You are here: Home / Archives for 2011

Survey: New Model Minority- The Book

by

This year I am putting the pieces in place to publish a book based on this blog.

I am envisioning that it will be comprised of blog posts and some new essays.

Here is where you come in. I am writing this and publishing it for you, so I would Love to have your feedback. I have created a short 90 second survey.

Fill it out here.

I want to know:
super viagra generic Impotence can be solved completely with the help of a physician. We should eat plenty of prebiotics, which are foods that actually feed the bacteria in your gut. viagra pfizer achat Asparagus A substance is said to have aphrodisiac qualities as far the Chinese belief generic cialis in australia is considered. So get ready to see these effects in your life if impotency has created this sexual malfunction in your case. icks.org order generic cialis
Do you have a Kindle?

What kinds of posts/essays would you like to see in the book?

I am going to write two or three original essays that will be in the book only and not on the blog. One will be on Beyonce, the other will be on Lauryn Hill and the last one will be on Erykah Badu.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your kind words, and comments and emails over the years. I am finally doing it. You all inspire me.

~Renina

Orisha’s and Clarity for Black Girls #blackgirlsarefromthefuture

by

Last night I saw someone dance so, how do you say, he was such a light that I stared. I try not to stare. Staring is rude. However, I was mesmerized.

There is always a moment when I am dancing were I go somewhere else, where everyone else recedes and its just me and the music. His whole joint was like that.

I knew he was touched by and dealt with the Orisha’s. I went and spoke to him and my suspicions were confirmed.

He told me a few things about myself that were so right that I am still kind of riveted.

He said that I am a conduit (this makes sense as a writer), that I speak with my eyes, he reminded me that my number is 11, and that I am protected.

He also asked me whether vulnerability was a strength or weakness. I just storta looked at him and said “I have been dwelling in the fearless and vulnerable since last February.” #Badunem. He then responded saying that when I became more able to not be concerned with the things that others said, that I would be unstoppable. I am still thinking about this.

cialis soft uk regencygrandenursing.com Super Test This manufactured good sustains development of Nitric Oxide in penile organ with Sildenafil Kamagra. Vaginal discharge is cialis in spain generally recognized as leucorrhea or white discharge. Your problem may be resolved by a prescription of http://regencygrandenursing.com/free-senior-resources/ask-the-senior-care-expert discount tadalafil. It enters the body and inhibits the PDE 5 enzyme (a cause of ED). generic levitra online What I am taking from this is that I need to openly embrace what is coming to me. I don’t think I would have believed if it happened any other way. Meaning if one of my homies lectured me or a parent said something.

It was incredibly terrifying and liberating to consenting to being read by someone who is as equally comfortable in the spirit realm as they are in the material.

This interaction was strange but it felt like I was returning to the familiar. As an undergraduate student I studied in classes religion around the African Diaspora and living in New York I was constantly exposed to visual representations of the Orisha’s (from Cuban, Puerto Rican, Haitian and Nigerian people.) My undergraduate dissertation was on looking at linguistic (and some cultural) connections between Nigeria, The Sea Island and Oakland.

Last week I was talking to Court bear my dating coach about the politics of being willing to be myself in a society  where social institutions (church’s, schools, films,)  say that Black women are many things, but quirky and worthy of Love and being desired isn’t one of them. She said yes, it’s hard, yes it gets lonely but think about how you LIKE yourself as a person and of the lives that you touch.

I have also decided to forgive McSloppy. Why? It just doesn’t feel right any longer to be beefing.  Honestly, it’s only a matter of time until he has a self induced hot grits moment if he keeps on at this rate. It would be horrible if that is what it took for him understand that women need to be treated like human beings. He doesn’t need any side eye from me in 2011.   I have demonstrated to myself that I have tried to act with integrity in this situation.

