I would like to reframe “EMO” in this case, and call it innocents. It is our innocents that we all look back at and laugh. All the … “How could I have believed that..”, “How could I have done those things”, etc, etc… All of those things, believes, actions were done but by the innocents.

But one of the great things about our innocents is that the purity and sometimes simplicity of our principles, dreams, actions. Often there is a sweetness associated with our innocents and it is present in all that we do. We see the world as it should be instead of how it is. Part of what happens with age is that those two things; how we see the world versus how the world is, the gap between the two lessen. Generally this is Awesome. When you don’t get want you want, you get experience. But there can be side effects that can make us miss our “EMO”, our innocents.

We have a choice, to embrace the jade that our experience can bring or to fight hold on to the sweetness of our innocents and absorb the experiences that life has given us.

That’s my 2cents

MrAyodeji

Let’s be clear. Anyone whose votes are policy driven was not surprised by this. No one with critical thinking skills didn’t see this coming. If anything, it’s more surprising that it took as long as it did. However, there’s a significant portion of the Republican party that actually believe that not only was Cain qualified to be President, but that he’s also been unfairly vilified by the “mainstream media” because he’s a black conservative. What bothers me most about Herman Cain is his overt willingness to play the victim, and the fact that his supporters enable this behavior. He has repeatedly gone on camera, time and time again, portraying himself as some kind of visionary, persecuted by the left because of his AMAZING ideas. And when these ideas are revealed to be poorly thought out and fall considerably short of the hype, it’s everyone’s fault but his own.

Cain supporters like to trot out quotes from other prominent black figures to back up this fervent claim of victimhood, like this one from Cornell West:

“I think he needs to get off the symbolic crack pipe.”

Republicans were quick to jump on it, linking the comment to the crack/cocaine epidemic without actually analyzing the comment for its meaning and intent–a common theme in crafting GOP talking points. In an interview with Elon James White on the award-winning podcast “Blacking It Up”, Baratunde broke the metaphor down for those who didn’t get it, explaining that the Republican party was “addicted to poisonous ideas”. Considering the obstructionist nature of the current GOP electorate in Congress, it’s hardly a stretch. Newt Gingrich wants children to turn America into one large real-life production of Oliver Twist, for instance. Republicans all over are willing to allow the sick and disabled to twist in the wind–even veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s kind of environment of discussion that would be synonymous with the word ‘poisonous’.

Another Republican ‘example’ of what they consider to be ‘black-on-black crime’ is a quote from Al Sharpton:

“So I would assume he is either socially ignorant or playing games to get votes.”

First of all, it’s not ‘black-on-black crime’ for one black person to criticize another. Clearly, someone needs to re-evaluate their definition of criminal activity and take another run at quasi-punditry. Then again, there really isn’t much to be expected from the same group of people who think that ‘high-tech lynching’ is a perfectly acceptable term to use when Herman Cain (and for that matter, Clarence Thomas) are anything but worth that sort of incendiary, race-baiting language.

Herman Cain constantly puts himself in the spotlight, simping and pandering to the right while saying absolutely nothing of substance. That has, in fact, been the foundation for his entire bid for the nomination. His and his supporters’ wailing about the media’s portrayal of him rings hollow when one considers how much face time he’s willingly put into crafting that image. If it’s not the narrative that he wanted, then that’s a serious referendum on his own political savvy and that of his staff. It also paints him into a disadvantageous corner when it comes to the national election; if the media was as left-leaning as the GOP would lead one to believe, they’d more than welcome someone as policy-ignorant as Cain as an opponent. Libya, China, Uz-beki-beki-stan-stan… The GOP would have a field day trying to work damage control with a candidate like Herman Cain, considering they’re supposed to be the party of national defense.

Never mind the fact that he genuinely thinks all left-leaning black voters are ‘brainwashed’. One has to consider for whom that particular statement was made–leading anyone hearing it and actually listening to one of two conclusions: either Cain is woefully unaware of the GOP’s war against poor and middle-class Americans in this country or he’s simply tap-dancing for the nomination. Socially ignorant or playing games to get votes. Nothing racially motivated about it–it’s fact, plain and simple. Most of the GOP nominees fall pretty neatly into the category of the socially ignorant, so it’s really not that far a leap for Herman Cain to be in their number.

