6: Institutionalized Cultural Prejudice: A Dysfunctional Love Story

Chapter 6: Institutionalized Cultural Prejudice: A Dysfunctional Love Story

“The mind that perceives the limitation, is the limitation.” – Anonymous

In the first two chapters I touched upon the subject of perception of self and its association to family and friends. Embracing yourself can be difficult enough when you have developed a preconceived notion of yourself based on your own ideas. However, when you start to become aware of other people’s perception of who you are it can greatly affect both your perception of other people and your perception of yourself. Prejudice is all too common even in the most spiritually practiced individuals. The fact is that we base the majority of our opinions on our visual intake of the external world, and our perception of ourselves. Due to most of our cognitive information deriving from our senses taking in the world around us, it becomes very easy to attach negative experiences to our visual associations. This is why, as an individual, it is very important to be aware of your own consciousness and how it is projecting to others.  After all, the individual has always struggled to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. Every aspect of who you are is unique to you and is not defined by what the rest of the world, or how others dictate your capabilities. Remember that cultural biases can only limit you if you allow them to. So remain vigilant in your discovery of self, outside of a group.

A Dysfunction Love Story: Terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aims. The wars against drugs, the planet, the poor, the unemployed, middle class, women, blacks, gays, Muslims, workers, unions, teachers, textbooks, voting rights, the separation of church and state, and other minorities- is terrorism. Not only is it terrorism, but it is also used as a distraction from our terrorism abroad. When Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” I believe he probably meant don’t kill them.

Support the troops, end the war. We need our soldiers to protect our citizens from tyranny.

What if I told you that the version of history you were taught in school, was heavily revised to favor your own nations’ agenda while hiding it’s crimes and in doing so fostered an unrealistic sense of false patriotism used to manufacture your allegiance to a corporate entity masquerading as your government? (Commonly known as “Whitewashing” in America’s white supremist society.)

“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.” – Dr. Paul Farmer

“The suspected actions of one crazed individual doesn’t justify the vilification of millions of peaceful people.” – Anonymous

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. Even slavery was legal. Legality does not equate morality.

 “But it is illegal- Saying that something is illegal is not an argument against that thing. It is an appeal to authority. Laws are an arbitrary judgment made by whoever has political power at the time. Laws are a means for government to regulate people in the way that they see fit but that does not make them a universal standard of morality. Illegality is not an argument.” – Anonymous

 If you must make a law that hurts a number of people just to prove your morals or faith, then you have no morals or faith to prove. If you must prevent people from voting to win, your ideas are useless.

“This country has a mental health problem disguised as a gun problem and a tyranny problem disguised as a security problem.” – Joe Rogan

Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.

“Do you ever think about the fact that the US has created and legitimized a system of institutionalized inequality by funding schools through property taxes? Thar basically a child’s education is only as good as the value of the property in their neighborhood. Funny how education is so often views as an equalizing factor when there is nothing equal about it.” – Unknown

What does school really teach children?

1. Truth comes from authority.

 2. Intelligence is the ability to remember and repeat.

3. Conform intellectually and socially, non-compliance is punished. 

A child is more than a test score. Modern education creates people who are smart enough to accurately repeat what they are told and to follow orders, yet foolish enough to think this makes them smarter than everyone else.

“Schooling is important, training is important, but don’t ever think passing a class or having a certification trumps putting in work and having experience. Also, don’t underestimate the power of a driven, self-taught student. We’re all capable of reading, learning, and building skills with or without traditional schooling.” – Tyler Miller

“We must teach our children how to think instead of what to think. Right now, our education system is doing more to indoctrinate our children than to educate them. The factory model of education, with its focus on academic and economic elitism, is churning out obedient workers for the system, encouraged to conform every step of the way.” – Anonymous

“The easiest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher self-esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” – Nietzsche

“Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent students do not shine in standardize tests because they do not have standardized minds.” – Diane Ravitch

If a child can’t learn the way we teach, we must teach the way they learn. Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing it is stupid. The truth of an idea is not determined by the number of people who believe it. If you say “gullible” slowly it sounds like “oranges.”

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle

If you’re going to be a smartass, first you have to be smart. Otherwise you’re just an ass.  In the age of information, ignorance is a choice. The revolutionaries will be homeschooled. No one will give you the education to overthrow them. Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for she was born in another time. What if the cure for cancer is trapped inside the mind of someone who can’t afford an education?

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write…. but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” – Alvin Toffler

“We think we understand the rules when we become adults, but what we really experience is a narrowing of the imagination.” – David Lynch

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create. Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” – Albert Einstein

Sometimes our minds become stagnant in a 2-dimensional mindset or “tunnel vision.” Therefore, it’s hard to see the point of life. We feel without joy. We’re caught up in the repetitive, mundane, heavy, or superficial. Nothing rouses us from boredom. We’re listless, uninspired, half dead, undead, or an everyday “Zombie.”

“Group Thinking” is centered on the idea that a person cannot be a part of the societal “whole” without accepting the same surface ideal or engaging in the exact same sacrificial conditions as their peers.

Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness. I know why the caged bird sings, because it has a song.

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We are caged by our cultural programming. Culture is a mass hallucination of a mundane existence, it’s a circumstantial obedience. The Matrix is real. It exists inside the minds of the masses as a form of social, cultural, political and education indoctrination. Indoctrination through corruption of government, corporations, media, education, religion, and banks.

“I feel like I’ve never been nothing but tired and I’ll be working until the day I expire. I lay down no more I can do, but then go on because you tell me to. I look down afraid I will fall and though the sun shines I see nothing at all.” – Patty Griffin

You must first realize the prison of your mind before you can escape it. The greatest prison people live in is the fear of what other people think. Fear of the unknown. Merry Crisis and Happy New Fear!

“You must realize, that fear is not real. It is a product of thoughts you create. Do not misunderstand me, danger is very real, but fear is a choice.” – Anonymous

“Nothing in this life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” – Marie Curie

The search for reality is the most dangerous of all undertakings for it destroys the world in which you live. Humanity is paying for the sins of our collective ancestors; a conflict of duality occurs with the obsolete traditions and values of our forefather’s clash with our own sense of humanity, joy, and inner peace. We truly are all responsible for each other, we truly are our brother’s keeper.

“There is no escaping ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been, and we solve nothing fundamental by cloaking ourselves in technological glory” – Neil Postman

“As a people our minds are vastly creative, yet we’re trapped within a dysfunctional religiously dictated, government owned, societal mindfuck; approved by an outdated generation that destroyed our natural habitat, thereby polluting, stealing and limiting our resources, enforcing oppression, crippling our potential, bounding our talent, crushing our spirit, shamming our souls, destroying our minds, separating us from ourselves, numbing our humanity, dividing us from each other.” – Charles W. Smith III

“Real life is doing something you love to do with your entire being so that there is no inner contradiction, no war between what you are doing and what you think you should do. [No conflict of duality.]” – J. Krishnamurti

Cognitive dissonance is why people get so upset when that which they hold most closely is challenged. It’s the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information. When confronted with challenging new information, most people seek to preserve their current understanding of the world by rejecting, explaining away, or avoiding the new information or by convincing themselves that no conflict really exists. Therefore, denying an inconvenient truth with a reassuring lie. Some are so, inured and hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.

“Find yourself” is not how it works. You aren’t a ten-dollar bill in last winter’s coat pocket. You are also not lost. Your true self is right there, buried under cultural conditioning, other people’s opinions, and inaccurate conclusions you drew as a child and adult that became your beliefs about who you are. “Finding yourself” is actually returning to yourself. An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering who you were before the world got it’s hands on you.” – Unknown

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again, and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” – Anonymous

“We have a natural ability called neuroplasticity, which means that if we learn new knowledge and have new experiences, we can develop new networks or circuits of neurons, and literally change our mind.” – Joe Dispenza

Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident that they are acting on their own free will. None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. The more you begin to investigate what we think we know, where we come from, what we think we are doing… the more you begin to see we’ve been lied to by most all institutions. The definition of stupid is knowing the truth, seeing the truth, but still believing in lies.

An illusion will be so large and so vast that it will escape their perception. Those who see it will be thought of as insane. Some people confuse crazy with passionate. Let me be clear, I am bat shit passionate. I may be [creatively] crazy, but crazy is better than stupid. Crazy kept me from going insane.

“I awoke, only to see that the rest of the world is still asleep.” – Leonardo Da Vinci

A mistake repeated more than once is a decision. You can’t wake a person pretending to be sleep.

Conformity is subtle/blanketed slavery which only leads to regrets at time of death. Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. A sell out is someone who will “sell out” their individuality, or they’ll do and support anything just to be approved.

“If you try and stray from your truths because lies are what others and the norms expect of you, you’ll only damage yourself and trouble others. Be there for yourself, pursue the things that make you happy, and people that vibrate on the same level.” – Jesper Cameron

“In some instances, if you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television, then you deserve it.” – Anonymous

“As tempting as it is to make another feel accountable for their wrong doings, ultimately it is not up to you. It’s in their conscience (sometimes deeply buried) and they will have to address it at some point of their evolution.”  – Anonymous

“I have learned do much from God that I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, A Jew.” –  Hafiz

“When you call yourself an Indian or Muslim or Christian or European or straight or gay, or anything else, you are being violent by separating yourself from the rest of mankind. Separating yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition breeds ego. The enlightened peaceful warrior who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.” – J. Krishnamurti

“We were all humans until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us and wealth classified us.” – Anonymous

Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t make it wrong. Out with the old, and in with the true. The highest form of human intelligence is to observe everything, including the self without any form of judgment.

