Guest Musing
By Morenike E. Evans
It's like an A-Ha moment!
Anyway just a thought.
Sometimes we want something so badly in our lives. In fact, we craft our entire career toward that end.
We do the work, we put in the time and we STILL don't get it! Sometimes this can be devastating, humiliating, definitely disappointing. Having invested so much time in a dream only for it not to come true.
But this is when it's time to examine the soul of that dream or desire. What is it we really want to achieve? What passion or cause are we trying to fulfill?
Perhaps our notion of how that dream will be fulfilled is not God's plan. This doesn't mean that the dream itself won't be fulfilled.
Take for example Al Gore. His entire career was built to serve society through politics. He was a congressman, a vice president of the U.S. I'm sure he felt his best way to envoke change and touch people's lives was by having the most powerful job in the world (arguably)-- President of the United States.
He worked hard, tirelessly but the dream was cruelly (if not illegally!) taken away from him. It almost seemed as if he had no more fight in him. How infuriated and slighted and humiliated he must have felt! But he went underground for a while. He reenergized and found his passion and was fueled by that.
Today he is an Oscar winner, an innovative tv exec and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient! He has fulfilled his passion of effecting change and empowering people, AND has achieved things he probably never dreamed of.
So remember this as you go through your days trying to navigate life. It may not be how we see things happening. It is how God wants it to happen. And it WILL happen if you keep moving toward your passion, but open your mind to how it will manifest itself.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
A Wink and a Nod
By Marlene L. Johnson
Sept. 16, 2007, 12:30 a.m. - Hispanics have become the favored minority and now outnumber blacks 43 million to 40 million, according to census bureau statistics.
This fact has set up a dynamic between the two groups. Blacks have fought hard for their civil rights and now see many of the things they fought for being usurped by a sizeable number of Hispanics, who have sneaked, swam or otherwise crossed the borders into the U.S. and can be counted among the “illegal” immigrants.
In many instances, such as employment, our political leaders have given them a “wink and a nod” rather than reforming the immigration policy.
Many Latinos hold jobs they claim Americans don’t want to do, like construction jobs for individual tradesmen or small construction companies. They gather in specific areas in the city hoping to be hired for day jobs in the construction industry.
Concessions are made. Employers have found another way to line their pockets—offer Hispanics economic crumbs in the form of lower wages than African Americans and others would accept for the same jobs. Then they bring over caravans of Hispanics and put them up in houses so they can have a private workforce. Then they start a disinformation campaign that Hispanics are doing the jobs Americans don’t want to do.
They give another wink and a nod when the “illegal immigrants” demonstrate in the streets of Los Angeles and other cities against deportation or being required to go through the immigration process. They want jobs and freedom. Yet they are flouting our immigration laws.
How dare they, you ask? They dare because unlike the Haitians, who came over in shabby flotillas, some drowning on their attempts to reach American shores, most Hispanics were not turned back. It is estimated by the U.S. Border Patrol Local 2544 in Tucson, Ariz. that there are between 12 million and 15 million. illegal immigrants in the U.S, mostly Hispanic. They dare risk crossing the borders because they know they can. They dare hang around work sites and pick up day labor, because they know they can. They know they won’t get thrown into jail, or worse yet, sent packing back to their home turf. Like the Haitians were.
They dare do what blacks have been killed and jailed for doing—hanging around in public places in groups of more than two or three.
They dare because the U.S. has accommodated them by favoring their language and by making life for them more comfortable than for some of its own citizens. Unlike Blacks who were forced onto these shores, stripped of their language and culture, and ridiculed for the way they spoke the new foreign language—English—Hispanics don’t have to learn it. Just check out your voice phone messages—“if you want English press 1, Spanish, press 2.” Or brochures giving directions on purchases you have to assemble—half is in English and another half is in…guess what?
What about other immigrants—like the Irish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Italians, Haitians, Nigerians, Greeks and other ethnic groups—who came here legally. Why not make them more comfortable by using their languages in phone voice messages? Or why not use the many American Indian languages. Let’s be fair. Can you imagine how long that would take before one could even gain access to the person your are calling?
English is the language of this country…the country they have broken the law to enter. I say let them learn English. Let them embrace our language, just as they embrace all that America has to offer, jobs and social services, like WIC for mothers with infants.
They have imported their language and their gangs, like MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha). And some have become “Americanized” in their view of blacks. They want to keep blacks out of neighborhoods in Los Angeles and elsewhere where their population is large. Black males, especially, who unknowingly cross the line into their ‘hoods, risk being shot or killed.
