Crop Lessons

There’s a story about a farmer who had an award winning crop. The farmer was known for having blue ribbon vegetables on a regular basis year after year. When asked how he managed to have such prize winning plants the farmer would explain he simply shares the seeds from his award winning crops with his neighboring farmers.

One of the problems associated with growing a quality vegetable crop is contamination from the neighboring crops. Winds blow pollen grains across property lines. Animals carry pollen from one field to another. In a working example of the law of averages, the quality of the first field is infected and combined with the quality of the second field and both fields begin to mutate into a field with an average quality of both. In order to protect your crop and keep the average as high as possible make sure the quality of both fields is as high as possible. It’s not rocket science.

This morning I read a report on the abcnews website titled Superbugs Emerge Among Urban Poor by Carla K Johnson. The article explains that in recent years, drug resistant staph infections have spread to the urban poor, rising almost seven hundred percent. These infections are difficult to treat due to their resistance to penicillin based drugs. These infections can lead to pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and the seriously scary flesh eating disorder. Instances of this condition have jumped from 24 per 100,000 cases in the year 2000 to 164 instances per 100,000 cases in 2005. If the rate of climb continues its pace by the year 2010 the number will jump to over 1100 instances per 100,000 by 2010. By 2015 the number will be well over 7,500 instances. As time passes on these staph infections will become more difficult to combat and require more resources to control.

The ideal of a universal healthcare program for the United States frightens a lot of people who stand to loose their ability to make a lot of money or to help people who are less fortunate. A lot of people have bought the line that universal healthcare will bankrupt the country. And yet, these same people have no qualms supporting a war that is costing America two hundred million dollars each day it drags on. And each day this war continues the United States is directly responsible for the resulting destruction of property and lives, and for inspiring more and more people around the globe to join organizations whose primary goal is to stop the government of the United States. But to spend a dime trying to protect the health of the population is a cause with little perceived benefit.

Universal healthcare has the stench of socialism. But nobody can tell me what’s wrong with that. We allow socialism to protect our houses from fire with the local fire department.  A social program is used to hire law enforcers to protect us from people who may try to do us wrong.  Few people complain about the socialized military machine the United States uses to invoke our will on others by force.  But a social program designed to make sure that everyone has adequate medical coverage is just too evil a concept.  The weight of the bureaucracy alone would hinder the quality of our care.

But if the bureaucracy of the paperwork necessary to get care now is any indication I’d be willing to take that chance.  Insurance companies hire tons of clerks, investigators, auditors, and lawyers to comb through client’s records for anything that can be considered a preexisting condition whenever their facing a huge payout that could impact profits.  It is cheaper to pay an army of people to look for a reason not to pay a claim and deny coverage.

Universal healthcare doesn’t have to be expensive. If we implement a healthcare system that allows insurance companies, health facilities, lawyers and other legal agencies, health care givers, manufacturers of medicine, and other entities to continue making the profits per capita that they enjoy now then it will be tremendously expensive. The goal of these institutions and organization isn’t to help people improve their health. Like most entities in America the ultimate goal is to make money.

Because of the lack of preventive medicine in the black community it has become analogous to the canary in the coal mine. Unfortunately, American society doesn’t have the good medial sense to aggressively counter these potential health problems while they remain relatively easy to correct. Because the dominant community enjoys access to better medical care it is assumed that the majority won’t suffer from these super bugs like the black community will. However, the black community will be allowed to act as an incubator for the drug resistant bacteria until they mutate into super-duper bugs that are far more infectious and far more deadly. A stitch in time may save nine. However in this example, a stitch now will save lives not just in the black community but could save lives in the population in general.

The quality of people’s health in the United States continues to decline in the global ranks. Countries without the advanced medical technology of the United States continue to advance in the rankings while America plummets. Why? Because other countries apply whatever medical technology they have across the board and across class lines and racial lines while America’s medicine is reserved only for those who can afford it. If America doesn’t change its narrow minded focus on profits above all else we will continue our decline.

The blue ribbon award winning farmer who shares his seeds understands the correlation between his field and the other fields within his community. The farmer in the story understood that the law of averages would eventually catch him if he allowed the quality of his neighbor’s fields to deteriorate while he tried to improve the quality of his own field. Unfortunately, the lesson is lost on a population so deeply rooted in selfish behavior and the subjugation of people outside the traditional face of dominant culture America.