We must teach people HOW to think, rather than WHAT to think. You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. Logic will get you from A to B, imagination will take you everywhere else. Re-examine all you’ve been told, dismiss whatever insults your soul. If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. The eyes are useless when the mind is blind. What you see reflects your thinking and your thinking but reflects your choice of what you want to see. It’s ok to doubt what you’ve been taught to believe.

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Thoreau

Your mental limitations do not define me.

“You seek too much information and not enough transformation.” – Sai Baba

“I miss my fear-based reality.” – Said no one ever.

You change for two reasons; either you learn enough that you want to, or you’ve been hurt enough that you must. If it looks like the road goes nowhere, turn around.

“They must find it difficult… those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority.” – Gerald Massey

“When an honest man discovers he is mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or he will cease to be honest.” – Anonymous

Morality is doing what is correct, regardless of what you’re told. Obedience is doing what is told regardless of what is correct. Where shall we go? To the left, where nothing is right? Or to the right, where nothing is left? Do not mistake kindness for love. What’s right for others may not necessarily be correct for you. The same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It’s about what you’re made of, not the circumstances. Some things work for some and not for others. (Be mindful of basing ideals off of egoic power and hatred rather than love, thereby imposing and restricting the civil rights of another human beings.)

Shift. The world is changing and I’m on the transition team. Say yes to freedom, peace, dignity, and respect for all people. Say no to terror and repression towards all living beings. In the beginning was freedom.

The system works because you work. The only way to deal with an unfree world, is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes a duty. Those who have the privilege to know, have a duty to act. Sorry, the revolution will not be televised due to corporate & media corruption, greed, and fear.

“Class warfare: experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.” – Thomas Jefferson

When the entirety of your earnings are exhausted on food and shelter, your labors are no longer viewed as an opportunity for economic advancement, but rather as an act of self-preservation. In the real world, that’s called slavery.

“Banks are the real criminals. Why is it easier to believe that 150,000,000 Americans are being lazy, rather than 400 Americans are being greedy? Banks have helped corporations, churches and government make fortunes by stealing, exploiting and destroying our assets, our workforce, our resources, and our planet. All protected, assisted, and bailed out using money.” – Tom Yorke

*I invite the reader to watch The Zeitgeist.*

“If a man has an apartment stacked to the ceiling with newspapers, we call him crazy. If a woman has a trailer house full of cats, we call her nuts; but when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation, we put them on the cover of Fortune magazine and pretend that they are role models.” – B. Lester

For a booming economy we must ensure that domestic depositors get their money back by letting the banks fail instead. This shall give debt relief to struggling homeowners and businesses facing bankruptcy. Bail out the people and imprison bankers.

“You cannot save your way out of poverty. The problem is not a $5 splurge on coffee but full-time jobs that don’t provide a living wage.” – Ryan Henly

“If you are more outraged at poor black folks in Missouri looting stores than rich whites on Wall Street looting your future, you have been duped.” – Pete Dominick

“Low-income kids gotta worry about how they’re going to go about getting an apartment/house, car, or loan when their parents can’t co-sign them because their credit is bad due to forced debt to be able to make ends meet. Tell me that generational wealth is not systemic.” –  Guillermo Camarillo

“You can’t recover from burnout if you can’t afford not to work. You can’t recover from burnout if you can’t afford to change careers. You can’t recover from burnout if you live paycheck to paycheck. You can’t recover from burnout if you can’t rest.” – Unknown

“Millennials” is used in the media to infantilize, discredit, and instill distrust of an educated, hard-working, low-earning, fed up generation of 30-somethings living through the worst capitalism, police brutality, government corruption, and a resurgence of hate violence. The way millennials are referred to is nothing short of gaslighting. We inherited an environment and society that is unsustainable, but our protest and demand for revolutionary change is written off as some sort of tantrum. No, Bob and Karen, you’re killing us all. But here’s the thing, you’re only convincing yourselves that we’re a generation of gold stars and participation trophies. In our relatively short adulthood thus far, we’ve proven to ourselves that we can innovate, adapt, and persist despite the barriers to progress you’ve created.” – Dana Vivian White

Thank labor unions, they are the folks who brought you the weekend, child labor laws, overtime, minimum wage, injury protection, workmen’s compensation insurance, pension security, right to organize, etc.

Millennials can occupy, but don’t understand how to organize. We must vote because bad candidates are elected by good citizens who don’t vote. Do not try and bend the government. Don’t waste energy beating a wall, hoping it will transform into a door. That is impossible. Instead, only try and realize the truth, that there is no government, only corporations. The government uses force and intimidation to coerce people to comply with their demands.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” – Desmond Tutu

“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” – Edward R. Murrow

“The greatest mistake of our time is not the few who have destroyed, but by the vast majority that sit idly by. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Equality is not justice. There’s a difference between committing crimes for fun and committing crimes out of need.

“A society which neglects, oppresses, and disdains a very significant part of its population; leaving them hungry, impoverished, unemployed, uneducated, and utterly without hope, will, through cause and effect create a population which is bitter, which is angry, which is violent, and a society which is crime-ridden. This is the case in America, and it is the case in other countries throughout the world…. Through neglect of our government and through a grossly irrational set of priorities, we are dooming today tens of millions of young people to a future of bitterness, misery, hopelessness, drugs, crime, and violence. All the jails in the world – and we already imprison more people per capita than any other country- and all the executions in the world, will not make that situation right. We can either educate or electrocute. We can create meaningful jobs, rebuilding our society, or we can build more jails. Let us build a society of hope and compassion, not one of hate and vengeance.” – Bernie Sanders

“Police are not a fundamental pillar for community safety. The safest communities don’t have more cops; they have more resources.” – Zellie Imani

Equality is not justice. There’s no compromising over injustice. If you don’t speak up, you will die unheard.

“Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope… These ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” – Robert F. Kennedy

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” – Pablo Picasso

“During time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell

“A system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect.” – W.E.B. Du Bois

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – Buckminster Fuller

Real eyes realize real lies. Remember that there are no coincidences, only synchronicity. That which seems innocent isn’t so and there’s deeply rooted meaning in that which seems dark, stigmatized and distasteful. For example, to the untrained eye insubordinate anarchy is the breakdown of society. Yet, our problem lies in our indoctrinated values, morals, and traditions. There’s power in looking silly, and not caring what you do. Arrest one of us; two more appear. You can’t arrest an idea!

“We have every right to seek to destroy a system that seeks to destroy us!”

See, when one culture sets the societal standard for a nation full of immigrants, that in itself is prejudice. When one demographic shares a surface idea, or “group think mentality” of believing they’re humanly any better (or worse) than another societal group- that is EGO.  Look within to our common human-oneness. There needs to be a separation from ego into heaven, peace, and love. Since the egos of Caucasians colonized the world using 1.) white man money 2.) white man Jesus 3.) white man government (to protect the former)- It is oppressive illusionary power/Illuminati mindfuck Trifecta.” – Charles W. Smith III

“Three-point oppression in a nation full of immigrants forced to adopt false values. Common currency is merely the printing of inclusive ‘tickets’ that resemble the faces and inflate the egos of a dictatorship that oppresses and excludes resources and luxury to anyone different. Identifying with cultures outside of one’s own is the foundation of mental illness. Shallow roots consistently produce unstable foundations. Racism is a culture clash, it is far more than merely skin deep”- Charles William Smith III

***Note: The following will analyze a broader scope of ego with a concentration on racism filtered through the perceptions of a Black-American male. ***

“To say Obama is progress is saying that he’s the first black person that is qualified to be president. That’s not black progress. That’s white progress. There have been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years.” – Chris Rock

Intelligent, articulate black people are not ‘acting white,’ they are actually acting very, very BLACK!

Prejudice is the parent of racism. Systematic Racism is about politics (power) and economics (wealth.) “Racism” is a form of group biases that becomes institutionalized (in laws, schools, churches, social customs.) “Prejudice” gives privileges to one group and denies them to others.

I can only speak of racism from both my own and inherited experiences. It must be nice when printed money, the majority of government and an assumed force-fed deity looks like you. I shall never forget the suffering of my ancestors.

Europeans came to America and committed mass genocide on the natives, then enslaved a people that they ripped away from their homes and families and got fat and rich off of the exploitation of those resources. Our nations were robbed of all-natural resources for their profit, leaving nothing behind but death, destruction, disease, poverty, & famine. No living white person is solely responsible for slavery; but all living whites reap the rewards, as blacks wear its scars.

