroom.
Objectives include: 1. Creating an ongoing database of educators and mentors working directly with the youth in our communities. 2. Promoting urban arts education and hip hop pedagogy. 3. Sharing effective ideas: curriculum, extracurricular activities etc. 4. Creating digital classroom resources online where ideas can be shared with UTN members across the country. 5. Creating regional support groups where UTN members can meet on a regular basis. 6. Organizing UTN events outside of the classroom for students’ enrichment and ongoing mentoring.
Our urban arts education and outreach program offers the following components:
1. Hip Hop History. Classes and workshops on Hip Hop history as well as the social and political importance of hip hop to youth of color and urban communities.
2. Media Studies. Classes and workshops on critical media analyses, examining the images of people of color and women in media, specifically the hip hop industry. In analyzing media carefully, educators teach youth to be more critical consumers of media.
3. Performances and Interactive Workshops - Hip Hop Elements. HHC artists perform shows for youth as well as offer instructive workshops in various hip hop elements (emceeing/rapping, poetry, deejaying, graffiti art, and break-dancing). Through artistic expressions, youth will learn to express themselves creatively and constructively through positive outlets.
4. Community Activism. HHC members serve as mentors to youth promoting community activism and involvement in social and political issues affecting their lives. As well, existing HHC chapters will serve as advisors to youth wanting to start HHC community chapters.
5. Urban Teacher Network. Educators and mentors of youth in urban communities can form networks to share ideas, curriculum, build after-school extracurricular and mentor programs for the youth they reach.
We look forward to working with all dedicated to youth in need of mentoring and an education relevant to their lives. We are sure the youth will not only be enriched by these programs, but will be inspired by the teachers and mentors organizing on their behalves.
The second note was posted in honor of Dr. King on his holiday last month. In it I wrote about the efforts to pit Dr. King and Malcolm X against each other.
As we remember the assassination of Malcolm X 45 years ago today, i wanted to re-share a part of one note that highlighted the speech Malcolm X gave on liberals v. conservatives. While it is not one of his most popular speeches, I think it is one of the most relevant given today's political climate where the media continues to suck most into the traps of politrix.
Miseducation and the Divide and Conquer Strategy
Malcolm X and Dr. King Jr. were often (purposely) pitted against each other, forcing community members to pick a "leader" and "strategy". But the masses of our people loved both men because they recognized that both men loved them and wanted the same thing...our freedom.
When successful, this strategy of divide and conquer leads to a lack of focus where it becomes easy to be manipulated by political rancor.
This is no different than the tactics used to cause friction between Washington & DuBois and DuBois and Garvey...It is ironic that most who followed Garvey's philosophy believed BTW to be a sell out, when it was Washington's strategy that most influenced Garvey.
A friend of mine teaches in Black LA and most of her students know only the caricature of MLK Jr. the mainstream has created...They know "I have a Dream" MLK, but not "Stop the Vietnam War" MLK. And as incredible as it may seem, many don’t even know who Malcolm X is! One asked if he was an extreme sports star! We still do not know who our enemy really is...It reminds me of a quotation attributed to Black Panther Bunchy Carter where he explains that there should never be any hostilities between Black organizations because they are not our (BPP) enemy.
From Miseducation to Re-Education
Some may not have realized how similar MLK Jr. and Malcolm X were in their visions for our people.
I found this series and hope all will take a look:
It is very significant that Malcolm X reached out to MLK Jr. in his later years, going from calling MLK Jr. a pawn of white power structure to publicly recognizing that "Dr. King wants the same thing I want -- freedom!"