The Technology of Common Sense

It’s a fact that when the tsunami hit Sri Lanka on December 26th, just days before the end of 2004, the number of animals that were killed was extremely low. There are stories about animals fleeing the low ground just before the giant wave hit the shore. There are other stories from people who usually take their dogs for walks on the beach about how their pets resisted going that particular morning.

Researchers are working to uncover how animals sense the various pending disasters, whether it be by hearing nearly undetectable sounds in the environment, sensing minute vibrations in the ground, detecting changes in atmospheric pressure, or whatever it may be. The hope is to duplicate the animal’s detection ability with technology since humans either never had the ability or lost the ability to detect such occurrences.

Whatever the phenomenon animals use to detect environmental disaster it appears that they all share it. So it may not be just one characteristic of pending destruction that animals detect. More than likely, the animals are simply more in tuned with the natural environment in its entirety than the humans who share their world. People are so out of touch with their environment that no technology can compensate for our indifference to the environment.

Researches have developed technologies that can calculate the path of a hurricane for days prior to its landfall. The technology predicted hurricane Katrina’s course through New Orleans and the rest of the gulf coast states. But the technology was ineffective against the indifference of people who command and control all the resources to help those in need with little resources if any. Nearly two years after Katrina people are still waiting for help from people who have obviously little desire to help them. Unfortunately, the reality is that any technology developed to warn of approaching tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, droughts, or killer meteorites will not be used to assist the population of color. Black people have yet to realize that they we are not appreciated as an integral part of American society.

Katrina is old news. America doesn’t care about black people is old news, at least for those of us with our eyes open. Animals can instinctively detect environmental disasters because they are tuned to nature. All of this is old news. But what if the animals weren’t necessarily more in tuned with their environment but just more in tuned with their common sense? What if animals simply see what is happening in their environment and make rational decisions about leaving the area? People on the other hand see the changes in our environment, suppress their common sense, and simply shrug off the changes as nothing that our technology can handle.

For years medical institutions have been warning about the dangers of smoking yet people continue to learn to smoke to this very day. Why? Who knows? But it’s obvious somebody’s not practicing common sense. With so much evidence about the dangers of smoking and the practically zero benefit one wonders why as a society will continue to allow cigarette manufacturers to continue to sell their poison. A society that practiced common sense would not have a problem shutting the cigarette companies down to save their children.

For years people knew that New Orleans couldn’t survive a direct hit from an intense hurricane yet people in the area lived as if none of it mattered. Poor or not no one should’ve made the choice to live in that city with the threat of flooding so real on a daily basis. I remember being in New Orleans once and watching as a ship floated out to sea on water so much higher than my relative position. It actually made my heart skip a beat I was so shocked. I was uncomfortable for the remainder of my visit bothered by the notion that at anytime the levee could break and we could be inundated with water. Common sense says not to live in such a dangerous position.

But what happened to New Orleans is child’s play compared to the pending disasters looming on the horizon. Global warming is real. In the grand scheme of things it isn’t very important but since it will severely impact our ability to survive on this planet one would think everyone would take it a lot more seriously. But people scoff at the idea of a possibility that the Earth’s ability to sustain us is at risk. Where’s the common sense? These people wouldn’t acknowledge danger until it is scientifically proven that it is far too late.

The financial crisis that the United States has created with its crushing national debt is another impending disaster. According to the History of Oil by Robert Newman, the United States had to go to war with Iraq to keep countries buying and selling oil from changing their US dollars to the European dollars. Saddam Hussein wanted to conduct business in euros and once that ball started rolling and other countries followed suit the American economy collapses and the United States would dry up unable to sustain its self. The multinational companies rooted here will simply conduct their business where the money is good. It’s no accident that a lot of companies are doing their best to gain a foothold in China.

We see this coming. It’s not a question as to whether or not the economy collapses. The question we should be asking ourselves is that when the financial hurricane comes and bitch slaps the United States what have we done collectively to prepare for it. The fact that we may or may not have the resources of other people to prepare properly will be little comfort when our families and communities suffer from a nationwide inability to obtain food. And like most disasters that hit us as a society, usually it is the black communities that suffer the hardest and longest.

Like the animals in Sri Lanka and the other places that left before the tsunami hit we shouldn’t hesitate to move ourselves away from the disaster that we see coming. If at all possible people need to make a choice to minimize their exposure if they can’t get out of the way. A little common sense now will help us become better prepared for these and other disasters that our heading our way. If Katrina has taught us one thing it is the fact that people of color don’t have the luxury of waiting for technology or to wait until the very last minute.