“Unless you are a survivor of emotional abuse you have no idea what it means to fight daily battles in your head with a person you no longer have contact with. Verbal, emotional, and physical abuse [trauma] have residual effects on the victim. You don’t ‘just get over it.” – Unknown

 “About 50 years ago direct in your face overt racism became illegal and less socially acceptable. Which had 2 side effects of white America:

First, it allowed us to believe that racism is over. Secondly, it enabled white folks us to frame the ongoing struggle of the black community as a character flaw. If you look closely, you’ll see these sentiments echoed about black America everywhere. The message: to be black is to be inferior. That’s not the facts, that’s just racism…. Racism is a seeping system of forces that effectively keep people of color in a permanent second-class status. It’s the foundation fabric of our society, woven with values and attitude, stereotypes policies, economics, and laws. Jim Crow was replaced with shiny new laws, that are just as racist, but look better on the surface…This has made it harder as ever for white Americans to see the truth. The odds are ever in our favor, and always have been. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane:

 Stop 1) Wealth. Between 1934 and 1962 the govt backed 120 billion dollars of home loans, but they refused to give out home loans to black folks, or even if black folks lived nearby. This went on for decades, this practice known as ‘red-lining’ essentially 1) forced black Americans into poor urban centers, the beginnings of the ghetto, 2) segregated America to this day 3) made it impossible to invest in the future of black neighborhoods 4) made it impossible for black Americans to start inheriting property and wealth the same way that white Americans were.

Stop 2) Education, property taxes fund schools. which means that families that live in nice houses (maybe ones they got with the help of the govt) get a better education, better education means more opportunities, more resources, more connections, more jobs, more money.

Stop 3) Jobs Lack of educations opportunities meant that many black folks were relegated to low wage manual labor. Today, when looking at the same exact resume’, employers are 50% more likely to call back a resume labeled with a white sounding name.

Stop 4) Mass Incarceration. Shortly after the civil right movement prisons became privatized for-profit businesses. Fill those cells, make those dollars- and they did. The prison population shot up from 200,000 to 2.4 million. More than any country in the world. And who filled those cells? People of color. More African American adults are under correctional control today then were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the civil war began. Black men are now imprisoned at 6 times the rate of white men. So, did black men just become 6 times more dangerous? Of course not, what changed was the laws and sentencing, sweeping laws were written that specifically target black communities. For instance, the sentence for possession of crack was 100 times harsher than the sentence for cocaine.

Stop 5) Racial profiling. It wasn’t just harsher sentencing; communities of color are also policed more harshly. Policies like ‘show me your papers’ and ‘stop and frisk’ target people of color under the law. Totally legal. So, shocker, they’re more likely to get arrested for the same thing white people do. Twice as likely to get pulled over. Take the late Walter Scott, who was pulled over for a broken taillight. Only to be shot 5 times in the back by a cop.

Stop 6) Police Brutality. Police brutality is front and center of the race conversation right now. Twice a week in the US, white officers kill black suspects most of whom are unarmed, and the consequences are minimal if any. Might even get paid a bunch of money for it. The police themselves have admitted to widespread use of excessive force and racial bias. SO, what does America do? Oh, just give them military supplies of course. Tanks, protective gear, fire power used in war- all the while wagging a finger at protestors dared to be outraged by it. Sadly, this all just the tip of the racism iceberg…. The first step in combating racism is acknowledging it. Acknowledging that the system is unfair. Racism is a powerful institution built by 400 years of slavery, 100 of outright discrimination, 50 plus more years of covert discrimination. A legacy that long in the making doesn’t just disappear overnight.” – Racism for Dummies

“Our backs tell stories no books have the spine to carry.”- Rupi Kaur

Why would we go back to Africa when we built America?

-An entire economic system has been built on our backs, with our blood and sweat. Then through class warfare we’re denied access to the system we were used to build, and then blacks are accused of being extremely lazy once we stopped working for free. I don’t know if the lazy stereotype is true, although I do know that Caucasians went all the way to Africa to get out of doing work.

-After they sold our babies, they made us love theirs.

“You were afraid to nurse your young lest fallen breast offend your master’s sight and he should flee to firmer loveliness. And so, you passed them, your children, on to me. Flesh that was your flesh and blood that was your blood drank the sustenance of life from me. And as I gave suckle, I knew I nursed my own child’s enemy. I could have lied, told you your child was fed till it was dead of hunger, But I could not find the heart to kill orphaned innocence. For as it fed. It smiled and burped and gurgled with content and as for color knew no difference. Yes, in that first while I kept your sons and daughters alive. But when they grew strong in blood and bone that was of my milk you taught them to hate me. Put decay in their hearts and upon their lips so that strength that was of myself turned and spat upon me, despoiled my daughters, and killed my sons. You know I speak true.” – Beah Richards, excerpt from “A Black Woman speaks of White Womanhood.”

-They lynched, beat, and mutilated our families publicly to instill fear & terror within the hearts of us & our children. Merry Crisis and Happy New Fear. Hey, remember when black people were the presents?

-We’re enlisted to fight wars & die for “their” interests that have no relevance to the advancement of our people. Minorities are forced to destroy their own people on behalf of their oppressor. Egoic insecurity hurts those we love. So, stemming from traumatic pain- emotional dysfunction and mental illness erupts and causes us to lash out and hurt those within reach because we’re subconsciously indoctrinated into a false sense of self and can’t destroy the aforementioned paradigm. If we see ourselves as a free and equal people we need to act like a free and equal people by loving, supporting, and liberating those in our surrounding communities. Maybe if street gangs stopped killing each other and went back to protecting their neighborhoods, police brutality would lower.

– The media subconsciously feeds us programming to dilute the beauty of melanin. The more European you look, the more revered, accepted & valued you are.

“Generally speaking, it seems we live in a world that enjoys black culture and dislikes black people.” – Cecil Emeke

-They neglect to properly educate everyone on our history & lead us to believe that the pro-activity of our own equalizes the superiority complex of their own. (Example: Why is there no white history month?) 

“Whites built this nation on the backs of blacks for free, leaving their Motherland to be defended by tribal elders, the sick and weak that we decided not to steal and children. Meanwhile, the rest of the world raped and pillaged the entire continent for every natural resource they have, and still do to this day. Up until about 60 years ago, black people were not even considered humans, much less citizens. You expect an entire demographic to rebuild themselves in that short amount of time???? Maybe if whites had picked their own damn cotton and left God’s original people alone, you wouldn’t have to be worried about who does and doesn’t get [government assistance.]” – Angela Roebuck

“Mitochondrial Eve is a recent African Origin model that shows that part of our genome, inherited only through mothers and daughters, derived from an African ancestor about 200,000 years ago. In paleoanthropology, the “Out of Africa” theory, is the most widely accepted model of the geographic origin and early migration of anatomically modern humans. Genetic studies and fossil evidence show that archaic Homo sapiens evolved to anatomically modern humans solely in Africa, between 200,000 and 60,000 years ago. “– Wikipedia

With respect to humanity’s earliest known remains – It could be said Africans mothered the human race. So, learning about African Spirituality is part of learning about your African culture and history. I’ve never understood how a person can consider themselves free whilst carrying the name of their oppressors. 

“Don’t just get an African name, get an African brain. It’s crazy how many black people honor European holidays yet are clueless to the knowledge of our ancestors written in stone.” – Tupac

“No race can afford to neglect the enlightenment of its mothers.” – Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

“Knowing your history but not reprogramming your subconscious will have you talking black, living white and thinking green.” – Dr. Umar Johnson

Yet, still be sure to learn European History because ego doesn’t change its tactics…ever. It just gets more technological and sophisticated.

“White America must see that no other ethnic group has been a slave on American soil, that is one thing that other immigrant groups haven’t had to face. The other thing is that the color became a stigma. America decided to make the negroes color a stigma. America freed the slaves in 1863 through the emancipation proclamation of Abraham Lincoln but gave the slaves no land or nothing in reality as a matter of fact to get started on. At the same time America was giving away millions of acres of land in the west and the mid-west, which meant that there was a willingness to give it’s white peasant from Europe an economic base, and yet it refuse to give it’s black peasant from Africa who came here involuntarily in chains and had worked free for 244 years, any kind of economic base. And so, emancipation for the negro was really freedom to hunger, it was freedom to the wind and rains of heaven it was freedom without food to eat or land to cultivate, and therefore it was freedom and famine at the same time. And when white Americans tell the negro to lift himself by his own bootstraps, they don’t look over the legacy of slavery and segregation. I believe we ought to do all we can, and seek to lift ourselves by our own bootstraps, but it’s a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. And many negroes by the thousands and millions have been left bootless as a result of all of these years of oppression and as a result of a society that deliberately made his color a stigma and something worthless sand degrading.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

While some may say The Civil War was fought over taxes, it’s a further whitewashing/whitesplaining of black suffering and turmoil. The Civil War was about slavery because one should not inhumanely value property over human lives.

If we were to entertain the thought that The American Civil War was fought over taxes, it’s further proof that ego divides no matter how similar you are. The ego’s goal is for you to judge and separate yourself from your brothers and sisters. Regardless of the situation, if separation is its outcome, then ego has reached its goal. No matter how much one exerts themselves, ego shall never be satisfied, for its appetite increases as it feeds.

A Black, white Supremacist often profits off being the black face of white racism. Black people can always make a quick buck being willing to say all the racist stuff white racists want to but can’t.

Nigger Connotation: Equality is not justice.

“After the way African-Americans were treated in this country. It isn’t a white person’s place to decide whether or not they [Blacks] can use a word amongst themselves and get mad because they [Whites] aren’t allowed to. Actually, white people are allowed to, but everyone will (rightfully) judge you for it.”– Briana Morgan

When white people, or white-washed black people, correct Black-Americans in refraining from use of the term “nigger,” it’s merely a sign of systematic racism and racial privilege.  Privilege cannot fathom how it’s socially acceptable for blacks to use a word that they shouldn’t.

