can u dig it

I lied. Looks like the enthusiasm of hustler genes revisited conglomerated in my being will have me talk about something a little bit more, meaning I’m finna (i'm country) talk about loot again, and its accumulation there of, in ways that impose upon thinking and personal communal responsibility. And communal responsibility being that which shows no harm, that which elevates and drop that hammer of beneficence on a (I wont say).

And as I said before, me and mine, folk that is, is a tight set. I mean especially the Memphis Cats, Morehouse Alum, or fellow pay your own self folk. Whether they be white black, Jew, Christian or what have you. See we are protective, and basically know that we are few in number as the knights of Templar or the Dogon Priest that protected the temples (libraries) of Timbuktu.

We extend our selves in life to extend the olive branch first as opposed to extending a weapon of calamity such as the Axe (my preference followed by hammers). As such we are protective of one another as bonded by our personal obligation to our community, family being first.

With that said, my folk from the crib and who attended Morehouse with me stopped by my shop. Heard from him recently when he left a comment on my post GIVING WINGS TO ANGELS. We greeted, drank, chiefed and talked.

First I never realized how many folks watched the WIRE, and how one video clip that he described to me of a cat executing jones in his store, could get folks so upset. Me never seen the show. Second, never new how much love so many folk had for folk here. He said I was like “Malcolm X King Jr.” and that I was a rare breed and that kats from the crib and especially Morehouse wasn’t gone be with Petsmart no more but that they were “T-smart” now. He peeped the spot and said I was like the dope man and had the corner on lock and that cat’s aint on thinking like this. He also dropped 200 plus on food and clothes and in particular an 85$ hand-made studded collar.

As we talked, before he left the convo went something like this.

Folk: “Jones, you hit it mane, this the lick. You got the perfect place and you got the corner on lock, you like the Omar of the dog world.”

Me: “Straight, good look folk – Bald fist dap.”

Folk: Jones, you the Omar of the dog world, except you got no comp.”

Me: Laughing.

Folk: Jones, we got your back, let the haters hate; they don’t know how we get down. You got me to hit them books. I’ve been in business for myself for 9 yrs now.”

Me: “I see like that Black range Rover.”

Folk: For real though Jones, cause I live in Marietta, I’m coming back, and you serving free wine, don’t need no Liquor License for that. A head of the game folk.

Me: Brain cells jones.”

Folk: I’m coming back, hold it down, Omar – can you dig it?”

Me: Stood up, put gat in back of my pants, Bald fist dap. “Alright Love, good look folk.”

Folk: “high post bruh, higher than most”

Me: “Think about it, Special Ed.”

He made me smiled. So fellows, represent. If I succeed u succeed. If I fail, you fail. Let’s hold hands, talk to each other and put it on the table. Let’s hold down the fort and make certain that we all eat, that we all provide and that we all give. Let’s handle ours first, in our homes in our schools, PTA’s and take control of what is really real – and aint talking reality TV, lottery tickets or the NBA finals (but ‘m down with that too).

And I aint just talking to the African American men, You white men (in the case of buelah man a self professed redneck-lol), Asians, Africans, Caribbean’s or what have you. Let us represent as men folk. Let us show government and big business America is not one spelled with three Ks in substitution of the C, but a stalwart for family, family rule, and that neighborhoods rock – dude.

They on the other team

I know that many of us are still steamed over the comments made by Don Imus regarding the 2007 women’s Basketball runner-up Rutgers University Lady Scarlet Knights. I also know many of us are fumed over his awkward attempt to shift the blame to African American men, especially rappers for the manner I which they often vilify and degrade our sisters. Not me , at least for the time being, for a Wood is a wood is a wood and since the Knights of Templar and even Rome, history shows us that “these folks” have never thought highly of our greatness – so I do not expect them to.

I would however like to give an example of this; a heinous example of how black and swarthy is associated with bad, evil and vile and is manifested in common thought as presented by the mainstream culture and media. In March of this year, the New York Post ran an article that started with the caption: “Should a couple be entitled to sue because a fertility clinic mistakenly impregnated the woman with sperm other than her mate's?”

Now under normal circumstance, this is a no brainier, given the complications of invitro fertilization in general. However, the issue was raised specifically because it was stated that a Hispanic woman and white man were “devastated - after a black baby” was born to the couple. As a result, the couple has revealed it will file a law for a mistake made during in-vitro conception. When Jessica Andrews was born, it was noticed that she was much darker (black). The physician, Martin Keltz, said that the child’s condition an "abnormality," and said that she would "get lighter over time." However, DNA testing showed hat the child was not the product of the husband’s sperm.

The parents say they “love Baby Jessica” yet at the same time describe her as a “terrible mistake” and are reminded of such “each and every time we look at her."

Then there is the issue of what has happened in Paris, Texas, where 15-year-old Shaquanda Cotton was sentenced to seven years in prison for pushing a hall monitor at her high school. Now this is a child with no prior history of bad behavior but Judge Chuck Superville of Lamar County convicted Shaquanda of “assault on a public servant" and sent her to prison at least until she turns 21. The strange this is that this is the same judge who three months earlier that awarded a 14-year old white girl probation for burning down her parents home intentionally (arson is a felony). The same judge also gave probation to a 19-year old white male who was convicted of killing a 54-year-old Black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck. The Judge just requested that he send the family a Christmas card every year.

Although Ms. Cotton is no longer in jail, its just the simple fact that it happened in the first place that is deplorable. So, I write this to say that this is America and regardless of it being 2007, the history of this country was founded on the oppression and maltreatment of folks that look like me. Don Imus is no different and is a part of the same culture ergo, it don’t even strike me as unusual that he would see women matriculating at the college level as nappy headed hoes, for he likely sees all African American women as such. Fuck Don Imus and all the Woods, they have never been on my team.

Kafkaesque

When I think of the current political climate in the U.S. with wars abroad and creeping protectionism, it almost seems surreal. I think that may be they way these neo-conservatives want it. Given their impetuous focus on preemption, regime change and benevolent hegemony, it is only logical that they continue to distort what is actually going on in the world around us in an effort to front as if what they do serves American best interest.

Such ideological predominance makes it seems that foreign policy is rooted on fake moral imperatives that only a few select folks seem to gain benefit from. By invading Iraq, the Bush administration created a problem they said they were trying to abate: they managed to make Iraq the new bastion for terrorism. I still cannot see how these folks concluded that democracy in the Middle East would be the solution to ending terrorism? This is the dumbest shit I have ever heard since Santa Claus.

This concept of benevolent hegemony is another errant concoction. The assumption is that America is benevolent, which is absurd in itself, as if a country founded on slavery and sustained on racist principles can be virtuous, incorruptible, inculpable, and/or righteous in the first place.

We need to re-think our foreign policy approach and do so quickly before we see more of our homeboys going off to foreign lands to fight wars that we gain no betterment from, as if they were the foreign legion protecting the great imperial nation state of America. Having no articulated approach to our foreign policy, especially in the Arab/Islamic regions of the world is another reflection of how little we know or care for what other think and borders on being Kafkaesque.

I suggest this because the Bush Administration has presented a distorted view of actually how dangerous folks in the Middle East are towards us. It’s not like it is anything new, in fact I would note that these views have been consistent since the Knights of Templar and the establishment of Israel. The terms come from the famous writer Frantz Kafka, who wrote two of my favorites (the penal colony and metamorphosis). Franz Kafka was one of the most influential writers of this century. His works were not even published until after his death and often presented a picture of a belligerent and detached world. This is the kind of world I presume President Bush projects based on his approach (if any) to foreign policy alone.