The Blame Game pt. 2♥

It’s amazing to me that the race card is even thrown out in cases like this. Amazing, but not surprising. In my opinion, there is no Black community White community. It's all about the Green community. Money is the root of all evil, and at the end of the day, our world is all about economic class. There’s rich people, well-to-do people, poor people, and the people who are even poorer than that. People who are on the street, battling drug addictions and accompanying prostitution habits to support these addictions. The dismissed and forgotten. Depending on where you live, this may include people of ANY race. Black does not always = Poor.


We’d like to place the blame every and anywhere else, but it all starts in our homes and our communities. The devaluation of a Black woman’s life is blatantly obvious in the case of Cleveland’s little house of horrors. Why? Because 11 women don’t simply disappear. 11 women are dismissed and forgotten as we go on about our lives, all because they were just some “crack bitches”. Read the link before you come at me all crazy. Yes, this is someone’s family, but to those politicians, rich people, well-to-do people sitting in their nice warm homes watching the news, these are just a bunch of street women. If we want the world to see our value, maybe we should try seeing it in each other first. I'd hate to see someone I know personally on that list of victims, and I'd hate for my name to end up on a list like it. We've already lost so many lives to violence. Especially violence within our own "community".


Like it or not, let’s all start being real with ourselves for once. The reason this bastard was able to kill however many women (because everything inside me tells me that these 11 women were not his only victims) is not because the media paid no attention. He got away with it for this long because he systematically selected what our society sees as street women. As mentioned, I’m from Cleveland. I come from a home with a nosy grandma who peeps out the window constantly, watching what’s going on in our neighborhood. You can't tell me that there's not at least one neighbor on this street who saw and knew everyone's business. Where were the neighbors who saw these women going into the house of horrors, and never coming out? Women he lured in with drugs and alcohol, and women who had already been either partly or fully in the streets. ..He knew that no one would come looking for these women. And whether we’ll admit it or not, he was right. It's no secret that the relationship between lower socioeconomical neighborhoods and law enforcement isn't nearly up to par. This, however, would not deter me when it came to someone's life. How many police reports and missing persons reports were filed? Were the reports that were filed taken seriously? We as a community, and as a city owe it to these women to WAKE UP and realize that if we wanna place blame, we need to rightfully do so. Blame the politicians. Blame the media. Blame the Cleveland Police Department. But most of all, blame ourselves. Because all the signs were there.
x0x0♥

Cha Ching, Mommy! ♥

What is going on with these spoiled ass kids today??? When did toddlers become high maintenance??? Lol!
I’m watching Divorce Court yesterday, and the couple consisted of a woman who CLEARLY had gold-digger tendencies, and a guy who apparently bought her love in the first place. The guy, nevertheless, seemed to be a good man and a great father to their 4-year old daughter and even younger son.
The wife was just a hot-ass mess altogether, and just when I thought I was too done with her, she opened her mouth and revealed that 1) her 4-year old daughter had a cell phone {insert side eye} and 2) aforementioned daughter wanted a credit card. Something is really wrong when your child even knows what a credit card is before they’ve even hit kindergarten. I’m still afraid of credit cards and I’m a senior in college! Oh, but don’t worry… Mommy promised toddler that she couldn’t have the credit card until she turned FIVE! Smh…
What are people teaching their daughters these days? I won’t even get on the sons, that’s a whole ’nother blog. But as women, why don’t people realize that everything you do, your daughters will absorb and store in their memories. Whether they want to or not. All the things you think kids don’t pay attention to, or won’t remember…think about the things you remember from your own childhood. You were pretty young, weren’t you? So why is it hard to believe that you’re presenting your daughters with the first script they’ll ever read as to how to conduct themselves as ladies? We have got to do better…
I have a cousin who is 5 years younger than me, and was the sweetest thing you could have ever met. Until her father re-entered the picture and began to spoil her rotten. She’s still got a hint of the sweetness, but now she’s 16, has had her own car for over a year (minus the license), will not wear anything that isn’t designer, and is currently driving her father’s Range Rover. In the last couple years, she’s become one of “those” girls. You went to high school…you know what I mean. What’s wrong with this pic?
What values are your daughters learning when credit cards and shopping sprees replace quality time and family activities? My only hope for my cousin is that she doesn’t grow up as the type of woman who believes she’s not supposed to work for anything, and who will only be with a man for the material things he can provide, forgetting about the love and affection that should come with any relationship.
x0x0♥