As people of color, we have been rightfully accused of being racist to white people, especially when we call them “cracker.” As we all know, calling them “cracker” is egregiously offensive and horribly shocking because of this long, violent, reverse-racist history.

“I could be a reverse racist if I wanted to; all I would need is a time machine and go back in time before Europe colonized the world. I’d convince the leaders of Africa, Asia, The Middle East, Central & South America to invade and colonize Europe – occupy them and steal their land & resources. I’d set up some kind of trans-Asia slave trade where we’d export white people to work on giant rice plantations in China and just ruin Europe over the course of a couple centuries, so all of their decedents would want to migrate out and live in the places where black and brown people come from. 

Of course, in that time I’d make sure I set up systems that privilege black and brown people in every conceivable social, political, and economic opportunity. White people would never have any hope of real self-determination. Every couple decades make up some fake war as an excuse to go and bomb them back to the stone-age & and say it’s for their own good because their culture’s inferior. Just for kicks- subject white people to colored people’s standards of beauty so they end up hating the color of their own skin eyes & hair.

If after hundreds and hundreds of years of that, I got on stage at a comedy show and said ‘Hey, what’s the deal with white people? Why can’t they dance?’ – That would be reverse racism.” – Aamer Rahman

“White Americans have heritages they can be proud of; Irish, Polish, whatever, be bold and be proud to be French even. We have a past we have a history. Some of our ancestors were Vikings or even a British blacksmith. Whatever. We can say those things.

Black people in America don’t have that luxury. They had their history stolen from them. Most of them have no idea what country of origin they have [come from]. And “Africa” isn’t a country.

So, they get to be black. And they get to be proud to be black. Because our whiteness erased their heritage.

So, when a white person asks, “Why can they be proud to be black, but I can’t be proud to be white?” Because you’re celebrating things like the erasure of their history and the violence and torture their people suffered at the whim, of white America.” – Steven Michael

Roses are red, Violets are blue, your parents lied to you, reverse racism isn’t true.

 “When we say that “White people have no culture.” It means the concept of “whiteness” was developed primarily to oppress and enslave people with different skin. It attempted to supplant pre-existing cultures, by ignoring history and painting Europe as “white,” and lumping all “white people” together based on their race to better maintain the illusion. As “white people” as a construct should not exist, “white people” cannot have a culture. The identity was completely designed to hurt others.” – Unknown

“White people finding out that we talk about white people as a means to vent about and survive the whiteness we’re forced to experience is, to put it one way, never boring. One point I’d make is that we’ve been doing this for as long as I’ve been alive, and probably centuries, and yet not one whiff of white genocide, white slavery, or a white exclusion act. To put that another way: the reason it’s accepted as wrong to general POC (People of Color) is that that historically goes hand in hand with oppressive, discriminatory, violent, deadly policies. The reverse isn’t true.

The other thing I’d note is that if you’re a white person who’d never heard POC talk about white people before the advent of social media, it probably means that no POC, even your friends, have truly trusted you. Because we know that even mild-mannered Bob in accounting could easily, violently lose his shit if he feels that his right to be called just a person without the “white” descriptor, has been encroached upon. We grew up with your families in our homes via popular culture. Your missionaries use capital and guilt to force your cultural expectations on people in the countries you decide to pity. So, we know you. And we talk about it.

But, wow. You’re so angry when we finally have space to exist in public, where you might accidently end up eavesdropping on the things we say, which, again, haven’t wholly disrupted your systemic advantages. ‘Racism is racism no matter who you’re talking about.’ Nah. You live in a totally different world. You can’t grip what that massive gap in context means. But I guess I can always count on you to condescendingly, self-righteously refuse to even try.”- Studio Glibly

Further proof that ego is the parent of racism and that racism is not just a two dimensional black or white issue is as follows:  “I am the Latin person here [on The View] and I would like to tell you that [Rodner Figueroa’s “joke” referring to First Lady Michelle Obama’s appearance resembling the cast of The Planet of the Apes] was racist. Period. A lot of Latin people recognize the fact that we do have African blood in us, and a lot do not want to recognize this fact. And that’s where this stems from is that there is a secret in the Latin community, specifically in the Caribbean, South American, Central American Latin community that they are very racist. They never want to be in the same group as black people, and it’s sad. The thing is this is the problem in the Latin community that we do not talk about, that we do not address, and it is real, and it was revealed by this man’s statement. And you do not disrespect the first lady of our country.”- Rosie Perez

“How can someone be racist if they have friends who are black? The same way serial killers can have friends who are alive. Even being a member of a particular group, yourself doesn’t mean you can’t be prejudiced against said group. Much less the “my friend” fallacy is just flat-out lazy thinking.” – Xu Beixi

White racists can have black spouses, adopt children, and “friends,” in the same way misogynists have women, wives, daughters, and friends.

“Ironic racism, if you’re not aware, is when someone who perceives themselves above being racist says or does something extremely racist for a laugh. It’s basically the humor equivalent of saying ‘No offense, but…’

I’m not ‘your black friend.’ Partying would start out fun, but our hangouts would end with me feeling conflicted. If these people were my friends, why did I feel so bad when I hung out with them? For me, ironic racism would happen in social situations, on any given Saturday night, whiskey flowing, everyone having a good time, and then the shit would start. I’d hear things like:

– ‘You know, you’re black, but you’re not black black.’

– ‘Is ________ because you’re black?’

– ‘I’ve always wanted to hook up with a black person.’

– ‘[Fill in with something about chicken.]’

And by the way, you can’t touch my hair. Don’t even ask me anymore. (On a side note: Singling out culturally specific hairstyles may send a signal to students of color that their very being is a *distraction in the classroom. – @ACLUofKY)

None of the comments were ever said with malicious intentions, but it’s really shitty when these “compliments” are made because a person has no frame of reference for alternatives. When trying to explain why these jokes are offensive, I’m often made to feel like I’m overreacting. Or the offending person feels the need to defend him or herself, because the only thing worse than being racist is being called racist.”- Crystal Sykes

“White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.” – Robin DiAngelo

“The thing that is hardest to explain is that these jokes are coming from a position of privilege. This social advantage is so ingrained in our culture that they are careless that their comments are coming off the backs of centuries’ worth of hardship and oppression. The tipping point for me was about two years ago, at a friend’s house, when I was introduced as “The Black Friend.” As my friend laughed off his statement, my heart dropped at this oversimplification of me as a person. I quickly realized that the joke was on me, and the punch line was my race.

We can learn to embrace our differences without making them a joke or a spectacle. It’s not funny if it comes at the expense of someone’s skin color or culture. And if anyone thinks otherwise, [they’re naïve and arrogantly oblivious.]” – Crystal Sykes

“Okay, here’s the problem with the idea that oppressed groups can “alienate allies” by not being nice enough:

You shouldn’t be an ally because oppressed groups are nice to you. You should be an ally because you believe they deserve basic human rights. Hearing “I hate men” shouldn’t make men stop being feminist. Hearing “fuck white people” shouldn’t make white people stop opposing racism.

Your opposition to oppression should be moral, and immovable. Your belief that all humans should be treated with equal respect shouldn’t be conditional based on whether or not individual people are nice to you.” – Unknown

We don’t hate white people. When we talk about the real history of the world and we mention things that make you uncomfortable because you’re not racist like most of your Caucasian ancestors don’t be sorry. It’s a history you weren’t a part of, we know. Again, No living white person is responsible for slavery; but all living whites reap the rewards; as blacks wear it’s scars (class warfare.) The sins of your ancestors must be acknowledged, remorse must be shown, and corrective action must be taken to alleviate any current injustices. (I.e. Reparations)

“First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.”-Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., 16 April 1963

“I will say this shit tho: white homies, y’all gotta make it haaaard as fuck to be racist in America. Like I see some of y’all try to be polite when it comes to disagreements, but that just means people can be racist and still have a coffee date with their liberal white friend later in the day. Make it hard for them. Make it a lonely experience. Make it so rough that they have no choice but to think “damn, maybe it’s me.” Just for a second. Don’t laugh at or humor any jokes that perpetuate racist ideas. From the smallest to the biggest opportunities. Make that shit look and feel so miserable that no one wants to be a part of it. Because, they don’t care about me and my opinion. They care about yours.” – Devin Middleton

“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” – James Baldwin

“For those of you who don’t understand what politics actually mean: ‘Are you going to let politics ruin a friendship?’ Yes, the fuck I am. People talk about politics as if it’s this isolated, abstract concept that only matters at election time. Somebody’s politics is their world view. It’s whether they think certain human beings deserve rights. It’s how they think the world should be. And if somebody thinks that the world should be colder, meaner, less accepting and downright hostile to people that are different to them, then sure as fuck is the friendship over.” – Unknown

“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” – James Baldwin

Entitlement and privilege

“Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because it’s not a problem to you personally.” – Unknown

“All it means when people say ‘you’re speaking from a place of privilege’ is that you’re likely to underestimate how bad the problem is by default because you are never personally exposed to that problem. It’s not a moral judgement of how difficult your life is.” – Unknown

“Why Most Mass Murderers Are Privileged White Men- White men from upper middle-class backgrounds expect to be both welcomed and heard wherever they go. Perhaps the greatest asset that unearned privilege conveys is the sense that public spaces “belong” to you. If you are an American-born, college-educated white man from a prosperous family, you don’t have a sense that any place worth being is off-limits to the likes of you. When that sense of entitlement gets frustrated, as it can for a host of complex psychological reasons, it is those same hyper-privileged men who are the most likely to react with violent, rage-filled indignation. For white male murderers from “nice” families, the fact that they chose public spaces like schools, university campuses, or movie theaters as their targets suggests that they saw these places as legitimately theirs.

