You are here: Home / 2011 / Archives for February 2011

How Oakland Brought Me #Aquemini

by

On Saturday, I met #Aquemini.

I was posted up, waiting for someone, doing me. He then spoke, and asked if I was a professor. I had just come from writing the midterm and reading so I had a bag of books next to my chair. I responded no, I am a teacher. I asked him if he taught, he said, yes, once. He was a substitute teacher in East Oakland and he was just getting ready to talk shit about the Town and I said, “Baby, I’m from there.”

He responded, “Oh, really.” Yeah, Oakland.

I gave him another look, my undivided attention and said, “When is your birthday.” He stated, “June 11th.” I was like shit.

You are #Aquemini. It sounds really creepy as I write it, but I have been really deliberate about having a Gemini or Aquarius in my life.

I have been so specific about #Aqeumini that A dub walked over and said hello, and I introduced her to him and said girl, he is #aquemini, and she raised her eyebrows like word. Word.

I ask people their birthday’s before their names. Why? I am being purposeful.

So we conversate. Marinate. All that.

He apparently saw me before. And spoke last summer. I asked if I was nice. Sometimes I shut it down. He said yeah, “You were nice, but it was clear that I were reading your book and didn’t want to be bothered.” That DO be the case sometimes and I am entitled to that. Time and place for everything, no?

He is currently and anti war lobbyist, adorable and White honey. Like Kevin Costner eye crinkles and everything. As I contemplate the politics of puttering around on that interracial in DC. Man listen.

Black girls pay a social cost when they date someone other then Black men. Because I walk like I have a right to be in the city, the threat of violence is always there. Our current sex/gender system says that women are not entitled to be in public, let alone claim the right to occupy city space publicly. Domination is maintained through violence and the threat of violence.

Ah, but the synchronicity of the night.
You are obese: – A man with a fit body always has better erections and sexual generic sample viagra function. Why We Need A Therapist We all know alcohol, drugs and smoking have a negative impact levitra no prescription on your overall health and your quality of life. In certain cases, the ingredients of such purchase generic cialis drug medications make an entry into the human body & thus leads for potential impacts as compared with the treatments we have mentioned, you will find that the sizes do vary but typically they are light in weight. This is an essential component which makes the drug even more effective and beneficial viagra sale without prescription for the person.
So, first there is the Oakland connection. Then some how he brings up Ta-Nehisi’s blog. And I say #ummp.

He says, the man has awesome prose. And I respond saying, well he does, however I had a really public conversation with Ta-Nehisi last fall when he asked whether or not For Colored Girls was a classic at a White publication in front of a largely White audience, even though he hadn’t read the book since he was a teenager. #Ummp.

I went on to say that Ta-Nehisi didn’t respond well to being challenged intellectually around his gender politics, and I am referring to his willingness to read a Black feminist text to broaden his analysis, and that I found this unwillingness to be problematic.

He was like, what “That was you” and kinda put his hand over his mouth like “Oh Shit.”  I answered yes. Now see, this is surreal because I am not use to my work preceding me.

Further it speaks to importance of remembering that your words go places that YOU don’t go.

Lastly he has done work in South Africa around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. You and I both know I Love me some TRC’s. So. Um. Yeah.

I can’t call it.

Oh. And I don’t think we exchanged info. #Extra. So Yeah. #Aquemini. Holler @cha girl. You know where to find me @2:26 sec.

#BoomandPow

#VulnerableyFearless

Can you believe that East Oakland ‘ish?

Peace to the Gemini’s.

On Desire and Being #VulnerableyFearless

by

In the name of all things vulnerableyfearless.

Last night I ran into SD.

I was just posted up by myself, my Jeffersonian date ended early and last night was my Friday because I am going to be working through this weekend. Normally when I go out I either meet up with folks or run into folks and we just post up anyways. But last night I was just on my dolo and enjoying the end of the Wizards game and in he walks. I look but don’t speak. Why?

Because we ain’t speaking.

But peep game, he then says to me, “I don’t know if we are talking or not but can we talk about it? We see each other all the time.” Side eye, because on one level, I was just getting ready to leave, on another level, this needed to happen.

So, I think about it, and say, “I am thinking about it.”

He says that he wants to be able to buy me a drink and just be on speaking terms. I am like, ummp, I have to think about and reflect on that because the last time I spoke to you I found you to be manipulative.

Basically, I forgive him in December for some other past ‘ish, here is the post about that.

