Green Grass and Tea Leaves

The Systematic Extermination of People of Color, Especially Those of Readily Visible Black African Descent

I’m standing at the edge of an abyss wanting to propel my body away from solid ground and into oblivion. This metaphorical lust for a free fall to my death, an expedited route to permanent escape, holds me in its grip like a junky craving another line of coke. I am one of those Serenity Prayer knowing but unable to practice it individuals who could easily be consumed by her rage over the injustices of the world if she allowed it. However, I try not to. I constantly seek to overcome, to put my positive mental attitude (PMA) in action at all times. It’s like I need to participate in an episode of “What The Hell’s Eating You African America”, but spending any more time bitching and moaning without focusing on the execution of solutions would be an egregious waste of time and human capital.

That said, I am starting to devolve as a human being, because I don’t manage my rage well anymore. It gnaws at my soul like termites on wood, and I’d self-destruct completely if it weren’t for my better judgment regularly holding me back. All I can do is speak for myself and my experiences as a human being, and ultimately, my synopsis of the current state affairs in the South and possibly in America is that being a thinking and socially aware black person can sometimes make it very difficult to maintain a modicum of unmolested sanity.

What’s more, some of us darker-hued homo sapiens/humans are inundated with various forms of negativity traps like a blog I both respect to some degree and abhor “What About Our Daughters”. In these instances, we must manage the conflicted emotions of somewhat appreciating a blog that seems to blur the lines between activism and constructive exposure to important issues and the addiction to pain that we seek to avoid as a part of the “if-it-bleeds-it-leads” ideology that drives most of the popular headlines that grace most media outlets. That doom and gloom stuff serves to chronically pollute our perceptions of the state and characteristics of black identity in America be we white, black, or somewhere in between. Consequently, I don’t know Gina nor have I interfaced with her personally, and yet, I realize that her blog has a very narrow focus; championing black human rights violations against primarily black women and girls. But just reading black media in many cases, can be an exercise in aggravating the post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms made manifest in our lives on a regular, if not daily, basis as a result of the systematic abuse and psychological programming we receive from infancy onward. In other words, we must escape the B.S. and balance our inputs, so that we can remain constructive, positive and proactive (not just reactive), if not hopeful, as a collective (or some semblance of a people/community).

My personal roots are decidedly southern. I am a Texan and Louisianan at heart, and I can tell you that anyone even remotely conscious and affected while growing up in the deep South knows that it isn’t a bed of roses for dark-skinned people (i.e. those with features considered categorically black/African). We are inundated with the antics of closeted racists who seek to kill, steal, and destroy all things that are non-white (and therefore decidedly inferior – let them tell it), and we are conflicted by the tragedy and oppression of being dependent on the very people who are hostile toward us for access to resources and economic mobility. That shit fucks with me on the regular basis, but we are culpable in our own oppression to a large degree.

Times like this, when Trayvon Martin-like cases erupt on the national and international scene, outside people who choose to be conscious of the sufferings and plights of others beyond their in-group get a glimpse of what we experience everyday as people of color: injustice and a societal bent focused on our destruction through various forms of aggression, marginalization, and overt and covert manipulation (i.e. social engineering).

Only the blind among my own so-called “kind” can be oblivious to the inherent social and economic tax of being black. Whites have more room for cluelessness due to their ability to live fairly sheltered lives that insulate them against the egregious blight that some people have made being a member of the black diaspora out to be.

That said, there are many BWE bloggers who are focused on the science and art of living well. That’s were hope lies for the survival of some members of our so-called “race” though not all. Action, though largely covert by necessity (see the “Art of War” – Sun Tzu) is our only potentially saving grace. It’s survival of the most strategic and cunning out here on Earth; as is evident by watching the incessant dance of individuals, countries, and etc. jostling for control over resources (just look what’s going on with our Palestinian brothers and sisters in the Euro zone). And if you believe for one minute that a post-racial America is eminent due to the Obama-era being in existence, you’d better wake the fuck up fast buddy. Lol.

Strategize, execute, achieve and ultimately be well!

Your sister if you seek to understand and do what is right for yourself, your community and for mankind in general,
Kay