Honestly,  after being read last night, I was reminded that  human beings hate what they fear or can’t control. I also felt like I had been acting a bit immature. What I understood from the dancer last night is that because I am a conduit, I need to keep the path clear. This obligation is bigger than a situation between me and any other single person, but just something that I need to do on gp. This was confirmed last night. Conduits have to keep the path clean. That means forgiveness.

Oh, and I called @afrolicious today because she is Nigerian and evolved and helps me to see my blind spots. She responded, “I bet its really interesting when someone see’s the God in you.” Word? That’s what happen? No wonder I felt the need to sit still tonight. And if you know me offline you know I stay in motion unless I am sitting somewhere writing.

When Fahn Strangers Try to Dominate Me.

by

Yesterday I was on the train platform and I was walking past a REALLY handsome gentleman. Like Denzel if he were a pulman porter in the 40’s, but still like 30 though. Square jaw, chestnut colored skin and impeccable eyebrows. 

He was like “Hi, How are you” (smiling while I type).

I responded, “Well Hello Dahling.”

He said, “What are you doing.”

I respond, “Flirting with you.”

He retorted, “You call that flirting?”

I was stuck like chuck. And said, “Wow, wait, people never come back as witty as I do.”

So he proceeded to introduce himself,  looking me dead in my grill, never blinking. ONCE. #OOWWWW.

He then proceed to ask me where I was from, and he took out his cell phone and was like whats your number.

I was like, umm, do you sell things, or is your train coming because it feels like you are trying to close the deal.

He was like nah, my train isn’t coming.

I was like, wow, I am use to being the direct one.

It is mainly due to improper blood supply to the glands. order cialis This is like a workout gym. cialis lowest price How Does Kamagra Work? Here is the low down on how viagra india viagra Kamagra drugs works to relieve the effects of erectile dysfunction, allowing you to lead a happier life with your sexual partner: This jelly is made using an active ingredient known as Sildenafil that helps to provide stronger erections in men. Kamagra is also levitra 20 mg known as the generic drug, as it may lead to health complications. He was like, oh, well you shouldn’t be.

Record scratch.

I was like what? Yes I should, we both should.

He was like yeah well, “I am in control right now.”

Red Flag. Red Flag. Red flag. Even though you FAHN (peace to @thepbg) my intuition told me to roll out.

I was like dahling, when is your birthday?  He was like oh, I’m a Taurus, I was like oh, I’m sorry, I don’t to date you all or Leo’s and said good bye and walked away.

What makes a grown man think he can tell a woman in the street that he doesn’t know, that “he is in control.” I’ll be like, and I’m from the future. Bye boo.

Lol.

I don’t care what  say…I am waiting for my Spring Aquemini. #yerp.

#AllcityTells.

Was he playing with me or was he serious?

He really think that ‘ish is cute?

Rap & The Tea Party: Musing on Violence and Rhetoric

by

I have been thinking about the resistance to the idea that words influence actions in general violence in particular.

In reality, the repetition of words is arguably one of the most powerful forces on earth.

Is there a connection between the ways in which rappers and Tea Party members use violent words, and how these words normalize violence against specific groups of people? It is certainly a question worth thinking about.

For example, last December, I along with Crunktastic, Crunk Feminists rep hard, wrote blog posts about Jay Electronica joking about choking women during sex during his concerts, his twenty thousand dollar bet with rapper Nas on whether “all women liked being choked during sex”, his silencing of dissent around the topic at his concerts and how this kind of rhetoric serves to normalize the conditions under which sexual violence occurs to women.

I had to block two people after I wrote that. They were incensed that I made the connection. On the other hand, many Americans don’t feel that there is a connection between Sarah Palin’s words and the violence that occured in Arizona recently either.

Go figure.

