Anna Nicole Smith: A Prime Example of Being Off Path

Black people who waste their time and energy following the escapades of Anna Nicole Smith and her loony entourage really need to ask themselves why. Her life and death did nothing but reveal how screwed up she was. Because she was sleeping with every Tom, Dick, and Harry that crossed her path her death continued the circus where her life had left off. Other than the potential for some black man (Kobe Bryant maybe) to pop out the woodwork and claim that Anna’s daughter was his child Ms. Smith had absolutely nothing to offer the black community other than a lesson from her pathetic example of what happens to an individual who chooses to live their life totally off of their intended spiritual path.

There are Orisas waiting and ready to help guide us to and along our spiritual path. But we have to do our part as well. We have to stay in tune with our spirituality enough to actually accept the direction our spirituality leads us.

In her never ending pursuit of public fame, money, and sex it’s pretty apparent that Ms. Smith spent absolutely none of her time in the pursuit of any spirituality. It was obvious that the things that she wanted from life were the very things that killed her and her son. Although she had wealth, fame, glamour (if one is into slutty, dipsy white girls), and all the other trappings of a life in high society she was never truly happy or content. These distractions were never intended as part of her life but she was very attracted to them. That attraction proved to be a fatal one for her. Anna Nicole was so far off path Esu would’ve needed help getting the door open that would have led her back.

Even if some portion of her brain finally kicked in and she realized she had to get her spiritual life in order she would have had to abandon all the distractions which led her off her path to begin with. There’s no point in bringing anything known to be a distraction from our path back to and down our path, it’ll just lead us astray again.

When her son died a few months ago one would think that would’ve given her pause to reevaluate the choices she had made for her and her son, as well as the choices she was making for herself and her new born daughter. Instead, rumor has it that Ms. Smith continued the path of lunacy negotiating a financial deal for her dead son’s photos to some tabloid. Ms. Smith was caught in a monkey trap.

To make a monkey trap all one has to do is to stick something the monkey wants, like an orange, into a container just large enough for the monkey’s hand to go through. The container should be tethered so that the monkey cannot run away with it. The trap is now set. When the monkey comes along and smells the fruit inside the trap, it will stick its hand into the container to grab the fruit. With the fruit in its clutches the monkey’s hand is now too big for the container opening. Instead of letting go and escaping the monkey will continue to hold the fruit to the demise of its freedom.

Sadly, Ms. Smith was caught in a monkey trap and was much too greedy to ever let it go even though it killed her son and was killing her. Some might say she was a victim. If so she was a victim of her own greed and stupidity. The trap that was laid out for Ms. Smith was laid out by her self. There is no one she could blame for her indiscretions, not even a single individual from the long list of men lining up happily to prove how much they like to sleep with sluts. By the way, these men are caught in their own monkey traps of their own design.

According to Ifa if an individual follows the wrong path to their death, they will go unfulfilled and look back at their life’s path feeling it was a disappointing waste. If one is fortunate enough to wake up and see the monkey trap they are making for themselves they have just won half the battle. The other half is won when they develop their spirituality and ask for the guidance necessary to navigate to their spiritual path in order to navigate through their life path.

Don Imus, Black People, and the Economic Incentives of Racism

Another radio talk show personality makes another racially insensitive statement and the Reverend Al Sharpton makes another racist charge. How many times has this scenario already played itself out?

Radio host Don Imus used his nationally syndicated talk show which airs on the MSNBC television network to say that members of the mostly black Rutgers University women’s basketball team, where the majority of players are black, were nappy headed whores. The team had lost a playoff game for the NCAA Women’s Championship. Al Sharpton has demanded that Imus be fired. The Reverend Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow Push Coalition plans protest outside the NBC headquarters to voice their grievance. But truth be told the racist Imus has very little to fear.

The program that Don Imus hosts is a very profitable one for NBC. Sponsors practically fall over themselves lining up to buy a share of the commercial time available during his program. Many of his listeners can identify with his view on a number of issues including his racist views on minorities. While many people may not be so bold as to remove any doubt of their racist mindset, Mr. Imus gives them an opportunity to indulge their own bigotry In fact, Mr. Imus may wind up more popular than ever because of his racist expression. There has always been, and always will be, economic incentives for the racist practice of discrimination.