Or they adopt the mentality of the oppressor who sees little value in black lives. Like what was done to the four black college students in Newark where, police said, a Hispanic criminal lined them up and shot them execution style. One, a girl, lived. Another girl, and two young men died. One of the perpetrators Jose Carranza, 28, was not only illegal, but had a long criminal record, including assault and child rape charges, and shouldn’t have been let out on bail and back onto the streets of America. He should have been deported after committing the first crime, and not allowed back in the country. A second 15-year-old suspect was unidentified.
I’m all for people making their way to freedom, economic or otherwise. But I don’t agree that law breakers who come to the U.S. should be given “favored” status and accommodated where others are not.
Let them get in line behind those who are already here and have worked hard to make whatever gains they have made.
Unless the U.S. reforms its immigration laws and comes up with a remedy for the rampant “border crossings” and for dealing with those who are already here illegally, America may lose this country. It’s been done before. Just ask the American Indians who were benevolent to the early settlers and now live in walled off places in their own country. Hispanics already have taken over large parts of Miami and Los Angeles without firing a single round, while the politicians have given them a wink and a nod.
Sept. 16, 2007, 12:30 a.m. - Hispanics have become the favored minority and now outnumber blacks 43 million to 40 million, according to census bureau statistics.
This fact has set up a dynamic between the two groups. Blacks have fought hard for their civil rights and now see many of the things they fought for being usurped by a sizeable number of Hispanics, who have sneaked, swam or otherwise crossed the borders into the U.S. and can be counted among the “illegal” immigrants.
In many instances, such as employment, our political leaders have given them a “wink and a nod” rather than reforming the immigration policy.
Many Latinos hold jobs they claim Americans don’t want to do, like construction jobs for individual tradesmen or small construction companies. They gather in specific areas in the city hoping to be hired for day jobs in the construction industry.
Concessions are made. Employers have found another way to line their pockets—offer Hispanics economic crumbs in the form of lower wages than African Americans and others would accept for the same jobs. Then they bring over caravans of Hispanics and put them up in houses so they can have a private workforce. Then they start a disinformation campaign that Hispanics are doing the jobs Americans don’t want to do.
They give another wink and a nod when the “illegal immigrants” demonstrate in the streets of Los Angeles and other cities against deportation or being required to go through the immigration process. They want jobs and freedom. Yet they are flouting our immigration laws.
How dare they, you ask? They dare because unlike the Haitians, who came over in shabby flotillas, some drowning on their attempts to reach American shores, most Hispanics were not turned back. It is estimated by the U.S. Border Patrol Local 2544 in Tucson, Ariz. that there are between 12 million and 15 million. illegal immigrants in the U.S, mostly Hispanic. They dare risk crossing the borders because they know they can. They dare hang around work sites and pick up day labor, because they know they can. They know they won’t get thrown into jail, or worse yet, sent packing back to their home turf. Like the Haitians were.
They dare do what blacks have been killed and jailed for doing—hanging around in public places in groups of more than two or three.
They dare because the U.S. has accommodated them by favoring their language and by making life for them more comfortable than for some of its own citizens. Unlike Blacks who were forced onto these shores, stripped of their language and culture, and ridiculed for the way they spoke the new foreign language—English—Hispanics don’t have to learn it. Just check out your voice phone messages—“if you want English press 1, Spanish, press 2.” Or brochures giving directions on purchases you have to assemble—half is in English and another half is in…guess what?
What about other immigrants—like the Irish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Italians, Haitians, Nigerians, Greeks and other ethnic groups—who came here legally. Why not make them more comfortable by using their languages in phone voice messages? Or why not use the many American Indian languages. Let’s be fair. Can you imagine how long that would take before one could even gain access to the person your are calling?
English is the language of this country…the country they have broken the law to enter. I say let them learn English. Let them embrace our language, just as they embrace all that America has to offer, jobs and social services, like WIC for mothers with infants.
They have imported their language and their gangs, like MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha). And some have become “Americanized” in their view of blacks. They want to keep blacks out of neighborhoods in Los Angeles and elsewhere where their population is large. Black males, especially, who unknowingly cross the line into their ‘hoods, risk being shot or killed.
