Forgetful Men

Forgetful Men

I am not less than you because I am a woman.

I am not less than you because I am viewed as Black, Cherokee, poor, Asian, gay, crippled or old.

I am not less than you.

You can not see all of me because I can not be contained, captured or experienced in the framework lenses of limitation, fear or bewilderment.

I am what God made me.

I am a rejoicing part of God’s plan.

I soar through hatred, fear, anger, disgrace and lies.

God made me to live surrounded by freedom, love and grace.

I float like a butterfly.

On my  journey from flower to flower

My soul invented call and response.

My soul hears and answers the call of God.

Therefore, I am accountable to God.

Therefore, I humbly and gratefully bow to God.

Men have been spewing this same make believe crap since the start;
the land of the free and home of the brave.

I am not less than you because I am a woman.

God and a Woman made a pact and carried forth Jesus to this world.

As Sojourner Truth stated,“ Man had nothing to do with him. “

Blissfully ignorant;
Ignorantly blissful.
To, with words,
make insignificant
an entire race, ethnicity, gender.
How enormous the privilege;
the capacity to simply
not
give
a
fuck.

Summer Morn in New Hampshire

 - Claude McKay, 1922

All yesterday it poured, and all night long
    I could not sleep; the rain unceasing beat
Upon the shingled roof like a weird song,
    Upon the grass like running children’s feet.
And down the mountains by the dark cloud kissed,
    Like a strange shape in filmy veiling dressed,
Slid slowly, silently, the wraith-like mist,
    And nestled soft against the earth’s wet breast.
But lo, there was a miracle at dawn!
    The still air stirred at touch of the faint breeze,
The sun a sheet of gold bequeathed the lawn,
    The songsters twittered in the rustling trees.
And all things were transfigured in the day,
    But me whom radiant beauty could not move;
For you, more wonderful, were far away,
    And I was blind with hunger for your love.

Screw the Wrapper: the Inside's Still Rotten

Once again I find myself in a room full of professional peers smugly blowing smoke about their accomplishments.   As we discuss the absence of black males in the entering medical school class, my boss says "So, I saw that the black males in the class are largely first generation.  Are they from the Caribbean?" I responded, "And Nigeria and Ghana."  Why is that, he asks?  I say that it's cultural and that their parents tend to keep a tighter rein on the kids, making them a bit less susceptible to the distractions that capture our domestic kids.  I followed by saying that the community notices when meeting our students en masse, and invariably someone will ask, "where is the kid from Homewood?"

 

What does my boss say to me?  What does he say aloud in front of the group?   "The kid from Homewood is in jail."

 

I managed to reply, "Perhaps we can work to help stem the tide." I almost burst into tears right there.  At that moment I felt so sad and so deflated by how quickly and casually that sentiment was conveyed, and overwhelmed by the enormity of what we're trying to do.  We're trying to nurture a generation of young people so they don't end up as incarceration statistics.   To so flippantly toss off that "the kid from Homewood is in jail,"  was so insensitive, so damaging.  My FAMILY is in Homewood.  When the majority folk get done using me, at the end of the day, I know that there are people in Homewood who would go to the mat for me and mine.  They may not be educated, they may not always play by the rules and they may not always make good decisions (traumatized people rarely do), but they don't pretend to be what they are not.  They don't pretend to care about what happens to our community, only to throw the community under the bus when it looks like there's a dollar to be made.

 

I can't get anyone to invest time and effort in a Nursing Exploring post that might give the kid from Homewood an idea of what else s/he might do in life, but our faculty are running back and forth to and from China like they're going to Shadyside.  They'll bring students here from the country with the worst human rights record on the planet...because it pays.

 

Believe me, if it would put a dime in the pocket of any of these people, the kid from Homewood would get a stellar education, a mentor and a chance at a career through which s/he could cure individuals and our communities.  Until then, the kid from Homewood is a punchline.

 

Thanks...thanks a lot.

The Wreck of the Modern Woman

She sailed, proud and true
The horizon her goal
Those who built her said there was
No Limit
A working vessel, she toiled
Head held high.
Knowing no boundaries,
She took on passengers and was surprised to find them needy.
Never able to balance, she listed; she sank.
All the while believing
She had it under control.

Freedom Song

Sometimes I wonder who you are

I just can't grasp your perspective

You scream and yell at me all night

Your memories are all selective

I'm so tired of trying to find out

What is your reality

Just what planet are you on

Why is it you torture me?

In your mind I'm all that's wrong here

Burden to your paradise

Place the blame upon my shoulders

That must feel so fucking nice

I'm so tired of trying to find out

What is your reality?

Just which ship did you arrive on?

Cut the rope and set me free.

Logic has no place in your world

Everything is bound by fear

I can't fight the paranoia

I'm immune to all your tears

Now you have your armor on

It's you against the universe

What you never stop to see

Is that you always slay me first

Find some fucking gravity

Find some fucking sanity

I can't take this trip again

I'm floating away from me.

Blacks and Rock Music

An article in "The Root" http://www.theroot.com/views/rock-black-music-too?Gt1=38002, sounds the death knell for hip-hop, saying that the genre has run out of ideas.  It uses as evidence the fact that rap star Lil Wayne is at work on a rock album.  Author Rob Fields applauds the presence of blacks in rock music.  I'm not sure where he's been, since we've never been absent; just present in small numbers.  At the end of the day, music is music and different types move different people. Though sometimes I do want to scream when I hear a classic under a rap.  Lots of rappers (Diddy, Jay-Z) are hardcore rock fans.  Jay-Z did a mash-up with Linkin Park that KILLS.  If the beat moves you, it doesn't matter who plays it.  Though I have to say I'm so happy to see folks like TV On the Radio and remember Corey Glover and Living Colour from back in the day?  More metal bands have black lead singers (check out Lajon Witherspoon from Sevendust - the man could crack walnuts with his thighs... http://www.zimbio.com/Lajon+Witherspoon, or Howard Jones from Killswitch Engage http://static.playdo.com/1016/megadef/tabimages/killswitch_20engage_202%5B1%5D.jpg.  It’s really nice to no longer be the only brown spot in the crowd at rock shows, though I still find myself counting…

I don’t think black folks have run out of imagination.  It’s a trend and rap will turn into something else as time goes on, just like all music evolves.  The music industry has to be ready and willing to market what musicians produce.  If all they’ll push from black artists is rap, that’s what folks will produce.