It’s especially interesting how, in this article, the writer repeatedly admonishes President Barack Obama for being a ‘community organizer’. I would much rather a President treat the American people like members of a community than employees in a business. Anyone who thinks otherwise clearly has never worked as an employee in a large business before, and doesn’t have the faintest clue as to how a business is run. Republicans have this romanticized notion of large businesses being ‘job creators’ when the fact of the matter is, they’re all more than willing to slash payroll in the sake of their bottom lines. At the end of the day, an employee can be replaced, and their lives mean very little to the company as a whole. It’s the sort of detached mindset that many liberals see as par for the course in the Republican agenda–something that transcends color, despite GOP talking points.

Going out the way he did is probably the smartest thing he’s done since emerging onto the national political scene. It’s an easier pill to swallow that he was ‘viciously attacked for being a black conservative’ than to believe he was a terrible candidate with more holes in his ideas than Swiss cheese.

The idea of OWS is far reaching in its intentions whether the occupiers know it or not. The processes of getting money out of the politics, breaking the strong connections between lobbyists and politicos, and regaining the power of the voting public are not handled in a winterized tent outside of the New York Stock Exchange. The literal occupation should be phase one. Now that you have captured the attention of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, politicos, news media, and John Q public its time to transition into something that brings results. The Teaparty is often compared to OWS due to the “grassroots” like beginnings of both movements. However, if one does any research they can see that the Teaparty was very well funded from corporations and individuals like the now infamous Koch Brothers. The amount of money that was spent to send people from all over the country to Washington D.C. on fancy air-conditioned coach buses was a mere start to the benefits of corporate money for the “grassroots” movement. OWS does not have this, but what they have is numbers, popularity, and message. The favorability of OWS is high but will begin to fade as the literal occupation fails to make any tangible changes. The Teaparty for all its faults, and there are many, was able to move from yelling at town halls to replacing Congressional representatives as they saw fit. That is seriously tangible.

So the time of being noticed may be coming to an end with flash bang grenades and nightsticks, but that’s not where it has to end. The legacy of OWS can be a simple, “they yelled and sat in a park for a while,” or it will be the 99% getting out to vote. Going door-to-door and working for real change. Change comes from the bottom up. Things like prison reform and voter registration affect the 99%. I would like to see a replacement for ACORN come out of this movement. As state after state works to make voting harder for the poorest of us we need a movement to bring light to it before its too late. The OWS/99% movement is poised to this. So the removal from a park matters not, the movement is with the people not in one single location. Take this opportunity to capitalize on your favorability not wallow in your current phase.

Phase Two of Occupy Wall St. starts right now…

It’s a strange and paradoxical dichotomy we live with. Black people are hyper-sexualized in various forms of mass media, and our youth (and many adults) absorb this information and reflect it in our daily lives and our attitudes. But when it comes to actually talking about sex in any serious kind of way, we become, alternately, shrinking violets or turn the conversation into a joke, because with the messages we receive and internalize, the idea of fostering high levels of communication about sex is not among them. We still get most of our early sexual education from our parents, who learned from their parents, and the further you go back generationally, the more conservative said education becomes. Plus, once that’s over, we’re left to our own devices and learn the rest (or don’t) from life.

I can’t say with any authority that the attitude is significantly different among other ethnic communities, but in certain social communities, and presumably when dealing their children, the attitude is MUCH different. Specifically in the BDSM/kink community (which, sadly, is predominantly white), there is a great deal of frankness and openness when it comes to sexuality and gender, but specifically when it comes to talking about sex itself. Here is an area where the normies can learn something from us freaks.

In the BDSM world, when it comes to play of any kind, there is typically a pre-activity period referred to as (as dry as it sounds) “negotiation.” This is where the people involved talk about things they like doing, things they don’t like doing, things they might like doing, hard limits, safewords and signals, possible emotional triggers, and of course protection. Of course such a thing doesn’t have to be this sterile process that’s taken care of at a table in a conference room (though sometimes it does involve a written contract depending on the people and the dynamic); negotiation can be and is often quite fun. After all, you are talking about potential sexy things to do to each other, and that’s often very fun to talk about. The whole idea is to foster an atmosphere of open communication so that there are a minimum of assumptions made, and so that the experience can be pleasurable for all involved, and if each person’s wants and needs cannot be reconciled with the others’ then play will be either limited or cancelled entirely. While going so far as to have written documentation may be a bit much for a typical sexually active teen, I personally believe that the level of communication and the ability to be so open is something that needs to be fostered among teens and especially among black youth.