The vast majority of white men from comfortable backgrounds don’t commit mass murder, of course. Your entitlement doesn’t manifest in the sense that public spaces are yours to terrorize, but it does show up in the confidence with which you move in those spaces. The certainty of belonging is at the core of your privilege. Your sense of belonging serves as an invaluable crutch in times of personal crisis.

It’s not that white men are guaranteed preferential treatment in every setting. It’s that white men are raised to expect to be welcomed wherever they go. When they find that that automatic welcome isn’t forthcoming, they tend to be indignant. When angry middle-class whites gather together in political groups to “take back our country,” what they want to grab back are the privileges they sense they’ve lost.

The fact that white male mass murderers feel so confident choosing public spaces to commit their crimes reflects a powerful truth about the culture in which they were raised. Put simply, they did what they did because of an individual sickness—but they did it where they did it in part because of white privilege…. It’s not that white men are more violent. Rates of domestic violence, including homicide, are roughly the same across all ethnic grounds… the less privileged you are, the less likely you are to take your violence outside of your family and your community.

White men from prosperous families grow up with the expectation that your voices will be heard. You expect politicians and professors to listen to you and respond to your concerns. You expect public solutions to your problems. And when you’re hurting, the discrepancy between what you’ve been led to believe is your birthright and what you feel you’re receiving in terms of attention can be bewildering and infuriating. Every killer makes his pain another’s problem. But only those who’ve marinated in privilege can conclude that their private pain is the entire world’s problem with which to deal. This is why, while men of all races and classes murder their intimate partners, it is privileged young white dudes who are by far the likeliest to shoot up schools and movie theaters [or eradicate an entire race of people in genocide.]” – Hugo Schwyzer

The ego’s superiority complex is 100% satisfied with its unearned privileges. Ego really doesn’t feel as guilty as it wants everyone to believe it does because it lacks true capacity to self-reflect. Deep down, the thought that your EGO ruled over people makes it feel proud. Pretending to be unaware of your unearned privilege isn’t fooling anyone. Your low self-esteem and intense insecurity show every time you use the word “Nigger.” Ego cheats and manipulates its way to the top because deep down it feels it cannot compete on a level playing field with everyone else.

YOU and your crew are not innocent, and your EGO destroyed us. Our LOVE didn’t fail, your EGO did. It’s all about your EGO. It’s a culturally ingrained superiority (entitlement) complex.

The person with an inferiority complex is no more innocent than those with a superiority complex. Degrading one’s own culture will not gain you favor with another. You may think the grass is greener on the other side, but if you have watered your garden well, you would know that yours is just as green. Sometimes the grass seems greener on the other side because it’s fake or fertilized with bullshit.

“The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” – Steve Biko

“No one has the right to tell you that their life is harder than yours. No one has the right to invalidate your struggles because they ‘got through it just fine.’ No one has the right to tell you to ‘get over it’ just because other people have it ‘worse.’ Hardships are not comparable. Your struggles are real, legitimate, and just as difficult as anyone else’s.”

“Just [for your information,] it was obvious in 1776 that there was something ridiculous about people who enslaved thousands of other people on the basis of their skin color declaring that “all men are created equal.” It didn’t take years for people to figure out. It took like thirty seconds. An English dude name Thomas Day read the Declaration and wrote, in 1776: “If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature it is an American patriot signing resolutions of independency with one hand and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves.” – Jonathan M. Katz

“We should really be teaching more white people that slavery absolutely WAS choice for slave owners. All too often, we act like it was a way of life or a force of nature and not a CHOICE made by people who felt entitled to regard other people as their property. Slaveowners made a choice every single day to treat other human beings like their property. Plenty of people in their own time knew this was wrong, but they did it anyway. Teach THAT.” – Unknown

Maybe the ideals of a bunch of white guys, deeming themselves ’the founding fathers’ of our nation, are hypocritical and therefore fallible.

“When they speak, it is scientific;

When we speak, it is unscientific.

When they speak, it is universal;

When we speak, it’s specific.

When they speak, it is objective;

When we speak, it is subjective.

When they speak it’s neutral;

When we speak, it’s personal.

When they speak, it is rational;

When we speak, it is emotional.

When they speak it is impartial,

When we speak, it is partial.

They have facts, we have opinions.

They have knowledge, we have experiences.

We are not dealing with a ‘peaceful coexistence of words,’ but rather with a violent hierarchy, which defines Who can Speak, and What We Can Speak About.” – Grada Kilomba, in “Decolonizing Knowledge” (2016)

“When white friends don’t believe what blacks go through, they’re not friends. I don’t expect much. Just nodding and acknowledging my words would be enough. Instead, jumping in to explain what must have really happened before I can finish a sentence means that – whether you realize it or not – you’ve shattered an important bond and traveled the distance from friend to acquaintance.

“Back in my day we weren’t offended so easily.” Back in your day you’d throw a fit if a black person drank out of the same water fountain as you.

“White people would rather think aliens built landmarks than that brown people figured out architecture and astronomy.”- Megan Amram

“Not ALL Trump supporters are overtly racist, or ableist, or misogynist, but every one of them deciding hating people with brown skin, disabilities, or women wasn’t a deal-breaker. Own that decision.” – Unknown

“White Fragility is racial violence. To then demand that people of color educate you on your own ignorance with the expectation of their further emotional labor is to abuse them.” – Amelia Shroyer

“When you believe niceness disproves the presence of racism, it’s easy to start believing bigotry is rare, and that the label racist should be applied only to mean-spirited, intentional acts of discrimination. The problem with this framework- besides being a gross misunderstanding of how racism operates in systems and structures enabled by nice people- is it obligates me to be nice in return, rather than truthful.” – Austin Channing Brown

“Sealioning is the name given to a specific, pervasive for of aggressive and willfully intentional cluelessness, that masquerades as a sincere desire to understand.

A Sealion is someone who, when confronted with a fact that they don’t care to acknowledge, say, the persistence of systemic racism in America, will ask endlessly for “proof” and insist that it is the other person’s job to stop everything they are doing and address the issue to their satisfaction.

The purpose of Sealioning is never to actually learn or become more informed. The purpose is to interrogate. Much like actually interrogators, Sealions bombard their target with question after question, digging and digging until the target either says something stupid or is so pissed off that they react in the extreme. The other major reason why people hate Sealioining is because responding to it is a complete waste of time.

It’s an insidious trap. Responding to questions asked reasonably is, of course, a
natural thing for people to do. I like to do it myself; educating others is
generally pretty entertaining, especially if they are receptive to learning.
Dismissing those questions can appear condescending or rude, especially if you
actually are condescending or rude.

Of course, these questions are not asked because the person asking them genuinely
wants to know the answer. If they did, they would do their own digging based on
your statements, and only ask for obscure or difficult-to-discover information.
This is the “debate principle”. It is best explained thusly: When you
go to a debate, you educate yourself on the topics at hand, and only request
evidence when a claim is either quite outlandish or unflinchingly obscure.

No, these questions are asked to make a responder waste their time. It works, too;
I’ve responded to Sealions before, answering all their questions and claims for
evidence, only to be greeted by even more willful ignorance. It’s a way to
force people into responding to questions phrased neutrally but asked in bad
faith.

Sealions are just “asking nicely” but
they are asking questions that have been asked and answered fully many times,
and are unwilling to so much as open a new tab to look up the answer, nor will they
recognize the validity of your sources, your experience or expertise no matter what you do. It is impossible to satisfy a Sealion.

Make no mistake.

Sealioning is a specific form of harassment. You may not explain their inquiry has already been address. You may not cite a source. You may not refer to a previous answer. You definitely may not ever point them to a link. You must spend all your time and energy responding as much as you can to every little details of0 every innocent, polite little question they ask. Sealioning isn’t a sincere attempt at anything. It’s a calculated technique to grind an opponent down.” -Unknown

“In the national conversation about race, especially after a well-publicized confrontation like the one’s in Ferguson and Baltimore (2014), different sides don’t need to agree. But they do have to accept that the other side is speaking sincerely and from the heart. And whites need to believe blacks when we say what we’ve been through.” – Unknown

Black Lives Matter. Black people are literally saying “stop killing us” and there are people saying “But…”

“Protesters don’t block traffic to gain your support. They do it so you can see what it feels like to be stuck in a powerless situation. How do you respond to this situation? Are you calm and peaceful? Do you want to spend years organizing political talks about it? Nope, you want to run those protesters over, kill them, kill them all. If you want to kill protesters who have you stuck in traffic, imagine what you would want to do to a system that patrols, harasses and kills you. The sooner you learn perspective, the sooner you won’t have to be stuck in traffic.”- Jason Nelson

“The ‘Blue Lives Matter’ billboard makes me ill.

People who are “blue” have a job, wear a uniform, get a paycheck. They CHOOSE to be blue, and daily they can choose when NOT to be blue.