Pay It Forward

I enjoy a natural love of the sincere and genuine study of Ifa. Orisas and ancestors have truly made a difference in my world. These days I now see the world from an enhanced spiritual perspective and less from a materialistic or secular angle. I have truly been blessed.

However, I sincerely doubt if I could have developed my unique understanding and appreciation of Ifa had I stayed in any of the Orisa houses I’ve encountered on my path. My reservations regarding the spiritual accuracy of well established Orisa houses comes from the fact that so many people within the traditional practice of Ifa have perverted the belief system and have twisted doctrine for personal benefit. No belief system is immune from the hijackers. But unfortunately, Ifa appears to suffer from more interference than others. Orunmila says as many as 9 out of 10 people who practice the tradition are off path. My guess is that since Ifa is a belief system that is based heavily on the interpretation of divination for spiritual guidance everyone believes and accepts the fact that diviners add their own personal spin to the subject at hand. Some people are so accustomed to adding their own two cents that they develop an innate arrogance that prevents Orunmila from even communicating with them. Thankfully I’ve learned that interpretation is hardly necessary or even close to being valid.

When I was introduced to Ifa about seven years ago I was indoctrinated into the most popular version of the tradition that is based on seniority and hierarchy instead of capability or equality. Unfortunately at the time I was so clueless as to what was happening and why that I spent my first few years just learning what an Orisa was and the significance of ancestor appreciation. The time learning was extremely well spent.

About two years ago, I was initiated, and that’s when things really opened up for me. Initiation gave me a sense of confidence combined with a sense of calm that had eluded me before. A few months after my initiation my ile and I split ways. A lot of doors closed right before my eyes. But new doors of spiritual opportunities never before imagined opened. Consequently, the Orisas and ancestors are closer to me now than they have ever been, or could have been, had stayed on the obvious path.

One of the things I take issue with is how many Orisa houses insist on performing ritual and ceremony on a regular and consistent basis as if that’s the only thing we as a community have to worry about these days. But with the black community being besieged by white dominated and controlled, government sanctioned, corporate manipulation on so many different fronts, ritual and pomp really needs to be put in its proper perspective in relationship to survival. Our communities are crumbling from attacks and our Orisa houses are more focused on the proper way to greet elders and seniors in the Orisa community who are imbued with certain titles of chieftaincy.

The best way to honor our community, ancestors, and the Orisa isn’t about performing ritual to praise them. A lot of people spend a lot of time learning and perfecting the proper techniques to praise our spiritual guides. But believe it or not ancestors and Orisas don’t need our energy of praise at their level of existence. While true that we must acknowledge and appreciate their contribution to our lives that appreciation is better when it is kept sincere and enjoyable instead of stressful and a spectacle.

My love of Orisa and ancestors doesn’t manifest according to my ability to dance, sing, or fall to the floor and contort into the proper greeting. My love and appreciation for my spiritual guides will manifest itself by my love and concern for my brothers and sisters in my community. In these troubling times we should be putting our energy into protecting and redeveloping our black communities. We should be focused on developing our future instead of worshipping our past. In essence we should be paying it forward.

Most of the iles I’ve encountered demand nothing less than total allegiance and devotion from their members. This can be a potential problem in itself. But when an Orisa house member spends more time honing their praise skills instead of their community building skills things can spiral so far out of control that the devotee needs to run for their spiritual life else spiritual growth will suffer for ritual stagnation. My love of Ifa compelled me to find a new path. The traditional ways of interpreting the practice of Ifa are ineffective for true spiritual development.

I love the Orisas and the ancestors. I love the true practice of Ifa free of the distractions that panders to egos. The true practice of Ifa teaches that there is little that’s more important than the continuation of community. Only after our communities return to their healthy status should we relax our vigilance and celebrate with dance and ritual.

History of Oil by Robert Newman

I loathe putting other people’s work up as a sole entry on a blog. As a newbie to the blogosphere I would think that it’s important to keep entries that do nothing but refer to other people’s work to an absolute minimum. Too easy or too lazy. Anybody can post references. But this video is good. Very good. Anything I write to contribute to Mr. Newman’s message would only muck things up. The video speaks for itself very well. I must confess I find it difficult to keep up with the accent at certain points. No doubt British. But hear the words and watch. Mr. Newman is predicting the future as history repeats itself. Click here to activate the link.

Peace

Remembering Ancestors

Memorial Day has traditionally been reserved for the remembrance of ancestors who have given their lives in service to their country during times of war. It was originally intended as a day to honor the Union soldiers who died during the civil war. After the First World War the day was expanded to include anyone who died in any military action.