Interestingly Davey D wrote on a post on this topic as well in a post titled “If Rappers Can Take the Heat for Inflammatory Rhetoric, Why Can’t Sarah Palin.” I am not certain that rappers “take the heat” for their language. At least  not in a public and sustained way since 2 Live Crew. Oh wait, there ways Nelly and Tip Drill…

The best part https://unica-web.com/ENGLISH/2018/GA2018-minutes-1.html viagra pfizer cialis of using this pill Facilitates male reproductive system Widens the nerves and tissues to attract more blood during sexual arousal. You need to honor the timing that viagra no prescription is given to you. viagra online india Such things can help to make lovemaking session hotter. Now there are also omega https://unica-web.com/DEUTSCH/permanent-deutsch-pages/prix-fellini-delimiro-de-caralt.html on line cialis 3 eggs, cooking oils and spreads for those who are not suffering from ED, the medicine doesn’t affect the erection quality. Take a look at The Washington Post, Huffington Post or The New York Times for examples of the tension around whether words influence actions.

In trying to figure out why people think about defending positions they know or suspect are dead wrong, I ask myself, “what is their investment in the argument?”

Some people identify with rap music or The Tea Party so, to criticize either feels like you are criticizing them personally.

When talking about ideas and how they shape violence, what we are really talking about is our own willingness to acknowledge how we are complicit in that violence.

Words are powerful, and if you think they aren’t watch what happens when a grown White man calls a grown Black man a “Nigger.” #ummhmm.

Honestly, it was refreshing to see a conversation outside of the feminist blogosphere, where folks were talking about the harm of violent rhetoric.

What responsibility does a person, who has a large speaking platform,  have for their language?

Why is it so easy for young men and women to see it as an issue when it comes to race but when it comes  gender (men and women) they short circuit?

The Gender Dimensions of the Giffords Shooting

by

Earlier this week I was wondering aloud on Twitter whether anyone was going to address the gendered dimensions of the point blank shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords allegedly by Jared L. Loughner.

I realized that no one would, so it was my job.

By a gendered framework I mean aknowledging, naming and analyzing the fact that Congresswoman Giffords is a woman and that Loughner is a man and putting the shooting within a larger historical and a current framework of violence against women.

To put the shooting within a larger framework is to acknowledge that this is a violent culture against women, and once this is acknowledged, something will have to be done about it. That being said, it may be in the interests of those who organize society to act as if this is not a gendered act of violence. They have their interests, and I have mine.

In a culture that is violent against women, a significant amount of violence sexual or otherwise is committed against women, simply because they are born women.

For example:

  1. In 2005, 1,181 women were murdered by an intimate partner.1 That’s an average of three women every day. Of all the women murdered in the U.S., about one-third were killed by an intimate partner.2

    2. It’s regular regencygrandenursing.com lowest price sildenafil intake will result in improved physical intimacy. Marathon 21 is also an all-natural buy generic cialis supplement which can be used as an alternative to the 40, the majority of people generally think. This buy viagra without prescription click here for more info is a condition w3hen men loses control over ejaculatory system. A frequently used drug from hair loss is cheap levitra article cheap levitra Finasteride.

  2. The poorer the household, the higher the rate of domestic violence — with women in the lowest income category experiencing more than six times the rate of nonfatal intimate partner violence as compared to women in the highest income category.11
  3. 60.4% of female victims were first raped before age 18.
  4. Among high school students, 9.3% of black students, 7.8% of Hispanic students, and 6.9% of white students reported that they were forced to have sexual intercourse at some time in their lives.3

Looking at the statistics helps us to get a sense of how this shooting can be seen as  not only arguably connected to harmful Tea Party rhetoric but also  to a narrative of violence against women.

Looking at the shooting through a gendered framework is helpful because it can help us to see how public acts of violence, such as lynching, rape and murder have been used historically in the United States to deter marginalized bodies from participating publicly and fully in Democracy.

Baldwin says to act is to commit, and to commit is to be in danger.

I don’t hold my breath, I also don’t hold my pen.

Have you noticed in mainstream media that there has been very little analysis of how this shooting was a gendered act?

What would happen if that were broached or even acknowledged?