You, You, and I Back together again. You know love will last forever. Whatcha mean!!! Back together!!!
Enough!! Enough!!! of the Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack, but let it be known that these individuals have influenced my young soul a time or two.
Hello Houston!!!! Shout out to the 713, 281, and the infamous 832 area codes. You know its a shame we dont talk as much but I am trying to get my life straight ya know. Its alright if you are a little behind the times but overall you are still solid and true to me. Now lets have a conversation about some serious matters. Matter afact lets talk about Houston.
What is always going to be with me is the story of a garrison of black soldiers killing 27 Houston Police Department officers. As tragic as it may seem I am, for the most part, behind the soldiers attempts to fight racial oppression but the fact they were hanged and the history behind the event buried, makes me sad for up and coming young brown folks in Houston that deal with the oppressions on a daily basis.
Well this post will be the start of my attempt to uncover hidden histories of Houston, Texas.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
I have been doing alot of thinking after reading Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe. It make me think about my experience at Texas Southern and my attempt to understand myself as a black man in America. I gained alot from TSU but I feel that really didnt have a place their. Educationally I didnt learn a thing but the people, or real human interaction, was amazing. The friends I grew up with were turning out to be nothing more that fuck ups in life. Most of them were white, privileged and had no sense of what life was really about. Fucked up situations would happen challenging my status as a black man in whatever subcultural we subscribed too and many of times they just hid while i took some kind of shot in my mind or mouth.
At TSU I had the opportunity to come across a Marxist professor and he told me that I was abusing my privilege by coming to Texas Southern. At the time I didn't understand what he meant but as I look at what privilege in a society means, my reasons for being at TSU were totally different from for the majority of kids. Now I think back and remember seeing other kids in my position but like them I was try to shake off the white influence in my life. Yet, the more I think about it I was more like the white man than I was black. This was due to the way I treated TSU. For me, school was a breeze. Not challenging but the interactions of people made it out to be some kind of zoo. Class was like any other class but outside of it I studied the interactions of people hoping to be accepted but also reconfirm whatever notion of class that I had developed over the years. The fact I referred to people in terms such as those kind of people, and you know how they act, proves how I knew about class but it was a game to me or a minstrel show.
Plus, also to aid to my privilege I had this revolutionary spirit that TSU could not accommodate. For one I came into situations knowing more than most people, or thought so, thinking that I was going to be this savior of black people at Texas Southern. This was all good and well but it fostered divisions amongst me and the majority of the TSU student population. I thought I was all alone in my thoughts but actually I wasn't and in my second year I came across the Texas Southern Student Government Association(SGA). For the first time I felt I had a home at TSU but my involvement within the group turned out to be one of my greatest mistakes for my self and my education. Within TSU exist deep seeded hierarchies that had been in place since the schools beginnings. Like many Black Colleges, Texas Southern's commitment to educating Black people were based in educating the emerging Black middle class. After World War the G.I. Bill established a link for people to be educated and thus think no more of low end pay. This is a very simplist view and I am not offering all sides but by giving access to education GIs the seed was planted for a more broad base consumer class that would develop out of the suburban explosion of the 1950's.
SGA at historical black colleges have had a long history of housing future leaders of society. But the flaws of SGA mirror that of the larger city,state, and federal governments. SGA at TSU housed the educated elite of the school. People who were ahead of the game in class found a place for their voice in SGA. There need for change and to create a better TSU was on part of thier own privilege in seeing the faults of TSU like myself. Their was a general notion among my counterparts that the main problem with TSU was lack of Money, and the Nigga problem.
The money issue that plagued TSU was a combination of things, but to summarize, Since integration their has been a steady decline in enrollment as Black colleges. Integration after the Civil rights movements virtually overnight made Black Colleges obsolete. Their was no need to educate the Black if apartheid was no more. Yet, TSU found a purpose that could became a staple for the future. If the need to Educate Blacks was out the door why not provide an opportunity to educate the Poor? This is were TSU found its second purpose but this was flawed also. The education of the poor to standards developed by the elite is problematic. First it makes turning back to the poor impossible or merely charity. Second it diminishes any notion of the class divide and creates a person who behaves or things of him or herself as a middle class person. Overall it breaks down whatever solidarity that could be build between classes and puts blacks who are not educated into one group and the others into a so called "higher class."
This right here is the nigga question that plagues the SGA elite and Black middle class of 3rd ward. What to do with people who dont want to help themselves? To understand this we have to look at the educational system of TSU and university across the country as a whole.
for And like many things in life the economic factors inhibited TSU from being an institution that promoted freedom of thought. Principle of Economics, intro level business, etc.. wasn't really geared at a benefit to society. It more or less was a avenue to reinforce the status quotue of society. I read about times in TSU's history where people came together to stop massive economic, racial, eviornimental, gender injustices that were taking place in 3rd World. I look back on the TSU riots and how the school came together along with the peoples of 3rd ward to stop the City from dumping garbage in the area. This is the history of a people working together before integration. What took place with the civil rights movements created a slate for globalization world wide. We as a black people were a third world country living within America. We had black markets of our own, that may have not made as much as the white version, but allowed us subsistence without jimcrow America. We were making head way with manufacturing jobs and overall black life was reaching a different standard away from the mainstream white way of life. Yet, the south needed racial,social,gender liberation not economic. Integration forced black markets to compete wtih white markets and we lost out in the long run. We never dealt with the self hate that plagued our hearts. The fact a group of well to do black men and women became the face of the civil rights movement, mean that our advancement would mirror the so called "Third World advancements." To quote Chinua Achebe, "You see, they are not in the least like ourselves (niggas). They don't need and can't use the luxuries that you and I must have. They have the animal capacity to endure the pain of, shall we say, domestication. The very words the white master had said in his time about the black race as a whole. Now we say them about the poor." This self hate which is rooted in the western ideas of class, was so rampant among black folks when the NOLA peoples came to Houston. Many saw them as a sub-human group of people. I for one tried to challenge this but I was unable to materialize my own thoughts on the matter. I knew it was wrong but I couldn't draw more than the white man's way, when I drew up conclusions.