To equate a JOB with a life reality further dehumanizes those who very right to breathe is challenged. To equate the vulnerability of being “blue” with the reality of Black life in America is utterly reprehensible and totally ignorant.

Blue is a job. If you do not like it, if you don’t feel safe, take off the uniform. End of the problem. To try to elevate “blue” by co-opting #BlackLivesMatter is cowardly.

Nope.

I do not support this attempt to subvert the message with a dangerously false equivalency. This isn’t even thinly veiled racism and it turns my stomach.” – Katherine Ann

Types of Racism (to name a few):
Blatant Racism-Ironic Racism-Casual Racism-Sexual Racism-Colorism

Attn white ppl: racism is not a “preference.” Eliminating an entire race, or all minorities, from your dating pool is a level of casual racism known as sexual racism… it’s solely meant to prevent interracial dating.

A “preference” is “I like short hair vs. long hair.” A preference is NOT “I don’t date blacks or asians.” Still racist.  

Racism is not a “preference.”

“I don’t date black guys” makes you racist by definition. You’re discriminating solely based on race.

How many times must we establish this fact? I don’t mind that you’re racist because it’s merely a reflection of your own self-worth. An inferiority complex disguised as a superior disdain for your fellow man. That’s on you. So truthfully I don’t mind your ignorance, but at least admit it. Don’t lie to yourself.

Colorism is a more subtle form of internalized racism; it’s valuing lighter skin over darker complexions. The closer to white you are, the more you are valued.

HOW TO TRANSCEND COLOR:

Call stupid white demons “Nigger.” Reclaim our word and power, all while flipping the script. We own that word and have redefined it within our community due the fact that so many of our ancestors died over it. Yet, the connotation is different for Caucasians- chosen usage only demonstrates evil or naiveté. Equality is not JUSTICE. The problem is, that so many white demons have the privilege of feeling entitled to use OUR word, so much so that it’s on the tip of their tongues and they’re looking for a reason- they’re itching to use it… So give it to them… And when they say it, understand that it is intended to be a threat against a BLACK person’s very existence. So, in self-defense- I want you to summon THE STRENGTH OF ALL YOUR DEAD ANCESTORS; and HIT THEM MUTHAFUCKAS IN DEY MOUTH WITH THE RAGE AND RIGHTEOUS FURY OF ANY AND EVERY WHITE DEMON THAT HAS EVER HARMED ANY OF US. As a minority in society myself, I understand that the majority expects to be extended the benefit of the doubt anytime they lose the upper hand- and will pretend to cower in fear until they have the opportunity to undercut your mercy.

Christianity

Christianity was introduced to blacks during slavery. As we grew, they kept us from having knowledge of ourselves to enslave our mind. Now that we have become conscious and aware of who we really are we must go back and break every chain that binds us to this mental slavery. We must pave the way for those yet to come. There is no compromising over injustice. The black church is oppression’s most effective weapon.

“When you put your money in the church buck, what do you get back? Hope and a future after you die. Anyone who tells me that I should be content with accepting hell on earth when the white man has his heaven here, and the Chinese man has his heaven here. Arab and east Indian- and you’re telling me I have to die in order to experience what they are getting right now? If I have to die to experience heaven, then I don’t need that religion. That’s a religion for servitude.

So, we have to put the black church to task, and ask what are they doing with our Jesus money? I’ll tell you what they’re doing. Every black church in America has their money in a white bank, it is the white bank that is funding the re-gentrification ethnic cleansing movement. So we collectively put $3,000,000 in the church every Sunday, therefore $3,000,000 million dollars goes to a white bank every Sunday. So, on Monday they take $3,000,000 of black people’s “white Jesus money” and they give loans to white land developers and businesses and entrepreneurs to come into the ghetto buy all the property and force grandma out on the street homeless. Now grandma has been going to the church for 30 years, grandma has been giving that church $50 every Sunday. And low and behold grandma has to face the reality that it was that Jesus money that put your ass on the street.” – Dr. Umar Johnson

“If you’re a black Christian, you have a real short memory.” – Chris Rock

“When people send a friend request because they like my pro black posts, but I look at their page and see their “gay people are destroying society” posts and their “black women can’t keep a man because tkofsgkotsfhut” posts and their general “I hate everybody who isn’t a straight black man” timeline, I treat them the same way I treat white supremacists. Because they do not hate white supremacy. They are jealous of it. It’s not that they are against oppression, it’s just that they want to be the ones doing the oppressing, and I have no room in my life for those people.”- Wilbert Cordel Kizer Moore

“If your pro-blackness is homophobic, transphobic, misogynist, and/or sexist. It’s not pro-blackness. It’s trash.” – Unknown

“The tendency to turn human judgments into divine commands makes religion one of the most dangerous forces in the world.” – Georgia Harkness

“If your holy book tells you how to treat your slaves, your holy book is disqualified as a source for moral code.” – Unknown

“If you feel like God called you to go on mission trips to Africa but not to speak out on the murder of black people by cops here in America, then maybe it was more about the vacation for you..” – @mynameisnotGina

“The likelihood of religion becoming corrupt is greatly diminished when there is freedom for individual thinking and when honest inquiry is encouraged.” – Chris Kimball

“Contrary to popular belief, Repetition does NOT turn a lie into truth.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Religion and Holy Misogyny: A woman didn’t come from a man’s rib. Man came from her womb.

“The worker is the slave of capitalist society; the female worker is the slave of that slave.” – James Connolly

“Show me how you treat your women and I will show you the condition of your race.” – Dr. Yosef Ben Jochannan

“Just a PSA: If you personally believe a rape victim has to keep their baby, especially because “God wanted her to get pregnant,” stay the fuck away from me.” – Unknown

Those without female reproductive organs shalt not legislate female reproductive organs. – Fallopians 1:1

Slut shamming must cease.

“Modesty empowers some, nudity empowers others. Different things empower different women and it’s not your place to tell her which one it is.”- Anonymous

The female being is a portal between the spiritual realm & the physical realm. The only force in the universe powerful enough to navigate and incarnate unborn spirits into our world.

Women should be honored regularly. It’s mostly women who have looked out for me against all odds. In the best way possible, most of my existence is indebted to women. I love women and only wish to uplift and aid in their own liberation and empowerment. We are proud feminist. Women who seek to be equal to men lack ambition. Well behaved women seldom make history. Feminism is needed because our society teaches “How to avoid getting raped” instead of “Don’t rape.”

“No, you can’t deny women their basic rights and pretend it’s about your ‘religious freedom… Religious freedom doesn’t mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs.”- President Barack Obama

“If you actually want to prevent abortions, make sure everyone has health care, sex education and birth control. Not the exact opposite.” – Unknown

“Also, you know his name wasn’t actually Jesus Christ, right? Jesus is just the Greek translation of Yeshua, which translates from Hebrew to Joshua. But his name wasn’t Josh Christ, either, since his parents weren’t ‘Joseph and Mary Christ.’ So, it’s not really blasphemy to say “Jesus Christ,” because it’s not taking the correct name in vain.” – Anonymous

Profanity may be the inevitable linguistic crutch of the inarticulate, but personally I don’t find swearing offensive. I do find, backstabbing, lying, cheating, bigotry, and pedophilia offensive, but not swearing.

“Love is at the heart of creation, so I listen for commonalities within all demographics. It’s not about the group itself. It’s about how close each group gets to the infinity that is a universal oneness and a love that is unconditionally free. I am spiritually agnostic because I sense that there’s something greater, yet no one will ever know because when dealing abstractions CREATIVITY and LOVE are the only absolutes.

Yet, do not idolize an un-dead zombie. God and Unconditional love is deep within the heart. So it is not about idolizing (or demonizing) the name Jesus, Buddha, Satan or anyone, but the enlightened collective subconscious within us all. For we are all just walking each other home.

God IS LOVE. ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS, therefore we are our actions, sinful or otherwise. Any “god” that hates OUR ACTIONS in reality wants to SEPARATE US from OUR ACTIONS… therefore SEPARATING US from OURSELVES, our HUMANITY and EACH OTHER- Divide, Conquer and Destroy. ALL THINGS ARE CONNECTED Therefore, hatred is Satan DISGUISED as GOD, sneaky little devil. COEXIST. With Love in your heart, there’s no room for hate. God is love. There’s nothing holy about hatred. Don’t be fooled.” – Charles Smith III

“Allah just means God in Arabic. It’s a literal translation. Allah isn’t a different ‘Muslim god’ or a distinct divine entity. Same God. Non-Muslim Arabs also say Allah, inshaAllah (God willing), and more. Allah = God. Cut out the ignorance/Islamophobia.” – Kahled Beydoun

Love is my religion. If all religions teach peace, then why can’t all religions achieve it?

“What if our religion was each other, if our practice was our life, if prayer our words? What if the temple was the Earth, if forests were our church, if holy waters ~ the rivers, lakes and oceans? What if meditation was our relationships, if the teacher was life, if wisdom was self-knowledge, if love was the center of our being?” – Ganga White

Reality can be so complex that equally valid observations from differing perspectives can appear to be contradictory. Initially through coexistence I was all encompassing of religion, yet progressively over time I’ve developed a bias against its teachings of being satisfied with not understanding the world. Ego is the parent of sin. Sin is an imaginary disease created by church corruption to make you feel guilty for being human. Who promises an imaginary cure, if you give them your money and let them control your mind. Any religion that teaches of a reward in the afterlife, is in actuality stealing your dreams today. Ever thought about aligning yourself with Jesus by being an outcast? Jesus was an outcast.