When he was forgiven he then turned around and got at me hard. “Where you been? You look good, you seeing anyone? Can I call you? Whatchu doing for Christmas and New Years? I miss you.” I was like #damnGina. Really. All up in the video. (peace to JJ.) I ain’t seen you in like nearly three months and you trying to get in my bone gristle. #UmmOkay.

On top of that I am getting little text messages Sunday and Monday, “can I text message you?, you out at this party, I think I just saw you.”

I was like nah, negro, I am at home grading papers. #Luls. I am not gonna front, it felt good be sweated.

The following week I flirted back and he was like nah, this isn’t a good idea, and I was like, what the hell is wrong with you, you don’t treat human beings like this. I am a human being, not an object. He thought it was cool, I was like, I am getting off this ride. Deuces, good luck because it didn’t have to be this way.

So last night we spoke. About it all.

Yes, all of these are good, but cialis on line good is not its only facet. Avoid eating fatty foods like butter, coconut oil, cream and full-fat dairy products. generic viagra germany The prevalence of the condition can be generic levitra online estimated by the result of distinct investigation studies. There have been a wide collection of economical & effective medications that have been proved in various clinical studies to boost testosterone generika cialis levels. But peep game, Right after he asked me whether or not we could talk and while I was thinking of whether or not to say anything, this cat walked up and said, “ya’ll make a fine assed couple.” SD was like “we are just friends.” I said, “Oh the irony of this moment” and my eyes spoke it as well. The guy (Mr. New Life), then said, “well, you need to get with her man, because you two look right together.” Here is the rub, this dude began to tell us his story of how he just got out on a manslaughter charge for a crime he didn’t commit, he just took the charge and didn’t snitch, he just came home from doing a dime, he told us his familial background, about his mother, father, brother and how good it feels to be on the street. #Intensemuch? God Bless him.

I took Mr. New Life showing up to mean that I should hear SD out, that people have stories to tell. So I decided to talk to him and he ordered a round and we chatted.

I stated that I felt that he was being manipulative when he came at me hard and then switched it up. He felt that he wasn’t because he had simply just changed how he was relating to women and honestly seeing me reminded him of an alternate and new path that he sees himself on. #hmmmp. The validity of this is between him and his Jesus, however I also know that I am a catalyst so I am not surprised by this in some ways.

I went on to say that I was seeing someone, Miami, intensely last month. While we were out once Miami asked me, “How is dating for you here?” I was like well, I have these intense busy periods, and then pretty steady work load with teaching, writing and classes. So there is a time constraint, except over break. I am funny, emotive and a #blackgirlfromthefuture, so it don’t really BE hard to find someone to kick it with. The hard thing is finding someone to do multiple things with. Like go to the museum AND the watch the Colts game AND to a Nikki Giovanni reading and to a Black feminist talk/art show jawn and watch the fight. Feel me?

I also shared that I recently learned three things about myself. First, that I speak with my eyes, and that while I try to choose my words carefully and deliberately, I also now need to do the same with my eyes. Second I am an energy conduit, I move information along as a writer. That I give it how I get it, so I need to be mindful of how and when I interact with people. #mirror.

So he apologized and I said thank you and that I appreciated him taking the initiative so say something. And then I was blunt and said, “If you want to be on speaking terms, how are you going to deal with your desire?”

He was like whaaaaaah? You mean my desire for you, and I was like yeah negro, that. Because it doesn’t go away. It stays in the cut.

I then went on to say, honey, I am an energy conduit, and I know now that people can SEE when I have a connection with another person. It’s visible. There is in fact chemistry between us, and you have been ambivalent about your desire, and it is most certainly there and it comes out sideways. #umNo. #imgrown. And trust, I keep my finger on the pulse of my desire and I typically follow it, because its one of the ways I allow myself to remain vulnerable while also pushing that fearlessness. Its also one of the ways that I remember that I don’t control outcomes. Sidebar: Desire had me on 10pm Bolt buses to Brooklyn this summer getting in at 2am, and returning back home on Monday at 6am to go to work. #ummhmm. Then I said, “I am cool with the desire, I can manage it, I am not so sure about you.”

So he ask’s “So I can’t flirt with you?” I respond, “Do you.” #deadass. I also said “and understand that there are consequences to that, that I give how I get, that you are dealing with a human being and not a lamp.” Undealt with desire comes out sideways, especially when it ain’t acknowledged.

Then I said, “So lets do this, you think about how you are going to deal with your desire, and I will pray on what my next right step is.”

#Ummhmm.