The Transformation: Early Malcolm X = The "white man pays Reverend Martin Luther King, subsidizes Reverend Martin Luther King, so that Reverend Martin Luther King can continue to teach the Negroes to be defenseless."
but in one of his last speeches Malcolm X goes to Selma to speak in front of SNCC and says this:
MALCOLM X: And I think that the people in this part of the world would do well to listen to Dr. Martin Luther King and give him what he's asking for and give to him fast before some other factions come along and try to do it another way. (February 4, 1965)
Given the context of their shared vision, I am reminded of Malcolm X's description of liberals, and their need to control black leaders in order to control the black community. From a 1963 speech Malcolm said:
"The white liberal differs from the white conservative only in one way: the liberal is more deceitful than the conservative. The liberal is more hypocritical than the conservative. Both want power, but the white liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negro’s friend and benefactor; and by winning the friendship, allegiance, and support of the Negro, the white liberal is able to use the Negro as a pawn or tool in this political “football game” that is constantly raging between the white liberals and white conservatives.
The white conservatives aren’t friends of the Negro either, but they at least don’t try to hide it. They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always aware of where he stands with them. But the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the “smiling” fox.
The job of the Negro civil rights leader is to make the Negro forget that the wolf and the fox both belong to the (same) family. Both are canines; and no matter which one of them the Negro places his trust in, he never ends up in the White House, but always in the dog house. (peep that carefully...lol)
The white liberals control the Negro and the Negro vote by controlling the Negro civil rights leaders. As long as they control the Negro civil rights leaders, they can also control and contain the Negro’s struggle, and they can control the Negro’s so-called revolt."
Are white liberals controlling US and undermining OUR revolt? Are we serving OUR communities and uniting OUR people or are we falling into the same old traps? By the look of things...i would say Politrix is alive and well.
Malcolm X Fought the Real War
The truth is we live now in a corporatist/fascist state where our "democratic elected representatives" are bought and sold, and without an active citizenry, this will remain the case. We also have to deal with the reality that even if we lived in a TRUE democracy where our representatives actually represented us and our interests, we live among a nation of millions that want to hold us back (PE).
Malcolm X's speech highlights the ongoing racial struggle in this country...the RACE WAR that has been at the center of this country from its founding to today.
With progress made, there is always backlash...
TO secure our freedom: 1. David Walker's Appeal (calling for enslaved Africans to secure freedom by any means) 2. Bacon's Rebellion (class based revolt)
BACKLASH: 1. racialization of slavery (from indentured servitude to slave for life) 2. black codes for non-enlaved AA
THEN WE: 1. Abolition movement to end slavery (from reform tactics like pressure though press and courts to radical revolts to moral religious tactics)..led to whole free state/slave state - congressional politics of representation 3/5 clause etc.
BACKLASH: SECESSION
THEN to secure freedom we: POST Civil War - RECONSTRUCTION ERA 1. Federal FREEDMAN'S Bureau 2. gains in education, land, and political representation
BACKLASH: 1. Domestic Terrorism, birth of KKK 2. Legalization of Jim Crow
THEN WE TRIED: 1. Booker T. - building institutions but not fighting racism, 2. DuBois - NAACP, tried reforming system, holding to its ideals, 3. Garvey - actually inspired by Booker T., self determination, building black institutions and economic empowerment with black money not white donors like Booker T. had
BACKLASH: 1. J Edgar Hoover hired first black agent to infiltrate UNIA. 2. Black leaders pitted against each other as tactic (Washington v. DuBOis, Garvey v. DuBois) 3. Internal strife (movements brought down from within/tactic used in revolts earlier too)
THEN we HAD: 1. CRM - Emmitt Till, montgomery bus boycott - masses organizing, SNCC, BPP, etc
BACKLASH: 1. COINTELPRO 2. MLK v. MALCOLM,take sides (tactic divide and conquer which Malcolm X later rejected)
THEN: hip hop - voice for youth coming of post-CR era
BACKLASH: commodified - frame one dimensional and sell for profit while reinforcing stereotypes..see BAMBOOZLED
THEN: OBAMA is elected in this country...lol
BACKLASH: 1. tea party 2. "liberal" squabbling on politics instead of organizing actions (which i argue is very purposeful and again refer to Malcolm X speech on foxes and wolves..liberals and conservatives)
I write all this to basically point out...we have to make sure we know not only WHAT we are fighting for...but WHO we are fighting FOR, and who we are fighting AGAINST...because there have been many times in history we have been pitted against each other as a tactic when we could have united and been a powerful force for our own freedom...we can either learn lessons of history, or continue to repeat them...Malcolm X understood this and it is why Black Nationalism remained his strategy to achieve human rights for all. He understood self determination was not just a strategy...it was the ONLY path to freedom.