How did so many religions got caught up in the notion that life is about suffering? If the bible intended to teach the importance of love that liberates the heart and soul from the power of hate, loneliness and despair, it horribly missed its mark.

“I got hurt. Really hurt; and sometimes when that happens, something inside me shuts off. So, I’m long past caring what you think. I’m allowed to dislike those who hurt us. I’m allowed to say what I want, laugh how I want, and be who I want. This is my life, and if you don’t like it then there’s something wrong with yours, not mine. Once you learn to be happy you won’t tolerate being around people who make you feel anything less. Sometimes you must stand alone, just to make sure you still can. ” – Anonymous

Isn’t it amazing how all who see behind the illusion come back with the same message?  Looking at my watch, it’s half past time for religion to become an ancient mythology.

 A friend told me that I was delusional!!! I almost fell off my unicorn.

Ultimately, I must thank religion for leaving my side when I was alone and needed help. For it was then that I realized I could do so much more without. 

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, she must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.” – Thomas Jefferson

  There is no war on your religion. It is simply opposition against oppression, hatred, bigotry, and stupidity. I prefer to follow my own moral code instead of living as a hypocrite. You can’t treat people like garbage and then expect them to love you. Separate church and state and keep religion out of government.

“Jesus was a radical nonviolent revolutionary who hung around with lepers, hookers, and crooks; was anti wealth, anti-death penalty, anti-public prayer; but was never anti-gay, never mentioned abortion or birth control. Never called the poor lazy, never justified torture, never fought for tax cuts for the wealthiest Nazarenes, never asked a leper for a co-pay, and was a long-haired brown skinned homeless community-organizing anti-slut-shamming middle eastern Jew.”- Unknown

            It’s your hell, you burn in it. Religion divides more than it unites.

“Stop referring to the ‘Catholic Church’s Sex Scandal.’ A scandal is when someone violates their partner’s trust by engaging in an illicit affair. The Catholic Church is a criminal organization that has a staggering history of abuses, the most cited of which is their systematic protection of child rapists. Again, indoctrination attempts to deceive the masses by insulting their intelligences.” – Anonymous

You do not need religion to be a good person. If a person can’t determine what’s correct, they lack ethics and empathy, not religion. Laws banning atheists from holding public office are discriminatory & unconstitutional. Keep religion out of government. There is nothing holy about hatred. If ministers are going to preach politics, it’s time to tax the churches. The Lord is not my shepherd for I am not a sheep. Separate church and state. Using Jesus and oppressive legalities to be a self-righteous asshole is not patriotism, its bigotry. 

Bigotry wrapped in prayer is still bigotry. To hide bigotry behind persecution is unjust. Isn’t it interesting that a country founded to allow freedom from religious persecution is now using religion to persecute freedoms? Why should my civil rights be dictated by your interpretation of the parts of the Bible you choose to believe in? Religious “freedom” doesn’t mean “freedom to force everyone to follow your religion.” Blasphemy is speech that has been outlawed to prevent your religion from losing arguments. Tolerance does not mean tolerating intolerance. God has no religion. God is too big to fit into one religion. I think therefore I am an infidel. Lions/Lionesses don’t lose sleep over the opinion of sheep.

“I’m afraid I don’t believe there is a such thing as blasphemy, just outrage from those insecure in their own faith.” – Stephen Fry

“All great truths begin as blasphemies.” – George Bernard Shaw

“The crime called blasphemy was invented by priests for the purpose of defending doctrines not able to take care of themselves.” – Robert G. Ingersoll

If your faith can move mountains, it should be able to withstand criticism.

“People take different roads to seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.” – Energy Healing Solutions

“You are not responsible for the programming you picked up in childhood. However, as an adult, you are one hundred percent responsible for fixing it.” – Ken Keyes, Jr.

“Religion is the belief in someone else’s experience. Spirituality is having your own experience.”- Deepak Chopra

“Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who have already been there.” – Vine Deloria

“I feel the need to spark public debate because I see spirituality like a great artistic masterpiece. When someone as free thinking and brilliant as the each of you, repeats something so unoriginal as a common religious belief of the masses- it sounds like spoon feeding. With all due respect, fellow artist, religion is an adopted belief simply because it’s not an original thought. I’m not hating, I’m just not going to let people trap you mentally, physically or spiritually. It’s how I love. I understand that most are not as far out here as I am, but when our minds are connected through words, and our hearts – I feel an obligation to shine a light out of The Matrix, out of the common thought process. Especially sense it bleeds into my own. I’m only so opinionated because I want to exercise our minds to paint with more colors and dimensions then what we’ve learned. I want your masterpiece and legacy to have your unique individual self written all over it. Love is an action.”- Charles W. Smith III

“All collective judgements are wrong.” – Elie Wiesel

“It is also difficult to realize the fallacy in all collective judgements. However, a collective judgement is a single outlook adopted by a vast majority of people. It is a collective compromise and therefore not necessarily the very best for each person. The minority opinions must be disregarded, and this creates fallacy.”- Jonathan Brown

“I have endeavored to dissipate these religious superstitions from the minds of others, and their faith on science and reason, where I found for myself at last that peace and comfort, I could never find in the Bible and the church. The less they believe the better for their own happiness and development.” – Elizabeth Stanton

Merry Crisis and Happy New Fear!

“Neither a man, nor a crowd, nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely, or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” – Bertrand Russell

“The human brain is an amazing organ. It keeps working 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. 52 weeks a year…. From before you leave the womb. Right up until you’re given religion.” – Anonymous

“Are you religious?”

“Fuck no.”

And they lived happily ever after.

“Another state of duality is distinguishing the difference between traits of the psychological disorder labeled “The Messiah Complex” vs. Enlightenment. It is important to recognize that The Great Spirit saves the world, we’re all just vessels made in the divine image. Any fool can know, the point is to understand.”- Charles William Smith III

“You are not here to save the world, but you are here to touch the hands that are within your reach.” – Kathleen price

“If someone corrects you, and you feel offended, then you have an ego problem.” – Nouman Ali Khan

“The day you think you know; your death has happened because now there will be no wonder and no joy and no surprise. Now you will live a dead life.” – Osho

“I understand that the subject matter I choose to discuss is controversial, but so are our problems in life. The way to grow as a people is not to ignore issues, but to openly discuss them. If a person is to be effective, they are going to be controversial. I invite open discussion, but I will not tolerate implied accusations of prejudice simply because of my perceptive insights. Let it be known that all voices are welcome here as long as they’re not a-typically ignorant.” – Charles William Smith III

The Illuminati are the collective psychosis that is the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is the cis-gendered heteronormative patriarchal paradigm and myth of “trickle-down economics” that constantly discriminates against women, immigrants and minorities. 

“Solution: Our cosmic mission as one human family is to define and exemplify the principles of a genuine planetary culture of peace. Shift fear to love. Each sociological psyche, each demographic, each group of people stops thinking they’re better than the next. See, myself, I’ve learned that no matter how ‘polished’ or ‘unpolished’ I am, I know I am no better (or worse) than anyone else’s potential. Seeing past our cultural hang-ups, we realize that there is enough for everyone.” – Charles W. Smith III

“We blame society, but we are society. It is not our differences that divide us, it is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”- Audre Lorde

“We have scientifically proven that the power of human thought grows exponentially with the number of minds that share that thought. This is the inherent power of prayer groups, healing circles, singing in unison, and worshipping en masse. The idea of Universal Consciousness is no ethereal New Age concept. It’s a hard-core scientific reality.’” – Lynne McTaggart

“I would encourage everyone to step up and get involved- especially young women. You’re going to build your future on where we’ve left things for you, and that means staying strong.” – Anonymous

There is no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been, and we solve nothing fundamental by cloaking ourselves in technological glory.

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by the small minded who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” – Anonymous

“Don’t try and change the minds of adults. As harsh as it may sound, their time has come and gone. Focus on cultivating the youth if you want any major change to occur in this world… They say the child shall lead.” – Unknown

Never underestimate the power of planting a seed of truth in a fertile mind. Pass the truth to the next generation; teach them early what we learned late. Your ancestors will live forever if you teach their stories. When you plant a seed of love, it is you that blossoms. If the money, power, and successful relationships never come, then who are we? Pursue God, Love, and Enlightenment, NOT false idols because idolizing leads us astray to disappointment.

Forcing religious and societal myths on children is traumatizing child abuse.

A social construct is when a rigid mind loses flexibility.

“It’s terrible. Fighting your own mind, and you don’t even know why half the time.” – Unknown

“There’s good in all of us and I think I simply love people too much, so much that it makes me feel so fucking sad.” – Kurt Cobain

“To anyone suffering with mental illness: You are one badass mother fucker because nothing is more terrifying than battling with your own mind every single day.” – Anonymous

“They said that slaves who wanted to be free and kept running away were mentally ill too. People who are fearless and ready to die for what they believe in always sound mentally ill to those who spines are stitched together with illusions, scriptures, respectability politics and investments in a glorious colorblind afterlife.” – Stacey Patton

The cost of sanity, in this society is a certain level of alienation. I’m trying my best to be myself in a world that’s trying it’s hardest to turn me into someone else. I used to be a people person… but people ruined that for me. I may be schizophrenic, but at least I have each other.