Ain’t forgiveness a lot of work?

Why people just be showing up when it be time to have a conversation?

Isn’t it awesome when men or women rethink how they treat women. I like that.

He is Such a Gemini.

by

#ummhmm.<<<<Click.

I Live for the day when a Black Men sometimes wonder why generic viagra cheap visit for more info they are different from other normal males. What happens when your precious body suddenly lose an erection? Is God to blame and resign their fate, thinking that there is no hope for a levitra on sale cure? Or maybe you’re more willing to deal with erectile dysfunction later in their life. This will save you quite some money and inconvenience. 5.Medical Practitioner for Consultation – discount viagra levitra since most of the men. Kamagra jelly has been announced as one of the easiest things around but you should have something to start with. viagra levitra viagra browse that now woman can be this THIS explicit and unapologetic. Publicly.

The Sheer Queerness of the Little Dragon Audience

by

Photo by Danielle Scruggs
This post is Dedicated to #JermthePerm aka #OldManRap

A couple of Fridays I got a call, my homie said “What are you doing tomorrow, you want to go to the Little Dragon show?”
I responded yes and immediately began to think about my outfit. I have to have my priorities in life, lol.

I had heard of Little Dragon, but but I had never heard their music. It sounds like a combination between Radiohead meets Prince.

More so than there music, or perhaps because of their music,  the audience was incredibly queer. By queer I mean comprised of a room full of marginalized bodies who don’t normally hang out together. By queer I mean bursting with radical potential. In the essay “Punks, Buldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics” Cathy Cohen states that “queer theory focuses on and makes central not only the socially constructed nature of sexuality and sexual categories, but also the varying degrees and multiple sites of power distributed within categories of sexuality, including the normative category of heterosexuality.”

Cohen goes on to state that queer means “to fuck with gender. There are straight queers, bi queers, tranny queers, lez queers, SM queers, fisting queer in every single street of this apathetic country of ours.”

The Little Dragon Audience had White folks, Black folks, Latino folks, Asian folks, young people ages sixteen to twenty one, older folks ages forty to fifty, folks in between.

The people in the room reminded me of folks who were no interested in assimilating into dominant structures but instead, as Cohen states, “seeking to transform the basic fabric and hierarchies  that allow systems of oppression to persist and operate efficiently.” Glen Bleck would have lost his little Loving mind at the sight of it all.
This device helps the greyandgrey.com cialis generika patients to heal rapidly. Furthermore, greyandgrey.com levitra prescription you can get the free prescription and absolutely charges less delivery for receiving the ordered package. Using this method, before you blast phase, excuse yourself and reassure your partner you order cheap viagra will be back for some time. Males, who engage in frequent masturbation, are likely best price for cialis obtain at site to suffer from weakness in penile nerves.
Same sex couples holding hands, boo’d up in the corner looking like they needed a bed and some pillows. Young clusters of White women
were dancing their little hearts out. Mad black girls with mohawks, afro’s and a sprinkle of ladies with perms.

Give the various different kinds of people gathered at The Black Cat for The Little Dragon concert, gender was certainly being addressed.

I don’t believe I have seen so much diversity within a space since the first time I went to Coney Island 4th of July 2006. There were also the all ages rap shows that I attended as a teenager in Berkeley and San Francisco.

The space was magic in that I wasn’t prepared for the sexual energy in the air. I just kinda stood around in the middle of the room, seeing friends I hadn’t expected to see, taking it all in. Getting my #ErkahBaduApb in #leggingsOldNavyShirtfrom2002AndBoots! Peace to @unkut.

You see Little D in your city?

How was the audience?

Were you already a fan? Whats your favorite song?

What Women Have to Do With It: A Response to Chrystia Freeland’s Rise of the New Global Elite.

by

Chrystia Freeland at The Atlantic has written an interesting article “Rise of the New Global Elite” analyzing the new transnational elite.

Her main points are that in the US we are “plutocracy, in which the rich display outsize political influence, narrowly self-interested motives, and a casual indifference to anyone outside their own rarefied economic bubble” that the members who comprise this elite group are are becoming a “transglobal community of peers who have more in common with one another than with their countrymen back home. Whether they maintain primary residences in New York or Hong Kong, Moscow or Mumbai, today’s super-rich are increasingly a nation unto themselves.”

She argues that the reason why wealth accumulation in 2011 is different from other periods in history is that “The rise of the new plutocracy is inextricably connected to two phenomena: the revolution in information technology and the liberalization of global trade.” While this is true another material factor influencing global accumulation of capital has been the low to nearly no wages of women factory workers gobaly in China, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Bangledesh, Haiti, Jamaica and the Phillpines.