This goes back to what was already mentioned on the show: empowerment. More than one person, among hosts and listeners alike, agreed that when a child or teen is given the knowledge and information along with the accompanying reasonable, realistic warnings about sex, that individual is empowered to make their own responsible decisions. Likewise if the ability to communicate about sex to the aforementioned level with a potential partner were given to our youth, especially in the black community, it is my opinion that we would begin to see less of the issues around sex that we’ve seen historically.

Does this mean that all of our youth need to learn about sex from Jay Wiseman? Not necessarily; i’m more a fan of Mollena Williams, myself. But shifting toward more frankness and open communication is going to do much better for us, individually and at large, than sticking with the current level.

The Bay Area is a little different. It cannot be explained, It must be experienced.  They replace “very” with “Hella” for goodness sake. Tupac, E40 and Keshia Cole are played more than Biggie, JayZ and Beyonce. It must also be  known that Bay Area folks don’t steal spotlights, The lights just end up on them.

That being said, if the area as a whole is different, the politics will be different also

The birthplace of Ethnic Studies, the Black Panthers and organized Collegiate Anti-War Demonstrations, Bay Area Folks know how to protest. Its in their DNA. Remember Representative Barbara Lee, The ONLY person to vote against the use of force after 9/11? The  people of the Bay Area is who she serves.

What does that have to do with Occupy Oakland… EVERYTHING

The Occupy Oakland movement began on October 10. In most areas, that would be considered Columbus Day in most areas.  Here, it is “Indigenous Peoples Day.”  And to be honest, I didn’t understand it more than I understood the Occupy Wall Street Movement. But Then again, I am a known cynic about Bay Area Protests. They often reflect a “Shiny Bauble” feel to things, where every rage to injustice has a shelf life and then forgotten.  I thought occupy Oakland would end on October 25th when 13 different Police agencies  came in. But they were back the next day.

I decided I had to evaluate the situation from a different perspective. On October 29th, I took my Son (Da Youngsta) to the Occupy Oakland Site. The perspective of children in situations like this is awesome.

So Da Youngsta looks around and asks the first person he sees, “So, why are you guys here?” He listened, then continued asking other people. I let him gather information for him to report back.  His report was simple… “Mom, it looks like only a little bit of people have all of the money and these people don’t like it…” Before I know it, Da Youngsta starts passing out flyers about the November 2 Day of Action and telling me how his money needs to be moved to a credit union.

Another supporter won over with conversation.

The Day of Action was beautiful for the most part.  way more organized than before the police came on 10/25 and so polite (I call them the “Excuse Me, Pardon Me” coalition). They had orderly, organized marches and speakers on everything. News reports the attendance of the rally at over 6,000 and the attendance overall to 100, 000 over the course of the day. With all that, there is still a question as to their purpose and relevance. I still don’t quite understand it.  Let me rephrase… I support their right to take the actions, I just don’t know what the end goal is.

Then I was taking a ride around Lake Merritt today and hear some folks talking:

 ”…but you can’t complain about those occupy cats unless you can actually give them a solution. This my city, I have to do something…”

That stuck with me while I was riding the lake in the “New Oakland.”  25% white, 27% Black. what used to be considered a good working class wage has been converted into a upper lower class existence. After years of  keeping your head down and trying to just make it to Friday,  Its hard to get folks active in anything.

So maybe, the Occupation Movement is for City Hall, or even Me.  I know that I have the ability to create change in at least one person a day. Maybe it is for the people that feel that nothing can be done because they don’t have power. Maybe it’s for them.  because now folks that never had any inclination to do anything are changing banks, providing food and provisions and supporting this thing.

The tide is turning in Oakland.  and I “Hella” Love it… 

 Moments into a speech before volunteers here Wednesday evening, Elizabeth Warren was interrupted by a Tea Party supporter who hurled a gender-based epithet at the Senate candidate.

The crowd tried to shout the man down, but Warren told her supporters to let him speak. “No, no, it’s alright. Let me say two things,” she said. “I’m very sorry that you’ve been out of work. I’m also very sorry that the recent jobs bill that would’ve brought 22,000 jobs to Massachusetts did not pass in the Senate.”