"This is the time for the diaspora to step up...my urgency right now is a cry for freedom saying we really need a sate of emergency right now...i can't ask yall to help me if i don't help myself"- Wyclef Jean
"Unite; for combination is stronger than witchcraft." - Toussaint L'Ouverture
“I was born a slave, but nature gave me a soul of a free man….” - Toussaint L'Ouverture
“In overthrowing me, you have done no more than cut down the trunk of the tree of the black liberty in St-Domingue-it will spring back form the roots, for they are numerous and deep.” - Toussaint L'Ouverture
Thanks to all that tuned in last night to listen to the broadcast debut of Reality Matters. I appreciate all the love and positive feedback!
Please express your support for Reality Matters to become part of KPFK's regular weekly programming schedule by sending emails to KPFK's programming department at comments@kpfk.org.
If you missed the show last night, or want to hear it again, the podcast will be available for the next few weeks at the following link:
Tune in to the 1-hour pilot of my new hip hop talk show "Reality Matters" on KPFK, Pacifica Radio! KPFK serves the greater Los Angeles area and streams 24 hours a day via the internet, providing listeners with progressive and independent news, talk & music.
The pilot show features interviews from community artists and educators promoting activism through hip hop, progressive agendas, and hip hop pedagogy in communities and campuses across the country!
As the on-air host for "Reality Matters", my vision is to bring my Sociology and Hip Hop classes to the radio airwaves, providing critical analysis of current social issues through a hip hop lens. The goal is also to make stronger connections to the hip hop community, with the show as a platform to highlight and promote the work of local community activists and artists.
So tune in and support the show and I will continue to provide updates on upcoming broadcasts!
To comment or express your support for the show? Please send emails to: comments@kpfk.org
PILOT SHOW INFO:
Day: Tuesday 1/5/2010 Time: 11pm PST (1 hour) To Listen in Los Angeles: 90.7fm KPFK To Listen Live on the Web or access show archive: http://www.kpfk.org/
Re-Air Date: TBD but pilot will re-air in the next few days during an afternoon slot for daytime audience. When date is determined, I will post update.
Guests: Dr. Ayo Alabi, Professor of Sociology at Orange Coast College Dr. Ebony Utley, Professor of Communication Studies at California State University, Long Beach DLabrie, artist, president of RonDavoux Records, and national outreach coordinator, Hip Hop Congress Maurice "Soulfighter" Taylor, artist, Poetic Network, Community Against Hate, and east coast regional director, Hip Hop Congress Rahman Jamal, artist, educator and west coast regional director of Hip Hop Congress Sarah Harris, educator and board member, Hip Hop Congress
We are capable of bearing a great burden, once we discover that the burden is reality and arrive where reality is. – James Baldwin
Boogie down productions is made up of teachers The lecture is conducted from the mic into the speaker Who gets weaker? the king or the teacher Its not about a salary its all about reality Teachers teach and do the world good Kings just rule and most are never understood - KRS One
On the eve of a new year, I'd like to begin by offering peace and respect to everyone everywhere.While many are celebrating the holiday season, many more are suffering. Some are reflecting on the year gone by, while others are just praying the New Year will bring new possibilities for joy, peace, sustenance and justice.This is the time of year for reflection on the past and resolutions for the future. For me, this annual process led me to important questions. How can we make 2007 the year of sustainable change? What concrete steps can we take to address what ails our communities and our global village more broadly? Wherever we are in life, whether blessed or oppressed, affluent or struggling, the condition of the global village will directly affect us all sooner or later, and it is in our best interest to work towards sustainable change.