Or they adopt the mentality of the oppressor who sees little value in black lives. Like what was done to the four black college students in Newark where, police said, a Hispanic criminal lined them up and shot them execution style. One, a girl, lived. Another girl, and two young men died. One of the perpetrators Jose Carranza, 28, was not only illegal, but had a long criminal record, including assault and child rape charges, and shouldn’t have been let out on bail and back onto the streets of America. He should have been deported after committing the first crime, and not allowed back in the country. A second 15-year-old suspect was unidentified.
I’m all for people making their way to freedom, economic or otherwise. But I don’t agree that law breakers who come to the U.S. should be given “favored” status and accommodated where others are not.
Let them get in line behind those who are already here and have worked hard to make whatever gains they have made.
Unless the U.S. reforms its immigration laws and comes up with a remedy for the rampant “border crossings” and for dealing with those who are already here illegally, America may lose this country. It’s been done before. Just ask the American Indians who were benevolent to the early settlers and now live in walled off places in their own country. Hispanics already have taken over large parts of Miami and Los Angeles without firing a single round, while the politicians have given them a wink and a nod.
Monday, August 20, 2007
CABBIE TAKES ON IMUS AND RAPPERS
By Marlene L. Johnson
4/15/07
“Hey, aren’t you the cabbie that used drive columnist Bill Raspberry around a lot before he retired from The Washington Post?” I asked as I entered the taxicab.
“Could be,” the cabbie said as I settled in. “Why you wanna know? Cab won’t be no cheaper.”
I know, I said. I just wondered because you used to give him a lot of wisdom.
He gave me a wry smile and said, “Yea, but that don’t come free. I paid a lot for it in drivin’ around town and hearin’ folk bad mouth each other. Blacks talk bad about whites. Whites talk REAL bad about blacks. Funny thing, though, they don’t talk to each other, just about each other… Like that Cowboy Imus, talkin’ about those girls and don’t even know them. He thought what he said was funny. Said he was jokin’. But he ain’t laughin’ now. Got hisself in big trouble.”
You’re right, I said. Calling the Scarlet Knight players “nappy headed hos” was like painting a scarlet letter on them. It was public humiliation. But some folks say that’s Ok because rappers do the same thing, call black women vicious, vile names just to sell CDs. And Imus has insulted lots of people and didn’t lose his job over it. He called Colin Powell, the first black secretary of state a “weasel.” He called former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson a “fat sissy,” and he called black journalist Gwen Ifill a cleaning lady. Now Imus spewed his venomous remarks at a group of innocent young college women and tried to hide behind the excuse that he learned it from rappers.
“He was right about one thing, though,” he said turning to me. “TRUTH BE KNOWN, black women do have Nappy Heads. N-A-P-P-Y !! Well, unless they use hot combs, perms or buy those mega-weaves and extensions. The man ain’t blind, just not as smart as he thought he was. Nothin’ wrong with him telling the truth. But there’s somethin’ wrong with callin’ black women hos. And that radio jockey says he didn’t mean nothin’ by callin’ them hos. Claims he’s a good man who done a bad thing. Wants us to forgive him,” the cabbie said scowling.
Yes, but with forgiveness comes consequences, I said. Forgiveness doesn’t mean he should just go on his merry way without repenting and suffering the consequences of his actions. He blames rappers, claiming he got the language from them, but white men have been calling black women hos and treating them like that since slavery days.
“It’s kinda funny him blamin’ rappers. Far as I knows this the first time a white man readily give a black man credit for anything. B’sides he shudda asked somebody if he don’t know what he’s doin’, like one a them well spoken black professors,” he said.
Yes, I don’t even know the hip-hop and rap culture all that well. To me ho is a five letter word that begins with and w and ends with re so I was thrown off by the rappers spelling. But I do know they were disrespecting black women.
“Yea, I don’t think those rappers shud be doin’ it either, disrespectin’ they mommas and sistahs on them CDs and videos,” he said.
Maybe they’re just trying to make a living the only way they know how. But that’s no excuse for degrading black women in their music. It sets a poor example for our youth, and as we found out, gives other folks license to do the same.
“What I say is that rappers are pimpin’ off black women. Sellin’ them out just to make money. Just like street pimps. They’re pimpin’ black women for white record labels,” the cabbie said.
Maybe it’s time we get serious about the issue of degrading black women and using derogatory language like the N word against our own folks. We shouldn’t allow anybody to do that, black or white.
“Right. If we don’t respect our women and ourselves, nobody else will. White guys already think all black women are loose. We gotta get those young rappers to stop putting dollars before good sense,” he said as he pulled up to my stop.