Arguably, America’s most economically profitable era is its period of slavery where many Africans suffered enslavement via extraordinary rendition. Not only were Africans used as free labor. Africans family members were bought and sold for profit like so much property. Through a racist social policy that regarded men and women of color a sub human classification many of our ancestors were forced to suffer inhumane conditions because slave owners had no economic incentives to provide humane treatment for their slave labor force.

When the white man woke up to the fact that they could not economically compete with the free labor market of slavery, the necessary steps were taken to end the system. The emancipation proclamation outlawed slavery and freed the people of African descent. But the economics of racism continued to thwart any fair treatment of black people. A series of Jim Crow laws were established to deny blacks their right to vote. The denied right to vote effectively kept racist officials in positions of government at the local, the state, and the federal level. Racist government officials were all too willing to support policies and practices that denied black people the economic opportunities white people enjoy

Racist policies of keeping black people ignorant and under educated, or uneducated, allowed white people to take advantage of them in business dealings. To this day many blacks still suffer the effects from a history of poor education. Many businesses prey on minorities with substandard educations such as predatory lenders who give people who most likely can’t afford to buy a home the most ornery financing terms with the highest financing rates in order to drive them to financial ruin and seize the house back to sell it to some other easy target. Easy money until so many people fall prey at once and the lenders are now the victims. Thank god for karma.

Racist practices by politicians are wonderful tools to scare the public. Politicians will talk tough about reigning in some fictitious wave of crime to appeal to the masses. Manipulated statistics will show how law enforcement needs to crack down on undesirable elements in our population. For most people, that means keeping black people from committing crime. Politicians will bend over backwards to put a black man in jail for life or send a man to the gas chamber to show how tough they are on crime. Yet white collar crime such as the Enron spectacle, the Jack Abramoff scandal, Halliburton’s no bid multi-billion dollar contracts, Mark Foley’s congressional page scandal, Exxon-Mobile’s eye-popping record $30 billion profit while the rest of America suffer record gasoline prices, and so many other offenses consistently go under the attention of any agency charged with protecting the interest of the public.

Law enforcement agencies regularly benefit from racist policies. Police will randomly target black people for drug enforcement processes such as illegal traffic stops and vehicle searches. A black man will suffer prison for an offense a white man would get off without a mark on his record. Black men in prison work for pennies a day while the prison reaps profits for their modern day slave labor. Prison agencies will justify their existence to the public by touting the number of criminals they have to maintain. A high vacancy rate would be bad for business. So any opportunity to charge an inmate for a petty violation does not get passed up.

Such is the case with the Texas Youth Commission. This agency is charged with the responsibility of keeping juveniles in the state of Texas from the public. Yet, employees of this agency regularly violate laws that are much more severe than the crimes many of these children are accused of. Take the case of Shaquanda Cotton who was sentenced to be incarcerated for a maximum of seven years for shoving a hall monitor at her Paris, Texas high school. She was sent to Texas Youth Commission. Yet Texas Youth Commission employees are accused of raping and torturing these children. So many children have been kept behind bars in order to keep enrollment in the prison system near maximum levels. As many as 550 children may be released now that their cases are being reviewed by the new master of Texas Youth Commission hired by the Governor.

When civil rights activist brought attention to Shaquanda Cotton and the Texas Youth Commission, many people were appalled at the conditions with which the agency operated and demanded justice and changes. Many people are now in fear of being fired for being negligent in the responsibilities. Other Texas Youth Commission employees are under threat of being prosecuted for criminal behavior. So many people are upset that they are now being scrutinized by new management. Now the employees of the Texas Youth Commission want compassion. Inevitably other racist will rally to their defense.

Until minorities can figure out a way to take the economic incentive out of being a racist racism will thrive and thrive well. As some broadcast analyst commented, Don Imus has nothing to fear as long as he is profitable to his company.