However, America has forgotten the sacrifices made by its citizens of African descent. While our ancestors sacrificed their lives in the service of this country ever since the American Revolution, time and time again, African men and women who survived their call to duty would come home to cope with a country that would forget their collective contribution to the struggle for truth, justice, and the American way. There are stories about African soldiers having to wait outside restaurants while their German prisoners were welcomed inside to eat their meal. Never mind that the soldiers may have been war heroes. All some white people saw were Africans to be subjugated.

The ancestors who survived war had remove the uniform they wore to fight the enemy of America, and replaced it with civilian clothing so they can fight new enemies of inequality, subjugation, separation, and racial hatred. As our ancestors marched and fought for respect and equality white people used every means at their disposal to make the struggle as difficult as possible if not totally unattainable. All anyone has to do is watch clips of the Selma to Montgomery March and watch as black people are attacked by dogs and are knocked around with high pressure hoses. News clips show black people being assaulted by white people as they protested at food counters. News clips show Governors, Senators, and other government officials as they promise segregation as a way of life regardless of the efforts and contributions of blacks to our way of life. It’s a matter of historic fact that the resources of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of the suspiciously homosexual J. Edgar Hoover, was used to investigate Black Panthers as a terrorist organization while organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation were allowed to thrive. No black people ever used a rental truck to destroy a federal building. The Panthers were vilified and propagandized in order to justify their status as public enemy number one. The Panthers were systematically hunted and destroyed for little more than being who they were while white people shot black people in the back from the shadows and bombed churches with four little black girls inside. All this and more was done to our ancestors as they fought their fight for their community and the future of their community.

Our ancestors fought a very good fight. Many of them have been forgotten. Too many of us who reaped the benefit of their sacrifice now squander it away with petty pursuits of materialism and me-too-isms. A lot of black people think that because we can obtain credit and fall into a bottomless pit of debt with little means of escape, we think the war is over and there’s nothing else to gain. But as Dr. Martin Luther King once suspected we have integrated into the moral and political equivalent of a burning building. But in all honesty, it is more like the Hindenburg as it embarks on its final voyage.

While it’s nice to remember our ancestors on Memorial Day, the worshippers of Ifa should be remembering not just our ancestors, but our elders as well, for their sacrifices made on our behalf in the war for our dignity, equality, humanity, and our history. It has been a long hard fight against a foe that is relentless in its objective of total domination over the children of Africa. In recent years we have lost considerable ground in the struggle. But the fight is far from over.

White People Frighten Me

As a black man born, raised, and living in America I must confess that white people frighten me. White people have a need, a proclivity, a disposition, an unalterable desire to win against any other people at any and all cost. For white people competition is like war. And all is fair in the love of war.

European history is full of conflict and war. Just about every European country had its share of colonialism and conquest. Romans, Greeks, Francophiles, Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese, English, Norwegians, you name it. These people invaded each other, Africa, the Americas, Australia, the Far East, the Middle East, the North Pole, the South Pole, and just about every territory, island, and anything else you can name.

The countries of Europe carved Africa up like it was a birthday cake made especially for them. The Middle East is still trying to undo the damage done by the imposition of artificial borders by predominantly European governments. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam had to endure the interference of white people. For years North and South Vietnam were at war with each other because of the meddling of Russia, France, and the United States. The invasion of Iraq, on the pretext that we’re fighting a war on terror, is just the latest of example.

But it appears that the white people of the United States have taken their obsession for winning to levels of megaton proportions. The history of the European settlers’ westward expansion was more than especially troublesome for the natives of North America. Regardless of the propaganda we’ve been fed since kindergarten the pilgrims never appreciated the people of the new world as equals. After the Native Americans helped the new European settlers survive and adapt to conditions in the new world the pilgrims repaid their benefactors by declaring war. Guerilla tactics were used such as giving the natives blankets laced with smallpox. Jefferson may have purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. But America be damned if we pay a dime for the land stolen from the people of Mexico.

With their land addiction somewhat satisfied the white people of the United States invented new levels of institutionalized slavery to obtain labor cheap enough to stimulate the economy. Labor doesn’t get much cheaper than free. Virtually no one of African descent benefited from America’s period of African enslavement. With little exception, it was white people who reaped the benefits of slavery.