The first thing we must do is realize that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We can no longer wish for better and act the same, maintaining status quo by default. To get out of the hell that corporate greed, concentrated power, western imperialism, religious fanaticism, and “ideology over reality” have created, we must get specific about what it will take to realize people power. "It is not enough to be compassionate, you must act" (14th Dalai Lama, 1992). And here are a few specific things you can do:
1. Pick one local issue and one global issue that you will educate your self about and stay informed!
2. Join two organizations
3. Mentor one child (For parents, mentor your children fully and completely).
4. Sign at least one petition a month.
5. Recognizing that all media is framed (left/right, conservative/liberal), get your news from multiple media sources. By doing this, you will learn to separate facts from ideology.
6. Attend three community meetings or rallies a year or volunteer at community service centers at least three times a year.
7. Be a conscious consumer.
8. Vote.
9. Make a sincere effort to communicate across class, color and generational lines.
10. FORGIVE.
The essay goes into more detail for each point, so please go to the title link above to read it in its entirety.
As the ball dropped on 2009, millions listened and sang along to this song...it has become the "THEME" of renewed hope in humanity to start each new year...so for today and everyday, let's celebrate the infinite possibilities humanity brings...year in and year out...
This essay has been a concept for months, but the recent political rancor has forced me to finally sit down and write. I needed to find a way to cut through the rhetoric and get to the reality.
Those that have tried to debate religion know it is an exercise in futility. Talking politics has become as meaningless. People are so fixated on position, principle, or ideology, they forget reality.
As a social scientist, I believe in social facts. Everything is not debatable. For example, poverty exists. People try to debate why it exists...but there is an answer to that too that has to do with finite resources unevenly distributed through historical oppression where the wealth gained by a few came from the exploitation & poverty of the many - a two-sided coin (short answer).
Unfortunately, we have allowed everything to be about perception...but...reality matters...and it always will.
This essay is a lesson in the reality of politics in this country, and I think it is important to lay out the facts clearly. There is no point on debating questions that have answers and continue to focus on "what ifs" when our time would be better spent developing strategies to deal with "what is". Most energy on the blogosphere and in political debate right now centers on the deception of Obama. Instead of being the "change" many believed they were voting for, Obama is now widely criticized for being anything from "status quo" to the "ultimate deception". The criticism leveled on him is intellectually dishonest because Obama is following the same script he has since the first speech that put him on the national stage in 2004.
The theme of that speech was "Out of Many, One".
Here are some revealing excerpts:
OBAMA: It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family: "E pluribus unum," out of many, one.
Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.
Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America.
There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America.
The pundits, the pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.
We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states.
There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.
We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?
Like most Obama speeches, it reveals exactly who Obama is and how he leads...i think this is what has been so ironic about the Obama debate...he is definitely a politician but a pretty transparent one that has been clear in terms of his philosophical bend but pragmatic approach to leadership and politics. The America he describes does not exist, but politically it is the only America any leader can address...the center. He has always tried to play down differences and speak to commonalities because that is the only winning position politically and electorally.
The reality is America could not be more disunited, with segments of the population having polar interests and objectives. And it is this reality all need to accept if we ever want to progress.
The Green: Fascism in the 21st Century
In reality, monied interests have controlled governments throughout history (even so-called "democracies" like the United States) , but the latest health care reform debate has been a glaring example of how little respect is given to the "will of the people". Despite a majority favoring a public option, the bill as it stands will not only not include a public option, but will be most favorable to insurance companies that have lobbied Congress and the President.
The Bailout of Wall Street is the most glaring example. The economy now constantly threatened by the collapse of banks "too big to fail"...so today we have socialism for corporate capitalists (public funds used to save private entities - a big no no in capitalism) only for these same private entities to turn around and lobby our elected "representatives" to make sure we don't get to use our money on ourselves for things like education, universal health care, etc...bail out for them...great...services for us...bad.
The GREEN is the smallest minority by number but most powerful by resources.
REALITY #1 = This is a fascist state w/ monied interest controlling governments...6% controlling 60% of resources 94% having everything to fight for but very little to fight with...