After the event, Warren reflected on the man’s outburst, which she said was her first such encounter. “I actually felt sorry for the guy. I really genuinely did. He’s been out of work now for a year and a half. And bless his heart, I mean, he thought somehow it would help to come here and yell names,” she told HuffPost.

The assault stuck with Warren, and she continued to think about it throughout the night. Hours later, she said she wasn’t upset with the man himself, but rather with those who attempt to channel his anger in a malevolent direction. “I was thinking more about the heckler. I’m not angry with him, but he didn’t come up with the idea that his biggest problem was Occupy Wall Street. There’s someone else pre-packaging that poison — and that’s who makes me angry,” she said.

It’s not just that she was able to handle the heckler with facts (imagine that!). She kept the man in her thoughts after the fact. Almost anyone would’ve forgiven her for calling the guy a jerk and moving on with her day.  If she can be this good explaining her assault on the banksters and credit card companies, Scott Brown could be in trouble.

I know, right? This guy, that as much he says….wait, as much as he never claimed that he was a “maverick”, is pretty in step with his Republican brethren. It’s so funny to think that people have scolded me for playing the “McCain is an old fossil” card, yet he drops gems like these out there for us all to see. I’ll break it down like this:

1. No one uses the term ‘flip flopper’ enough on this guy. You know, the old ‘I was for it before I was against it’ deal? That still applies, right? I’m pretty sure McCain was for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell if the generals thought it was the right thing to do.

2. Repeating your disproved point over and over isn’t the best way to prove it. Especially after you heard from a military member that was dismissed over the very same thing you claimed ‘wasn’t policy’ this past March. It may seem like it works with other people in the party, but that’s because those people have a whole news organisation backing them, repeating their points days and days, hours and hours at a time. The party really didn’t like you much to begin with, and now, they really don’t have your back on anything. You shouldn’t be trying so hard to impress them.

3. Isn’t your daughter all ‘the gay thing is so, like, old fashioned for Republicans to be worrying about“? Nothing makes you seem more old and out of touch when your kid is in the public eye, saying the exact opposite of what you’re saying. That makes you sound like Archie Bunker. Even if she doesn’t like me anymore, I have agree with her. If people on the right would stop pandering to the very small few that can’t sleep at night because a guy or girl in Iraq is gay and fighting a war that they wouldn’t even think about joining up to fight, they could have more people willing to listen to their side. Not many, but some.

Whatever. Ultimately, McCain is a footnote now. He’ll forever be the guy that lost to the first black President and the guy that was willing throw out any credibility he had to scrape out a few more votes from people that wouldn’t spit on him to put him out if he was on fire. Oh, and the guy that brought us all Sarah Palin. What would we have done with you doing that to…I mean, for us?

On the bright side, if the second Simpsons movie comes out, we know who’s a lock for Grandpa Simpson?

“Most single Black women feel like they don’t want to settle for less. Their standards are too high right now. They have to understand that successful Black men are kind of extinct.”

“My girl is Black and White. I guess the half White in her is where she still cooks and do all the shit that I say, so we make it. She just takes care of me and I like that. She don’t be begging and I don’t gotta buy her all this crazy ass shit. And she’s a smart girl too.”

“White women treat they man like a king and Black women feel like they ain’t gotta do that shit. Black women need to stand by their man more. Don’t always put the pressure of if I’m fucking with you, you gotta buy me this and that. Black men are the ones that motherfuckers need [but] I think a lot of them need to step it up too.” (Source)

Slim Thug, who is he again?! Oh, yes he’s a rapper– or can he still carry that title? When was the last time anything he recorded played on the radio? Okay, when was it played outside of Houston! His music might still be played, but I haven’t heard anything from him or with him since Beyonce’s “Check Up on It.” I must be the lone blogger, and single girl who has had it with the comments, anecdotes, and assumptions on the dating lives of single black women. Surprisingly the majority of the noise and clamor is not coming from single, black women themselves.  We instead are placed in a test tube of sorts–no, a pinata–and are being beaten repeatedly by the media, and anyone trying to appear as if they are making some grand educated hypothesis on the lives of unmarried black women.