At TSU I had the opportunity to come across a Marxist professor and he told me that I was abusing my privilege by coming to Texas Southern. At the time I didn't understand what he meant but as I look at what privilege in a society means, my reasons for being at TSU were totally different from for the majority of kids. Now I think back and remember seeing other kids in my position but like them I was try to shake off the white influence in my life. Yet, the more I think about it I was more like the white man than I was black. This was due to the way I treated TSU. For me, school was a breeze. Not challenging but the interactions of people made it out to be some kind of zoo. Class was like any other class but outside of it I studied the interactions of people hoping to be accepted but also reconfirm whatever notion of class that I had developed over the years. The fact I referred to people in terms such as those kind of people, and you know how they act, proves how I knew about class but it was a game to me or a minstrel show.
Plus, also to aid to my privilege I had this revolutionary spirit that TSU could not accommodate. For one I came into situations knowing more than most people, or thought so, thinking that I was going to be this savior of black people at Texas Southern. This was all good and well but it fostered divisions amongst me and the majority of the TSU student population. I thought I was all alone in my thoughts but actually I wasn't and in my second year I came across the Texas Southern Student Government Association(SGA). For the first time I felt I had a home at TSU but my involvement within the group turned out to be one of my greatest mistakes for my self and my education. Within TSU exist deep seeded hierarchies that had been in place since the schools beginnings. Like many Black Colleges, Texas Southern's commitment to educating Black people were based in educating the emerging Black middle class. After World War the G.I. Bill established a link for people to be educated and thus think no more of low end pay. This is a very simplist view and I am not offering all sides but by giving access to education GIs the seed was planted for a more broad base consumer class that would develop out of the suburban explosion of the 1950's.
SGA at historical black colleges have had a long history of housing future leaders of society. But the flaws of SGA mirror that of the larger city,state, and federal governments. SGA at TSU housed the educated elite of the school. People who were ahead of the game in class found a place for their voice in SGA. There need for change and to create a better TSU was on part of thier own privilege in seeing the faults of TSU like myself. Their was a general notion among my counterparts that the main problem with TSU was lack of Money, and the Nigga problem.
The money issue that plagued TSU was a combination of things, but to summarize, Since integration their has been a steady decline in enrollment as Black colleges. Integration after the Civil rights movements virtually overnight made Black Colleges obsolete. Their was no need to educate the Black if apartheid was no more. Yet, TSU found a purpose that could became a staple for the future. If the need to Educate Blacks was out the door why not provide an opportunity to educate the Poor? This is were TSU found its second purpose but this was flawed also. The education of the poor to standards developed by the elite is problematic. First it makes turning back to the poor impossible or merely charity. Second it diminishes any notion of the class divide and creates a person who behaves or things of him or herself as a middle class person. Overall it breaks down whatever solidarity that could be build between classes and puts blacks who are not educated into one group and the others into a so called "higher class."
This right here is the nigga question that plagues the SGA elite and Black middle class of 3rd ward. What to do with people who dont want to help themselves? To understand this we have to look at the educational system of TSU and university across the country as a whole.
for And like many things in life the economic factors inhibited TSU from being an institution that promoted freedom of thought. Principle of Economics, intro level business, etc.. wasn't really geared at a benefit to society. It more or less was a avenue to reinforce the status quotue of society. I read about times in TSU's history where people came together to stop massive economic, racial, eviornimental, gender injustices that were taking place in 3rd World. I look back on the TSU riots and how the school came together along with the peoples of 3rd ward to stop the City from dumping garbage in the area. This is the history of a people working together before integration. What took place with the civil rights movements created a slate for globalization world wide. We as a black people were a third world country living within America. We had black markets of our own, that may have not made as much as the white version, but allowed us subsistence without jimcrow America. We were making head way with manufacturing jobs and overall black life was reaching a different standard away from the mainstream white way of life. Yet, the south needed racial,social,gender liberation not economic. Integration forced black markets to compete wtih white markets and we lost out in the long run. We never dealt with the self hate that plagued our hearts. The fact a group of well to do black men and women became the face of the civil rights movement, mean that our advancement would mirror the so called "Third World advancements." To quote Chinua Achebe, "You see, they are not in the least like ourselves (niggas). They don't need and can't use the luxuries that you and I must have. They have the animal capacity to endure the pain of, shall we say, domestication. The very words the white master had said in his time about the black race as a whole. Now we say them about the poor." This self hate which is rooted in the western ideas of class, was so rampant among black folks when the NOLA peoples came to Houston. Many saw them as a sub-human group of people. I for one tried to challenge this but I was unable to materialize my own thoughts on the matter. I knew it was wrong but I couldn't draw more than the white man's way, when I drew up conclusions.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Sky's the Limit
Lil' Wayne has been on my playlist for a day. His lyrical content is garbage at best but his attitude on the mic is amazing. I respect him like many people for how they present themselves and he is one of them people. If more people in the northwest were like that then maybe we would have a truly awesome place to live. Push aside the bullshit and lets ride into the sunset of bliss. You know those times you felt really alive without the stimulants. This is lyrical flows from the mind of truth so dont be caught without a booth to express yourself in times of need. We are about to reach a contradiction, comparable to that dude name rip who slipped into a sleep that lasted for 27 years. Yet, all i know is the white mans stories of old, but what about that black women who went to sleep only to meet death. She was ever lasting more than that winkle in the past.
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