“Small minds can’t comprehend big spirits. To be great you have to be willing to be mocked, hated and misunderstood. Stay strong.” – Anonymous

“You have to go on and be crazy, craziness is like heaven.” – Jimi Hendrix

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” – Rumi

“Someone said that self-care is also choosing not to argue with people who are committed to misunderstanding you. I felt that.”- Louise Littre

“You cannot make someone understand a message that they aren’t ready to receive.” – Unknown

My life would be so much easier if I wasn’t intelligent enough to realize how fucking stupid people are. I’d explain it to you but I’m all out of puppets and crayons.  

I’m sorry that hanging out with me has left you questioning your own sanity. You can’t always be nice; sometimes you’ve got to set boundaries. Being surrounded by so called “normal people” has me very very nervous.

“You might feel like you have to hide who you are, so you won’t get hurt. Just don’t hide for so long, that you forget who you are. Sometimes you’ve got to play the fool to fool the fool who thinks they’re fooling you.” – Anonymous

“The number of ‘followers’ you have doesn’t matter. Hitler had millions, but Jesus had 12.”- Anonymous

The majority often marginalizes the minority voice/experience as just a baseless opinion.

“No, people aren’t ‘more sensitive’ now. People aren’t too ‘Politically Correct’ now. Nor are people ‘Just looking for a reason to be offended’ now. We, as a people, know better now. Therefore we, as a people, are trying to do better now.” – Anonymous

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.” – Dr. Martin Luther King

Be upset about the smallest act of injustice, for this too may snowball into an avalanche of oppression.

MANTRAS

Let my perception be a blessing that is defined by an individual, not the group.

I transcend prejudice by entering a state of unbiased appreciation for everything.

Let the mirror of the group show my perception of self.

QUOTES TO LIVE BY

“I like when a flower, or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack on the concrete. It’s so fucking heroic.” – George Carlin

The key to the word UNITY is that the U always comes before the I.

“Happiness is when what you think (Mind), what you say (Spirit/Soul), and what you do (Body) are in harmony.” –  Mahatma Gandhi

We are ALL HERE TOGETHER!

“Now I may have wisdom and knowledge on earth, but if I speak wrong than what is it worth?” – Lauryn Hill

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” -Thomas Merton

We were not created by or for slavery.

“On bended knee is no way to be free, lifting up an empty cup I ask silently, all my destinations accept the one that’s me, so I can breathe.” – Eddie Vedder

“…and every time I’ve tried to be what someone else thought of me, so caught up I wasn’t able to achieve; but deep in my heart the answer was in me, and I made up MY mind to define my own destiny.”- Lauryn Hill

“Although most go with the crowd, it is those that think outside of limitations that make history.”- Charles W. Smith III

“I do this real moron thing, it’s called thinking, and I’m not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions.”- George Carlin

“Think Differently. Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“There is no box. Think. Use good judgement supported by wisdom and discernment, not assumptions.”- Janeè L. Douglas

FREE YOUR MIND

“Let me be patient, let me be kind, make me unselfish, without being blind…”- Lauryn Hill

“I WILL NOT keep you in MY LIFE if you believe you hold the answers to human perfection…”  – Anonymous

“The Bible is a BLUEPRINT, but NO ONE can live their life to the T as it describes… it’s just like a map; giving suggestions & guidance but in the end, we decide our own paths.” – C. Thomasson

“They shake their heads as they drive away in the bandwagon. Didn’t feel like hitching a ride. Oh, but I’ll be fine…”- Bethany Dillon

“Pride does not always mean arrogance and conceit.”- Kate Welsh

“Now I may have faith to make mountains fall, but if I lack LOVE than I am nothing at all. I can give away EVERYTHING I possess, but if without LOVE than I have NO happiness…” – Lauryn Hill

“Does anybody hear me? Is anybody listening?… How can we change hate before it’s too late…”- En Vogue

“Took me a little while to discover, WOLVES in sheep’s clothes who pretend to be brothers and you never suppose it’s those who are CLOSEST to you. They say all the RIGHT things to gain their position. Then use YOUR KINDNESS as THEIR AMMUNITION, TO SHOOT YOU DOWN IN THE NAME OF AMBITION. Forgive them father for they know not what they do.” – Lauryn Hill

“Life IS NOT BLACK or WHITE. IT’S NOT two-dimensional. Life is NOT ALWAYS YES OR NO. Not EITHER/OR. Life is multi-dimensional, FULL of ALL Spectrums of COLOR and even SHADES of GREY. I repeat, ANYTHING’S POSSIBLE…IF you believe the most complex questions of our lifetime are simple “yes” or “no” answers, then go back to grade school. In a world where everyone likes things to be black and white. I prefer to be a bit more colorful.” – Charles Smith III

“Let’s free the people from deception, if you’re looking for the answers then you’ve got to ask the questions…” – Lauryn Hill

“After winter, must come spring; change, it comes eventually.” – Lauryn Hill

“Once upon a time, you loved me for who I am, not for who you thought I should be.”- Charles Smith III

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. Most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition; they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything is secondary.”- Steve Jobs

“…and every time I tried to be, what they wanted from me, it never came naturally, so I end up in misery, was unable to see, the good around me…”- Christina Aguilera

“I ain’t no psychiatrist, I ain’t no doctor with degrees, but it don’t take too much IQ to see what you’re doing to me. People walking around everyday playing games and taking scores; trying to make people lose their minds, well be careful you don’t lose yours! You need me, and I need you (don’t you know.) Without each other there ain’t nothing either can do.” – Aretha Franklin

Coexist.

“Bad things happen when good people don’t speak out.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Abstractly speaking, art and expression is nonviolent spiritual weaponry, for it paints the lives of millions.” – Charles W. Smith III

“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.”- Anonymous

“And when you pray do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” – Matthew 6:5

“Men who lack conscious will even lie to themselves.” – Lauryn hill

“Not ALL individuals in any particular demographic are narrow minded.  Similar is not the same. There are good-hearted OPEN-MINDED people everywhere.

This is NOT so much about Religion as it is about an internal conflict of duality surfacing as BIGOTRY, HATRED, LIES, JUDGEMENT, ARROGANCE AND DECEIT. I’ve seen LOVE and compassion within ALL people. Unfortunately, I’ve seen Ignorance/Hate too.” – Charles W. Smith III

GREAT minds think for themselves.

“Contrary to popular belief, Repetition does NOT turn a lie into truth.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The further society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” – George Orwell

“Old beliefs do not lead you to new cheese.” – Spencer Johnson

“Courage is being who you are no matter what anyone thinks about you.” – Anonymous

“As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others…”- Marianne Williamson

“The older I get the more I don’t care if I fit in with everyone else.” – Anonymous

No human may judge my personal relationship with The Great Divine.

“All collective judgments are wrong”- Elie Wiesel

“We need to exert ourselves that much more and break out of the vicious cycle of dependence imposed on us by the financially powerful: those in command of immense market power and those who dare to fashion the world in their own image.”- Nelson Mandala

Be strong enough to stand alone, be yourself enough to stand apart, but be wise enough to stand together when the time comes.

“The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble; and those who know your name will put their trust in YOU; for YOU, Lord, have NOT forsaken those who seek you.” – Psalm 9:9

“The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.” – Kurt Cobain

“If racism is something you’re tired of hearing about, imagine how fucking exhausting it must be living it every day.” – Jon Stewart

“Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because it’s not a problem to you personally.” – Anonymous

Pro-black, doesn’t mean anti-white.

“They came with a Bible and their religion, stole our land, crushed our spirit, and now they tell us we should be thankful to the Lord for being saved.” – Pontiac (c. 1718-1769)

“Religion is how your ancestors lost their culture, future, values, and their way; but it’s never too late to stop the rot, restarts, and rise again from your own roots.” – Anonymous

 “I use ‘ya’ll’ and ‘finna’ because I don’t associate my intelligence with my use of colloquial euphemisms. Ebonics is cultural not remedial.” – Nia S. Vaughn

“An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in partnership with state legislatures.” Robert G. Ingersoll

If your faith can move mountains, it should be able to withstand criticism.

“Blessed are the weird people- poets, misfits, writers, mystics, painters, and troubadours – for they teach us to see the world through different eyes.” – Jacob Nordby

“Sometimes people use ‘respect’ to mean ‘treating someone like a person’ and sometimes they use ‘respect’ to mean ‘treating someone like an authority;’ and sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say if you won’t respect me I won’t respect you’ and they mean ‘if you won’t treat me like an authority I won’t treat you like a person’ and they think they’re being fair but they aren’t, and it’s not okay.” – Anonymous

“Telling black folks to be ‘respectful’ to police to avoid dying is like telling women to dress ‘appropriately’ to avoid rape.” – Anonymous

“White men tell the children that their ancestors ‘settled’ in America. When the truth is that they invaded, murdered, and raped Native Americans until they barely existed.”- Anonymous

In my search for truth I had to leave churches.

“You seek too much information and not enough transformation”- Sai Baba

Stop looking for happiness in the same place you lost it. Don’t let your struggle become your identity.