Even after slavery white people continued their political, economic, educational, spiritual, and legal assault against people of obvious African descent. Laws were designed with the sole objective of subjugating black people to a perpetually inferior status. Our ancestors and elders fought to eliminate these oppressive and sometimes cruel practices. But no law designed to help eliminate the suffering of black people was ever greeted with welcome from white people. Each time black people were able to affect a change to improve our lives white people would cry foul and complain that the white man’s way of life is being threatened.

With each law designed to outlaw racist practices white people adapt their racist methods. Brazen acts of racism have been replaced with more effective and devastating subtle forms that are much more difficult to identify, prove, and therefore combat. Through various methods of propaganda black people have been identified in such an overwhelmingly negative light. With a few exceptions of some high profile black icons of the civil rights era our history has been pretty much stolen from us and tossed aside. Ask a black youth in America to discuss Dr. King and all they can say is he gave his great speech about his dreams of integration and equality.

Propaganda teaches that black people commit most crimes and therefore it is justified that black people are stopped, searched, assaulted, brutalized, and are punished by law enforcement more often than white people. Propaganda teaches that black people aren’t as smart as white people and the only reason we are in the job market is because of the special treatment of programs such as affirmative action. Propaganda teaches that inner city black neighborhoods are inferior so successful black people must abandon them for the suburbs. Propaganda teaches that black people are lazy and will do as little work as possible. Propaganda teaches that black people exist on welfare and government handouts and do little to support ourselves. There is so much propaganda against the black community until we find ourselves fulfilling the very roles white people have identified as us.

The misinformation by white people has made the environment of America much more difficult for blacks to coexist with whites. But if we rollover and accept the subservient status intended for us then the struggles and sacrifices of our ancestors and elders have been for naught.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a campaign by the black community to counter the racist practices of the city’s policy of racial segregation on the bus system even though the majority of the riders were black. In response, blacks abandoned the public transportation system en mass until they received equal treatment. The boycott lasted for better than an entire year from December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956. The white community responded by joining the white citizen’s council, an organization that utilized violence and terrorism by firebombing the homes of several of the black leaders of the boycott and by openly attacking black boycotters on the street.

But at one point the white people decided to end the boycott by employing misinformation. A newspaper article was written falsely indicating that a compromise had been worked out and that the boycott was over. The black people who uncovered the ruse beat the pavement to spread the word that the story was untrue and that the boycott was still on. Black people effectively countered the misinformation and maintained their boycott until the segregation of the bus system was declared unconstitutional.

Today, although much more pervasive and much more relentless, the misinformation of the white community designed to maintain their supremacy can be countered and defeated. If we don’t step up to the plate and do our part to preserve the black community then we have dropped the ball and have allowed our children to be subjugated in ways we have yet to imagine.

White people frighten me. Not for what they are willing to do to my person. But for what they are willing to do to the next generation of black people and each and every generation thereafter. Black people need to wakeup, resist the propaganda, and learn to choose our own words, our own names, our own descriptions to identify who we are to ourselves.

It’s Not About Winning or Loosing

It’s not about who wins or lose, it’s about how you play the game. This is one of the first lessons taught to kids playing little league sports. I’ve always thought the phrase was intended to teach children to put a greater significance on enjoying the integrity of the process and to not place such importance on the goal of winning. However, too often this lesson is lost on people. It is the nature of some individuals to win and be first whenever they find themselves in a competition.

A person can be told he or she could have anything they wish, but whatever they wish for their enemy will have double. Chances are good that this person will never be content unless they could wish for some harm. The very idea that the subject of their abhorrence can have more is simply too much to bear. Sometimes, even winning isn’t enough. The competitors must be utterly destroyed and run out of town in a cloud of humiliation. The drive to not only win but crush enemies beyond their existence may help explain some of the thinking that goes into justifying the invasion of Iraq and the perpetuation of the conflict.

The current White House administration couldn’t bear the thought of Saddam Hussein kicking up his heels in his palace in Iraq and controlling all that oil. It didn’t matter that he defied some United Nations charter, it didn’t matter that he gassed a part of the Iraqi population a couple of decades ago, it didn’t matter that he was accused of having nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, anthrax, bubonic plague, or that he is accused of trying to purchase yellowcake uranium, helium, or aluminum like a crack dealer in an alley in downtown Niger. If none of these problems existed something else would be cause for war down to a news clip of Saddam Hussein jay walking across a Baghdad boulevard. I can imagine the President’s rhetoric for such an occasion.

He brazenly defies their traffic laws. Therefore he is a menace to the Iraqi people. So, god told me that we, the righteous people of the United States, who can throw rocks, smart bombs, and missiles from our glass house, have the responsibility to liberate those poor traffic law abiding Iraqi people.

