November 6, 2015

An African Spiritual Art Form Caught In Time-Lapse, MoCADA, Brooklyn

"On September 12th, the Ori Inu team held a party at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in Brooklyn to celebrate the release of the film’s stunning first trailer. Not surprisingly, the night served as a platform for creatives in the diaspora to showcase their ideas on spirituality. That evening, Nigerian visual artist and musician Laolu Senbanjo performed Yoruba Ritual Body Art as a spiritual ceremony on rising Ghanaian musician Azizaa. The entire piece was filmed by Mariona Lloreta, who turned the performance into a time-lapse that we’re excited to premiere here today.

Laolu performs Ritual Yoruba Body Art on Azizaa at MoCADA in Brooklyn on September 12, 2015. Music by Laolu Senbanjo and the Afromysterics.
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Azizaa has got to be one of the freshest and unapologetic singers I've heard in a while. Her video, Black Magic Woman, I won't post here for concern of offending anyone in this group, but you can find interview/video here http://www.thefader.com/2015/09/02/azizaa-wanlov-interview "How Ghanaian Artist Azizaa Is Challenging Christianity's Grip On Ghana"

November 5, 2015

Hilarious, "White People Whitesplain Whitesplaining"

November 5, 2015

Sympathy is for white people...

Sympathy is for white people: The “60 Minutes” segment that highlights America’s startling double standard on addiction

"60 Minutes” segment “Heroin in the Heartland.” was an exposé on the human cost of drug use, the families destroyed and the lives lost. It was also an example of how, in the War on Drugs, black and brown people receive hefty prison sentences, while white people are shown, above all else, sympathy. Lady Justice is not blind.

Host Bill Whitaker began the segment as follows:

“You might think of heroin as primarily an inner-city problem. But dealers, connected to Mexican drug cartels, are making huge profits by expanding to new, lucrative markets: suburbs all across the country. It’s basic economics. The dealers are going where the money is and they’re cultivating a new set of consumers: high school students, college athletes, teachers and professionals.

“Heroin is showing up everywhere — in places like Columbus, Ohio . The area has long been viewed as so typically Middle American that, for years, many companies have gone there to test new products. We went to the Columbus suburbs to see how heroin is taking hold in the heartland.”

http://www.salon.com/2015/11/04/sympathy_is_for_white_people_the_60_minutes_segment_that_highlights_americas_startling_double_standard_on_addiction/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

October 29, 2015

In 60 seconds James Baldwin breaks race and racism ALL THE WAY DOWN

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October 29, 2015

In 60 seconds James Baldwin breaks race and racism ALL THE WAY DOWN.

Sorry, y'all. I'll stop posting today after this one.

October 28, 2015

"We must be humble about what we have become."

"I am a fierce, forever feminist. But I still have sexism and misogyny running through my veins. It takes a lifetime to clear these out. You can be one thing and your subconscious can be another thing.

How many images of black bodies being thrown to the ground have I ingested? How many news reports have I inhaled passively – how many images of jails filled with black bodies? How many casually racist jokes have I swallowed? Over the decades and centuries and days, we’ve breathed in countless images meant to convince us that black men are dangerous and that black women are dispensable and that all black bodies are worth less than white bodies. We have just been breathing.

Listen. We can be good, kind, justice loving, anti-racist people in our hearts and minds – but if we’re living here – we’re still canaries raised in a racist mine. We can be good, justice-loving people-but if we’re living here-we’re still canaries in a racist mine We’ve still been breathing the air- and we’ve been conditioned. So our knee jerk reaction to a black man approaching us might be fear. Our subconscious might kick in before our mind and heart can catch up. And we might pull that trigger faster than we would if the body approaching us was white. And that black girl not responding to our request to stand up – well we might take her down faster than we’d ever take down a white body. Because our subconscious has been trained to believe she’s belligerent, disrespectful, dangerous and dispensable.

We must be humble about what we have become."

"Why I’m Prejudiced & So Are You" http://momastery.com/blog/2015/10/28/why-prejudiced/