Our standards are too high they say, and we should lower them. Apparently having a degree and wanting someone somewhat comparable to you education-wise or accomplishment-wise is out of the question. How dare we as black women have standards, and then expect men to meet those standards. Instead we should settle for the Slim Thugs of the world.

Let me pause for a minute. Does Slim Thug consider himself a successful black man? While I take nothing away from this musical success (okay, that was a lavish description) in no way would I group Slim Thug in the category of successful black men that are widely coveted by single, successful black women. Though I do agree at times we as women get carried away in our lists when it comes to what we look for in a mate, I think where the basics are concerned we hit the mark.

A successful black man may not necessarily be a college graduate, but one thing he definitely isn’t is Slim Thug. To address Mr. Thug’s comment about how the “half White in [his girlfriend] is where she still cooks and do all the shit.” Yes, because white women have been known since the dawn of time to keep a house and cook three meals a day for her husband. The good old caucasian blood will have your woman acting right every time! While black women complain too much, and we don’t want to cook, or do what a man says. Are you following me? It makes no sense!

“She don’t be begging and…she’s a smart girl too.”

My first question to Slim Thug is, what does your half white (because apparently she does not warrant a name, or any other defining characteristics by which he could have referred to her), again, what does she do for a living? Does this non-begging, grateful, obedient, homemaker interracial girl have a job or career to speak of? Does her obedience stem from her desire to capitalize on the little money you have, which indeed you are likely not investing, saving, or multiplying? You see, when we make comparisons I would like to know what I am being compared to. Am I, a college-educated black woman with a budding career who at times has put in 200+ hours a month at the office, being compared to someone as equally career driven? That makes a difference to me. It’s not that our standards are too high, it’s that we want a man we can bring into certain professional situations who will not say, pardon my french, dumb shit like this!

“White women treat they man like a king and Black women feel like they ain’t gotta do that shit.”

My problem with his entire statement is not that he wants a woman to treat him like a king. What man doesn’t? As women we want to treat you as a king, but we want you to lead and we’ll follow. The issue is if you have no direction, we are not going to follow you. Also, if you are a tyrant king, we will not allow you reign for very long.

Slim Thug has a very twisted view of single black women. For him to make such grotesque statements about not only black women, but to devalue his current girlfriend and pigeonhole her as nothing more than a subjective “half-white” woman, catering to his every whim, that is an injustice. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I am entitled to pointing out when that opinion is ignorant and showcases why we as black women have standards to begin with. I would like to believe once Slim Thug stops playing dress-up with his “bling-bling” chains, cornrows, lifts his pants to his waist, and removes his grill maybe he will be able to better articulate his opinion on the dating lives of single, black women.

Times must be hard when a rapper, that’s  only known as the guy who dated the 3rd most famous member of Destiny’s Child (Letoya Luckett), has to come out and voice his opinion against black women and offer dating/relationship advice.  I know nothing about this thug called Slim, a name which is quite inappropriate unless he’s been on a Slim Fast diet. In any event, after researching  Slim Thug, which took all of 3 minutes, I do have to come out in his defense.

Like most rappers, Slim Thug was born in the early 80′s, 1980 to be precise. It’s best to assume the house or apartment Slim Thug was raised in was built anywhere from the 50′s to the 60′s, possibly even earlier than that. A commonality that was shared in housing back then was lead paint. As most people know, lead paint poisoning can be linked to learning disabilities or social retardation. (Which mainly lead to the short bus population.) Most people became afflicted with lead paint poisoning may have participated in activities like licking window sills, and eating paint chips when they were children.

Imagine the vast amounts of window sills and lead paint chips Slim Thug could have possibly eaten as a child–to turn him into the fucking retarded adult he is today. Apparently, his mother just didn’t take notice and allowed it to develop further.  I’m going to assume, they didn’t have attorneys on tv advertising their lead paint lawsuit victories.  Actually, his mother could have prevented any of this from happening if she would have swallowed the night he was procreated.

Since none of  above happened, we’re now left with a rapper who is proud that his girlfriend went to Columbia University and that the white half of her does things for him. I’m sure it’s the white half of her also, that hasn’t admitted to her parents who her loser boyfriend is.

In any event, Slim Thug’s opinion on the state of black women, is just as irrelevant as everyone else’s. I’m just going to assume the negro is a by-product of window sill licking & lead paint poisoning because that’s the only excuse I can come up with in regards to why he’s a fucking retard.