So we attacked, mission accomplished, Saddam Hussein capture, members of his family are killed, captured, or on the run, switched to fighting al-Qaeda, part of the war on terror, and now we can’t leave because that will embolden the enemy.

Nobody realizes that the enemy has already been emboldened. The United States invaded Iraq more than four years ago and is no closer to a win now than it was then. Some significant events have probably happened along the way. But, the initial count of enemy combatants climbs exponentially each and every day fueled by the large and ever increasing number of reports of US troops atrocities from Abu Graib prison, Guantanamo Bay, and the streets of Baghdad, Fullujah, Kirkuk, Mosul, Karbala, and wherever else our soldiers go on hour behalf. And the hornet’s nest that’s been enraged isn’t even close to being calmed down. And those hornets are able to generate more drones faster than what the military can kill.

The President argues that if we don’t fight and destroy the terrorist there then we invite them to come to our country and we will fight them here. That sounds scary. But the fact of the matter is we already have terrorism here in America. The Virginia Tech shooting where thirty four people were killed was an act of domestic terrorism. The courthouse ambush in Moscow, Idaho was an act of terrorism. Columbine high school was an act of terrorism. The Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma was an act of terrorism. These events and others just like them are acts of terrorism and no one thought to use our military, by far the most extreme measure of force by man on the planet, to keep them from happening again.

And think of the terrorism the people of Iraq suffer everyday from our military being there. Our soldiers regularly kill law abiding Iraqi people at road checks because they don’t understand their instructions. Door to door searches of Iraqi homes terrorize entire families simply trying to tolerate the occupation. Each of these events makes the recruiting process for al-Qaeda and other organizations so much easier. The sooner our soldiers leave the sooner the Iraqi people can get on with their lives.

The retribution that will come from our actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other places around the world will come no matter how long we stay in Iraq. Instead of sacrificing our troops as lambs led to slaughter and making them easy targets for the terrorist groups over there we need to suck it up and bring our troops home where they will have a much better chance for survival.

Winning or loosing in Iraq should not be our primary issue. We had the chance not to play this game and like slack jaws yokels we made the choice to jump in with guns blazing. But our military cannot win this alone. Our military will only inspire others to join the fray because we look so much like the global bully who carefully picks his fight with others who are obviously much smaller and weaker. The way we play this game has become so unfair.

Black Prejudice and White Insensitivity

Being prejudice is a natural condition of being human. We all have inherit likes and dislikes that come from the environment we grow up in as well as our instinctive, natural proclivity. We all have inherited attractions that we enjoy and repulsions that we suffer. Our preferences extend to perceptions of skin color, gender, size, and shape.

If I find myself trapped in a burning building and helpless I would hope the firefighter that finds me is a man to carry me out. A lot of people will say that’s common sense. But it is common sense for a specific gender preference. As a black male who grew up in a black family that lived in a black neighborhood, I have developed a natural preference to seek and cultivate a relationship with black women. As a black man, with my personal experiences and relationship with white dominated American culture, I have a predisposition to sympathize with issues of the black community. I have prejudices.

However, what I don’t have is the propensity to allow my prejudice to overwhelm my ability to make rational decisions. My prejudice doesn’t entice me to hinder another gender, skin color, belief system, sexual orientation, or anyone else from having the ability to exist comfortably and equitably.

In a perfect world with an equal distribution of wealth, land, property, housing, government, the ability to generate income, educational resources, media production, media outlets, and other valuable resources that have become virtually inescapable because they are so interwoven into our lives, the ability of one culture to dominate, control, and/or manipulate another would be mitigated by each culture’s ability to provide for its self. Unfortunately, we live in anything but a perfect world.

The American corporate culture is overwhelmingly controlled by conservative white people or people who are extremely sensitive to white people’s need to dominate and control other cultures. Consequently, the American corporate philosophy is inherently insensitive at best, or hostile at worst, to the needs and wants of other cultures. Even the seemingly philanthropic efforts of corporations who donate a relative pittance of their profits to the development of the minority communities do so with an agenda to profit on their investment while developing minorities into toms ready to support and defend the white corporate culture.

The American legal culture is overwhelmingly dominated by a white culture that fears blacks to the point that they are quick to prosecute black people to the fullest extent of the law while white people are given the benefit of a doubt in similar cases. The disparity between black and white justice is evident time and time again simply by watching any nationally syndicated television news program. Unarmed blacks killed in a hail of bullets from several police officers. Black men are constantly the victim of abuse by police officers and guards. Judges will sentence blacks more harshly than their white counterparts for virtually the same crime. And instead of people actually taking a careful examination of this issue we hear comments that run along the line of, I’m not racist but I’m sick of hearing about all this racism.