REALITY #2 = In electoral politics, politicians speak to the masses (red, white and blue) about common dreams to get their votes, but the green control the purse strings so NO THIRD PARTY CANDIDATE HAS A CHANCE (unbought candidate) unless monied interest are removed from the process.
The Red: Guardians of White Supremacy, Pseudo-Morality, & Free Markets
There is a strong minority here that have bought into this system completely. They do not have the power, but they have gained something from it....privilege...and they do not want to give that up. In order to protect that privilege, they fight change and protect the status quo. They espouse "tradition" over progress and "values" over change. Would they benefit from progressive change? Absolutely...but this is the man who votes against his interest and supports corporate interest in order to maintain white privilege... Universal Health Care and distribution of wealth would be better for he and his family, but instead he chooses to support a system that gives him nothing but has taught him that his skin color alone makes him something.
REALITY #3 = Changing a system many will lie and die to preserve is a continuous struggle. It will not be solved by a revolution, or a radical leader, or progressive policies...until the hearts and minds of this group change, progress on a macro scale will take the form of a constant battlefield (See Fire Next Time). There will be no forfeit. Know the game, and play to win...or suffer defeat. Right now the red is playing the game better than the blue...They know the season does not end with one game...and when this season does ends, there will be another one to get ready for next year.
The White: The Neutral and/or Neutralized Masses
The vast majority of people need better but are invested on some level in status quo. They have been neutralized through survival, media manipulations, and some level of comfort that comes from the known, no matter how difficult the known may be.
Consciousness and activism are luxuries all can hardly afford. When survival is your game, there is no time, energy, or possibility to fight the power! And of course, the system knows that and uses that to keep the masses in check. It is the ultimate paradox...To truly live, we must fight, but to truly fight we must be able to live...and right now, most are not living...most are existing...surviving...neutralized.
Those that may be able to live, learn and grow must survive the constant assault on reality by media. For the masses, media does not reflect reality, it defines it. Corporate interests and status quo power structure use media to manipulate thought processes. Hegemonic ideas are sold...what we should do, like, eat, support, not support, etc. The media controls information so the "white" masses will never be able to learn things they never get exposed to, or support what they never get to see.
Then there is the fact that the majority of those in THIS country are actually OK with status quo...because when we see social inequality as a two sided coin, one's advantages as reaped by other's disadvantages, the U.S. population is on the advantaged side of the equation and are not ready or willing to give up the status that they have become accustomed to....Most in this country don't SEE the world the way progressives see it...Malcolm X said it best at the end of this clip:
"they won't even admit the knife is there"...THIS IS MASS AMERICA...
Martin Luther King Jr. recognized the same REALITY when he spoke to the greatest threat to civil rights for African Americans not being the KKK but the majority that sit comfortably and silently at home doing nothing...non-action. Ignorance is truly bliss for many. But as James Baldwin so eloquently reminds us, it is "the innocence that constitutes the crime".
REALITY #4 = In this case, white does not represent a race...it's a position...neutral; and the majority of people who have some ability to make change just don't. Inaction on the part of the masses for a multitude of reasons (some outlined above) is the REAL reason things stay the same.
The election of Obama (a black man in this racist country) is a symbol of the possibilities of what can happen when masses unite (whether he himself = change or not). ...so masses vote and believe their part is done and now it is up to the elected leaders to "bring change". But Carter G. Woodson details how this western thinking was part of our miseducation in his classic text, The Miseducation of the Negro. Masses have been taught to accept their powerlessness; that they have no power to change things and must depend on leaders (white supremacists). It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because when leaders do not bring change, masses become more cynical and disengaged believing they tried to elect change but got more of the same...but the problem is change does not come from an act like "voting"(noun)...it comes from acting (verb). It is a state of being, not a finite action. It is understanding that change comes from us...and we are all we need if we seize that power...be the change.
The Blue: The Fragmented Left of Principled Idealists, Self -Righteous Elitists and Radical Revolutionaries (with no armies)
As someone who philosophically agrees with the progressive agenda, it pains me to disagree with their strategies. What i am trying to get folks to do is stop asking questions that are answered and doing the same thing expecting different results, and this is what progressives continue to do.