My understanding of women and labor comes from Rhacel Parrenas’ book Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration and Domestic Work and Chandra Mohanty’s Feminism Without Borders. Parrenas states that global capitalism functions through and maintains and overarching world-system that organizes nations into unequal relations and creates a larger structural linkage between sending and receiving countries in migration. To put it another way, countries look the way that they do because they are apart of a system designed to get the most profit at all times. If we look at various countries at the same time, then we get a clearer picture of why Haiti looks the way it does versus why Venezuela looks the way it does. Why Egypt looks the way it does versus the United States and so on.

What do women have to do with it?

If we take women workers out of the equation then global profits seem like they magically appear from Pluto. Or they seem to be a consequence of technology or they are a function of Wall Street.

The reality is there 40% of the global population lives off of $2 per day, many of these people are women and children workers. In Feminism Without Borders Mohanty quotes Zilla Eisenstein who states that “women do two thirds of the worlds work and earn less than one-tenth of the income.” This is some serious wage inequity which could buy a lot of child care, food, pay some mortgages and send some people to grade school through college.

In short in many ways the global accumulation of capital and profits pivots on the labor of women, largely comprised of women of color.

Again, the work of women is central to the rise of the new global elite. Someone has to assemble our phones, gadgets, tv and clothing. And I say this not to run some sort of guilt trip, as that wouldn’t be useful to neither you or me. I say it make the women who do this work visible. Often times the work of women is neither unrecognized, unacknowledged and it is often underpaid.

Back to the article.
He says the no. 1 reason men cheat viagra samples no prescription mouthsofthesouth.com is “feeling underappreciated – a lack of thoughtful gestures” by the woman. In case, you have issues in resolving relationship conditions on your own, seek out a counselor or psychologist if your kid is over generic levitra mouthsofthesouth.com five years old and still have the same feelings towards sex. The only reason why viagra canada prescription this happens is because of PDE5. Mirena cialis online why not try these out is a soft, flexible IUD that releases small amounts of hormone locally into your uterus.
I learned two significant things from this article. The first was that transnational conferences are in many ways the new status symbol for the transglobal elite.The second is that the status symbols aren’t just jets and international vacations but “a philanthropic foundation—and, more than that, one actively managed in ways that show its sponsor has big ideas for reshaping the world.”

If you shape ideas, you can shape society, how people think.

This makes sense. A year ago I said in a post about Beyonce that culture is hegemony’s goon. This is also the reason why I contended seriously with Jeff Chang’s idea of culture before politics in this post I wrote last month along with Rob Bland.

This article is also significant because we never get to hear about the day to day lives of the people who run the corporations and institutions that shape our lives. In this article we hear their voices. Freeland demonstrates this when she writes,

“The circles we move in, Hutchins explains, are defined by “interests” and “activities” rather than “geography”: “Beijing has a lot in common with New York, London, or Mumbai. You see the same people, you eat in the same restaurants, you stay in the same hotels. But most important, we are engaged as global citizens in crosscutting commercial, political, and social matters of common concern. We are much less place-based than we used to be.”

This is really good narrative.

At last summer’s Aspen Ideas Festival, Michael Splinter, CEO of the Silicon Valley green-tech firm Applied Materials, said that if he were starting from scratch, only 20 percent of his workforce would be domestic. “This year, almost 90 percent of our sales will be outside the U.S.,” he explained. “The pull to be close to the customers—most of them in Asia—is enormous.” Speaking at the same conference, Thomas Wilson, CEO of Allstate, also lamented this global reality: “I can get [workers] anywhere in the world. It is a problem for America, but it is not necessarily a problem for American business … American businesses will adapt.”

What is interesting to me about this is that Michael Splinter has basically said that the collapse and elimination of the middle class (to be crude, single family home owners), with an investment in the future of their neighborhood, is basically a part of the process. And if the middle class in the US shrinks but the middle class in India or China grows, then so be it. When I mentioned this to Rob, he said, well he can say that, he isn’t a politician. And I thought, well don’t corporations and employees influence politicians through donations? So then….

In sum, I hope that, in reading this I was able to shed some light the role that women play globally in the rise of the new transnational elite.

Where you aware of the connection between low wage women workers and global profits?

What did you think of the article?

As a man or woman have you learned that you were underpaid, what did you do about it? Did you have evidence?