The neo-conservatism movement running rampant through the Republican right is so insensitive to black culture it isn’t even funny. George Allen calls a minority man tracking his campaigning for the senate race macaca in front of an audience of his constituents and says he didn’t mean anything by it. Rush Limbaugh plays a parody portraying presidential candidate Barack Obama as the Magic Negro. The President’s mother refers to the overwhelmingly black victims of hurricane Katrina staying in Houston’s Astrodome arena as “much better off” now that they’ve lost everything but the clothes on their person. The President himself was too busy playing guitar in California and the national security advisor was buying shoes.

Blacks who are sensitive to black issues can be prejudice. We see our own in a conflict with a white person and we support our brothers and sisters because we have been there and we are tired of being railroaded by the many systems managed to be insensitive to our needs. But whites are quick to do the same. How many white people defended George Allen, Don Imus, George Bush, Barbara “Oatmeal Box” Bush, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bradley Schlozman, and whoever else made simplistic characterizations at the expense of people who exist outside their culture club. The only difference is we don’t control the wealth, corporations, the media, the government, the courts, and every last one of the other institutions that are part of our daily lives. Each one of these entities is controlled by the insensitive white corporate culture.

The Theatrics of Divination by Ifa

Anybody can perform divination. There is no certification or verification process. So literally, anybody can do it. Minimally, all it takes is a few pieces of coconuts and an unsuspecting client. For the average person there is virtually no way to verify the accuracy of a reading. Most diviners will feed you some mumbo jumbo about their interpretation of spiritual energies are unique and are not for interpretation by other diviners. In other words, don’t expect confirmation or any authentication.

I’ve had a number of readings performed for me by a number of people. I’ve sat in on a number of readings for other people as well. Without fail the babalawos, iyanifas, and any other titles you’d like to throw into the mix go through virtually the same motions of prayers and props in the divination ritual.

But in the true practice of Ifa the divination process isn’t about being entertained with theatrics rooted in what is supposed to be authentic ancient African culture. The prayer process performed to bring the essence of Orunmila to the divination ritual shouldn’t be necessary. In my experience with Orisa they are always more than ready to assist in guiding people to and through their spiritual destiny. For the devotee who is in good spiritual standing, baba Orunmila will come with just a call of his name.

In virtually all of the divinations I’ve witnessed the client is always asked to pray into the media used to facilitate the reading. Whether it’s the opele chain, coconut pieces, or the cowry shells, the instrument is given to the client so they can pray for guidance and spiritual clarity. I guess Orunmila, assistant to Olodumare, the Supreme Being according to Ifa doctrine, the entity that knows the fate of everything, didn’t know that’s what the client was getting a reading for. I guess the client’s prayer is supposed to straighten things out for him. After all, everybody knows how prone Orunmila is to giving half-assed readings full of spiritual confusion.

I don’t think people are aware of the slight they perpetrate. Baba Orunmila doesn’t require superfluous prayers in order to do his job. The invitation to pray into the tool to be used for the ritual is nothing but a mechanism to make the ritual more authentic for the client and the audience. People shouldn’t be so easily manipulated. People need to learn to get past the smoke and mirrors and learn to see things as they are and not as they are supposed to be according to oversimplified concepts of traditional African spiritual culture.

The solemn air of authentic African-ism can add to a client’s discomfort and levels of intimidation. Most people who participate in these solemn African rituals want to make sure they do nothing to disturb the soulful essence of the diviner or anyone else in the room. The client wants to do their fare share to keep the realism of the moment going.

However, the participation in artificial spirituality is more hazardous to development than absolutely no spirituality at all. The person who knows he or she is not living spiritually healthy may one day wake up to their condition and take the steps necessary for correction. However, the person content with their spiritual placebos will keep their self confounded within their unrealized condition of spiritual confusion. It is very likely that such a person will continue in their confused state until it is too late for a full recovery.

Divination doesn’t require a show. In fact, I’ve discovered that the most comfortable divination process is the one conducted more like a conversation with people sitting around on a couch. As far as a medium used to conduct the divination process, the only thing needed is a diviner within good spiritual standing with the Orisas. The religious baggage that requires prayers, candles, decorations, and a mat would be best checked at the door. And don’t insult baba by praying for him to give you clarity and understanding. Your clarity is your responsibility. Baba does nothing if he doesn’t tell you exactly what you need. Do your part to open yourself up to the possibility that what you are expecting is not what to be expected.