Bitches & Sisters (continued)♥

Artists quickly defend criticism of hip-hop, stating that it’s strictly for entertainment, and I agree. When people discovered they could make money off of hip-hop, the commercialization changed a lot of aspects for the worst. Few “artists” really make music for the sake of expressing emotion and thoughts anymore. Even aspiring rappers interviewed in Byron Hurt’s documentary pointed out that the reason so few artists make what we call 'conscious hip-hop' music is because no one buys it. Of course, there are people who purchase the works of Common, Talib Kweli, and the like...but commercially promoted artists sell much more. All this speaks to the financial security that the Black man has been stripped of since arriving in America, and has been fighting to regain ever since.
The almighty dollar is the bait, and it’s being taken hook, line, and sinker due to the “by any means necessary” mentality that is running rampant in the industry. The crazy part is that you can’t even place blame for this phenomenon. Yes, artists make the music. Yes, higher-up businesspeople run the financial and commercial aspects. Yes, we as consumers purchase the music. No one particular group is to blame…and the problem is that everyone wants someone to blame.
For awhile now, White people have pointed the finger at hip-hop for some of the negative aspects of today’s world. As if violence, drugs, and misogyny only exist within the walls of hip-hop. What’s funny is that today, their (White) children are the main ones purchasing hip-hop music. The same music that Mommy and Daddy are criticizing is blasting through their children’s earbuds everyday…tsk tsk…
x0x0...because despite all the B.S., I Still Lover H.E.R.♥

Bitches & Sisters♥

I attended a conference at my university a couple weeks ago, which covered subjects such as prostitution, human trafficking, abuse, and the like. During one session, we watched Byron Hurt's documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes. I'd seen the documentary a few semesters ago, in my African-American Culture course. The film was just as good the second time around...
A scene that really stands out to me captures Byron's interview with spring breakers walking on the streets of Daytona. He asked guys how they felt about hip-hop lyrics referring to females as bitches and hoes, and he asked women how they felt about being referred to as bitches and hoes. One woman's reply ran somewhere along the lines of "I know they're not talking to me personally, so it doesn't matter." This is a view that many of us share, living in this desensitized world that we live in. After awhile, it becomes hard to ignore the level of misogyny that appears in today’s hip-hop music.
I, personally, do not feel targeted by hip-hop lyrics. As a woman, I understand the argument that when rappers refer to women as bitches and hoes, this is applying a blanket term to us, our mamas, daughters, sisters, cousins, neices, etc. I don’t agree with the misogyny, but I do recognize that for some reason this is what consumers of hip-hop music collectively pay money for, and at the end of the day these artists will do what they need to do and say what they need to say to get paid. Masculinity in our society is defined by how much money a man makes, how aggressive he is, and how many hoes he can get. Why should hip-hop reflect any thing different? Not defending this, just recognizing it for what it is. I believe Jeff Johnson said it best: "Don't blame hip-hop for society's sexism"...
My opinion: we can’t complain and be taken seriously unless we’re serious about it. We hear misogynistic music everyday. What do we do? We nod our heads to it in the car, or shake our asses to it at the club. We download it. We buy it. We burn it. We CONSUME it. If the misogyny hurts your feelings that bad, its on YOU to stop buying it, listening to it, watching it, reading it, and consuming it. It can be done. There are plenty of other options to listen to, watch on TV, and read. Until we can take a steady stand and say NO to misogyny, I think this is one aspect of the hip-hop culture that we’ll just have to deal with. I don’t foresee it going anywhere any time soon, especially if that’s what brings the money in…
x0x0♥