Staying ideologically pure with principles without strategy is what i would call "theory"...theory can provide answers to questions (like why is there poverty) but it never gets someone out of poverty until it is put into "praxis"..and praxis is a very different mechanism...not so clean because the real world is not a controlled laboratory and dealing with the realities as they are becomes a part of the solution...there is no way around that truth...
So for example, in this health care debate, the principled idealist will accept nothing other than a public option or single payer...and blame "leadership" (Obama specifically, Congress more generally) for not getting it done. They ignore the green, red, and most importantly "white" constituents of America...They expect politicians to act on principle and not reality of how they get and hold power, green lobbyists pulling their purse strings and white and red America not wanting any radical change in reality.
So for politicians, they alienate a fringe movement from the process, who they want to alienate anyway (sidenote: I started this essay before Rahm Emmanuel's remarks about the left but it just reinforces my point here)...they do not want the fringe minority to organize the masses.
So little gets done in Washington which successfully keeps masses disengaged (proving time and time again that Washington is broken so the majority don't bother to pay attention). Only a minority bother to vote anyway (what is it 30-40%?) and in between voting every four years disengage from the process altogether...And this is sold to us as democracy? Again, reality matters.
As I said in a previous essay, blaming a politician for being a politician is as effective to me as blaming a dog for barking...it is what they do...who they are.
Progressives on blogs and FB mad or disappointed in Obama for not being a principled strong leader are being disingenuous. The reality is Obama is doing exactly what Obama said he would do..be a pragmatic leader of all Americans. Change was never going to come from him, and to his credit, he has said that on many occasions as well. Maybe his pragmatism will actually anger people into action...and we will finally see real change...time will tell.REALITY #5 = If Obama ran on a progressive platform he would not have won because active progressives in this country are a minority. When will this reality ever be addressed??
Most in this country support the status quo actively or by default (via inaction). That is why a truly progressive leader (like a Cynthia McKinney for example) has no chance of winning in THIS country. If we are intellectually honest AND really want to find a way to foster a progressive movement, this reality can no longer be ignored.
Then there is the radical wing of the blue who understand the system was never for us and know change can't come from it. I completely agree with this analysis, but again disagree with the strategy. The revolutionaries or rebels without an army of masses behind them will not see change either...that is the state of the radical movement right now...they are fringe..and instead of trying to reach the community where they are, like the Black Panther Party did, progressives today choose to dismiss the masses for "buying into the hope Obama sold them" and would rather just bemoan the imperial system ...foster their own intellectual elitism by espousing critical analysis of the system but in that... CHANGE NOTHING...they have no foot soldiers. I know this to be true because I am around both the "activists" and "regular community folks". Black/Brown working folks for the most part are not actively supporting or rejecting Obama. They are doing what they usually do: surviving. But interestingly enough, they have harsher words for Obama haters than they do Obama. To their credit, they know one man is not their problem. They know the system is, and they want and need community support.
REALITY #6 = Knowing the problem is one thing. Solving the problem will take more than a pointed finger. Your energy is better spent organizing and serving our communities in need than bemoaning the system and leaders you supposedly don't believe in anyway.
I wonder if the energy we spend debating would not be better spent acting...serving our communities...looking in the mirror.
MJ...you had that right. RIP.
REALITY # 1-INFINITY =
"The time has come. This is It. People are always saying.. 'Oh they, they'll take care of it.' 'The government will do it. They'll' ...They who? It starts with us. ..it's US. Or else it'll never be done."- Michael Jackson
"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
"You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people." - Cornel West
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” - Frederick Douglass
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.” - Frederick Douglass
"Who gets weaker? the king or the teacher Its not about a salary its all about reality Teachers teach and do the world good Kings just rule and most are never understood" - KRS One
"We are capable of bearing a great burden, once we discover that the burden is reality and arrive where reality is." – James Baldwin
It's time to arrive where reality is...one of these days we will have no choice.