Girlfriends

For many African descendents living in the western cultures such as the United States, Joan Carol Sutter is the epitome of our existence. Joan is very materialistic, very competitive, very self-centered, and very simplistic. Joan Carol Sutter is one of the characters from UPNs long running show Girlfriends about four African American women living in Los Angeles. It’s little more than a cheap version of the show Sex in the City for black folks. I gave up half-hour comedies and sitcoms years ago for having too many stereotypical African American characters and not having any typical African American characters.

But a long while ago I caught just a blip of an episode as I was flipping channels. One of the characters, played by Golden Brooks, had just bagged her self a white man and they had just finished doing the “nasty”. After the white guy falls asleep, she gets out from under the covers, quietly walked to the foot of the bed, got on her knees at the white man’s feet, and prayed to god thanking him for the new man in her life. I turned the television off I was so pissed. The subservient symbolism of the scene struck a raw nerve like a toothache. The show never appealed to me and after that experience I just knew it never would. But, a few months ago I ran across the show again while flipping channels. Out of the blue I decided to give it this show another shot.

This “new” episode featured Joan Carol Sutter, played by Tracee Ellis Ross, assuming she was about to get married to some guy she takes on a weekend trip to Las Vegas. The main characters come together to discuss trepidations regarding why Joan should or shouldn’t be getting married. The whole thing turned out to be some big, supposedly hilarious, misunderstanding because the guy only wanted them to spend the weekend together and Joan is packing a wedding dress.

Financially, Joan is very successful. Like the other characters, Joan is a single African American woman with obviously enough wealth, or credit, to purchase the latest fashions. She enjoys enough income to eat out regularly with her friends who exude the exact same set of virtues as Joan. However, Joan and her friends are constantly complaining about the lack of funds to do the things they “really” would like to accomplish. These women obviously enjoy living a life style they cannot afford.

Joan is supposed to be a typical, mulatto, beauty according to widely accepted standards for attractiveness in mass media these days. Unfortunately, the typical values of beauty do not embrace the natural beauty of non-whites. Black women, in particular, are given way too many opportunities to distort their ethnic beauty. There are a number of products and procedures designed to straighten their hair, lighten the shade of their skin, down play the fullness of their facial features, and reign in the fullness of their curvaceous figures. Joan and her friends are walking advertisements for such behavior. These women have chosen to wear the masks that hide their ethnicity, ancestry, and blackness.

Joan is in a relationship with a financially successful black man. He’s tall and handsome. He drives a Mercedes-Benz. His casual clothing is very tasteful. But Joan is not satisfied. The man in her life takes her to Las Vegas for an opportunity to relax in each other’s company. It’s a chance for the two of them to get to know each other. But Joan is so focused and desperate to get married because she’s the oldest of her friends and at least one of them is already hitched. To pack for the trip Joan runs to her closet and grabs a wedding dress. The wedding dress is typical western culture with white lace and trains.

Joan claims she loves this man. But like most aspects of her personality, this particular issue is wrought with dichotomy. She wants to marry him, but doesn’t want to do it in Las Vegas. She will settle for getting engaged in Las Vegas, but doesn’t want to be engaged in such a rushed fashion. She wants to go home, but she doesn’t want to miss the Celine Dion concert. Why would this woman want to see a white singer who makes little, if any, attempt to appear cross culturally. Were there no black performers in Las Vegas?

Joan represents a dream for many children of Africa in America. She is intelligent, pretty, successful, etc. But how well does she represent the character, nature, or values of black American culture? Unfortunately, the answer to that question is a resounding too well. Too many blacks have given in to the brainwashing of mass media and dream of the gaudy and materialistic life that a woman like Joan and her friends endeavor to find. They are typical of way too many black Americans.

Do the women of Girlfriends represent black values that are designed to foster black culture and protect black neighborhoods? The answer is a resounding not at all. Joan and the other Girlfriends have turned their backs on the very things that our ancestors have stood for. The African American culture cannot survive when black men and women abandon that native African philosophy in favor of the classis, immitation of white American lifestyle.

Harriet Beacher Stowe’s Uncle Tom was an enslaved black man caught between two worlds. But he decided to do his best to live up to white standards. The Joan character and all the others just like her follow this pattern as well. Joan is the 21st century uncle tom.