Imus has paid the price. He lost both of his gigs, radio and TV. Now maybe it’s time for the name calling rappers, and those who give them big bucks to do it, to pay the same price. Maybe that’s the only way to get them to stop spewing vile language about black women. Then maybe the females will start acting like ladies again.
“Yea, man, I agree, it’s time,” the cabbie said.
Catch you later man. Thanks.
4/15/07
“Hey, aren’t you the cabbie that used drive columnist Bill Raspberry around a lot before he retired from The Washington Post?” I asked as I entered the taxicab.
“Could be,” the cabbie said as I settled in. “Why you wanna know? Cab won’t be no cheaper.”
I know, I said. I just wondered because you used to give him a lot of wisdom.
He gave me a wry smile and said, “Yea, but that don’t come free. I paid a lot for it in drivin’ around town and hearin’ folk bad mouth each other. Blacks talk bad about whites. Whites talk REAL bad about blacks. Funny thing, though, they don’t talk to each other, just about each other… Like that Cowboy Imus, talkin’ about those girls and don’t even know them. He thought what he said was funny. Said he was jokin’. But he ain’t laughin’ now. Got hisself in big trouble.”
You’re right, I said. Calling the Scarlet Knight players “nappy headed hos” was like painting a scarlet letter on them. It was public humiliation. But some folks say that’s Ok because rappers do the same thing, call black women vicious, vile names just to sell CDs. And Imus has insulted lots of people and didn’t lose his job over it. He called Colin Powell, the first black secretary of state a “weasel.” He called former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson a “fat sissy,” and he called black journalist Gwen Ifill a cleaning lady. Now Imus spewed his venomous remarks at a group of innocent young college women and tried to hide behind the excuse that he learned it from rappers.
“He was right about one thing, though,” he said turning to me. “TRUTH BE KNOWN, black women do have Nappy Heads. N-A-P-P-Y !! Well, unless they use hot combs, perms or buy those mega-weaves and extensions. The man ain’t blind, just not as smart as he thought he was. Nothin’ wrong with him telling the truth. But there’s somethin’ wrong with callin’ black women hos. And that radio jockey says he didn’t mean nothin’ by callin’ them hos. Claims he’s a good man who done a bad thing. Wants us to forgive him,” the cabbie said scowling.
Yes, but with forgiveness comes consequences, I said. Forgiveness doesn’t mean he should just go on his merry way without repenting and suffering the consequences of his actions. He blames rappers, claiming he got the language from them, but white men have been calling black women hos and treating them like that since slavery days.
“It’s kinda funny him blamin’ rappers. Far as I knows this the first time a white man readily give a black man credit for anything. B’sides he shudda asked somebody if he don’t know what he’s doin’, like one a them well spoken black professors,” he said.
Yes, I don’t even know the hip-hop and rap culture all that well. To me ho is a five letter word that begins with and w and ends with re so I was thrown off by the rappers spelling. But I do know they were disrespecting black women.
“Yea, I don’t think those rappers shud be doin’ it either, disrespectin’ they mommas and sistahs on them CDs and videos,” he said.
Maybe they’re just trying to make a living the only way they know how. But that’s no excuse for degrading black women in their music. It sets a poor example for our youth, and as we found out, gives other folks license to do the same.
“What I say is that rappers are pimpin’ off black women. Sellin’ them out just to make money. Just like street pimps. They’re pimpin’ black women for white record labels,” the cabbie said.
Maybe it’s time we get serious about the issue of degrading black women and using derogatory language like the N word against our own folks. We shouldn’t allow anybody to do that, black or white.
“Right. If we don’t respect our women and ourselves, nobody else will. White guys already think all black women are loose. We gotta get those young rappers to stop putting dollars before good sense,” he said as he pulled up to my stop.
Imus has paid the price. He lost both of his gigs, radio and TV. Now maybe it’s time for the name calling rappers, and those who give them big bucks to do it, to pay the same price. Maybe that’s the only way to get them to stop spewing vile language about black women. Then maybe the females will start acting like ladies again.
“Yea, man, I agree, it’s time,” the cabbie said.
Catch you later man. Thanks.
A SEAT AT THE TABLE
By Marlene L. Johnson
Remember those family meals when you were a kid and had to sit at the “kids table” when company came? Remember how you kept “fighting for a seat at the table” with the grown ups, so you would be as important as they were and share in the camaraderie?
I remember those days. And in remembering, I know that race, poverty and gender can keep you from having a seat at the “company” table. I wore three of those labels. I worked hard to overcome being labeled as poor. Because the other two labels are God-given and innate, my life has been one long fight for a seat at the table.
My first memorable struggle was to be just like the other kids, even though as a foster child I was taunted by for being a “welfare” kid and seen as different by the other kids and adults saw me as a child to be pitied because I would grow up to be worthless.
That’s how too many whites still see all African Americans.
African Americans have been fighting for a seat at the table ever since we were brought to America and enslaved. After building this country, African American men had to prove they were worthy of defending it. The Tuskegee Airmen proved it as did other black military men. Black soldiers returning from the wars still had to “fight for a seat at the table” of equality for themselves and their families. They had to march in the streets for the right to vote, for the right to send their children to public schools, to protect their families from hooded white terrorists who hung them with impunity, dosed and destroyed their homes and churches with fire, and white farmers who stole their labor by underpaying them or paying them in pig guts and overripe vegetables from the fields.
But getting to the table may have been the easiest part. Once you got a seat at the adult table you were seen as a nuisance to be put up with and still were not part of the camaraderie. When the food was passed, you didn’t get to help yourself, someone gave you a scoop of this or a spoonful of that, as if you couldn’t do it yourself. And they watched for you to “mess up” saying ‘Don’t spill your food, wipe your face with the napkin,’ as if you they didn’t have food around their own mouths.
It’s like finally landing a job for which you have studied hard to educate yourself and finding that as an African American and as a woman you are undervalued, underestimated and marginalized. But we still go to that hard-won job where we are grudgingly dolled out this assignment by folks who don’t really want us to be there, who believe our skin color or gender means we are not up to the responsibilities of the job, and who don’t value our work unless someone wants to go on vacation, then we get to do their jobs as well.
The best assignments are deemed to be beyond the realm of our capabilities and are given to others, although we know full well we could handle them. We are either intentionally given more work than any one person can do and are scolded for “messing up” or are stripped of all but “make coffee” type duties that make it hardly worth getting out of bed to go to our jobs. But we do.
It’s time America sets the table for all of us. African Americans and women have earned a place at that table, so say the blessing and pass the potatoes please!
Remember those family meals when you were a kid and had to sit at the “kids table” when company came? Remember how you kept “fighting for a seat at the table” with the grown ups, so you would be as important as they were and share in the camaraderie?
I remember those days. And in remembering, I know that race, poverty and gender can keep you from having a seat at the “company” table. I wore three of those labels. I worked hard to overcome being labeled as poor. Because the other two labels are God-given and innate, my life has been one long fight for a seat at the table.
My first memorable struggle was to be just like the other kids, even though as a foster child I was taunted by for being a “welfare” kid and seen as different by the other kids and adults saw me as a child to be pitied because I would grow up to be worthless.
That’s how too many whites still see all African Americans.
African Americans have been fighting for a seat at the table ever since we were brought to America and enslaved. After building this country, African American men had to prove they were worthy of defending it. The Tuskegee Airmen proved it as did other black military men. Black soldiers returning from the wars still had to “fight for a seat at the table” of equality for themselves and their families. They had to march in the streets for the right to vote, for the right to send their children to public schools, to protect their families from hooded white terrorists who hung them with impunity, dosed and destroyed their homes and churches with fire, and white farmers who stole their labor by underpaying them or paying them in pig guts and overripe vegetables from the fields.
But getting to the table may have been the easiest part. Once you got a seat at the adult table you were seen as a nuisance to be put up with and still were not part of the camaraderie. When the food was passed, you didn’t get to help yourself, someone gave you a scoop of this or a spoonful of that, as if you couldn’t do it yourself. And they watched for you to “mess up” saying ‘Don’t spill your food, wipe your face with the napkin,’ as if you they didn’t have food around their own mouths.
It’s like finally landing a job for which you have studied hard to educate yourself and finding that as an African American and as a woman you are undervalued, underestimated and marginalized. But we still go to that hard-won job where we are grudgingly dolled out this assignment by folks who don’t really want us to be there, who believe our skin color or gender means we are not up to the responsibilities of the job, and who don’t value our work unless someone wants to go on vacation, then we get to do their jobs as well.
The best assignments are deemed to be beyond the realm of our capabilities and are given to others, although we know full well we could handle them. We are either intentionally given more work than any one person can do and are scolded for “messing up” or are stripped of all but “make coffee” type duties that make it hardly worth getting out of bed to go to our jobs. But we do.
It’s time America sets the table for all of us. African Americans and women have earned a place at that table, so say the blessing and pass the potatoes please!
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