The art of enclosure: Surviving a bid

These walls work in my favor forging me as steele as I push for freedom.
I got knocked on the humble for smoking an el out front SPA one night- summer of 98 or so. I was twist and happy. Things is good, I’m celebrating. Life got purpose. I’m making more than decent chedar. Honey’s is checking for me, I’m swaggering. Blah blah blah go the talk between me and my mans and them out front SPA, el ash on the ground. Then up jump detects right when I’m bout to verbally punctuate my next move in life. Badge in my face, mouth full of smoke, the realization, the loss of control.

Now jail is about the realist place on earth. In terms of realty defined as basic human process. It’s a place where you come face to face with yourself. We’re all journeying towards the true us.

That right there was the foundation of my high. I mean I had smoked some serious chron.

So I’m like “Fuck all you detec mother fuckers. I ain’t do shit!” all loud and shit. The type loud where the spit come out with the capital ‘F’ and all that up in my head where they couldn’t hear me. You see I been here before and I know I gotta do this calm.

When you’ve lost control, one night can feel like 15 years.

African-American males in prisons and jails in the U.S. outnumber the amount of African-American males enrolled in higher education in the U.S., 583,000 to 537,000.

9.7% of black non-Hispanic males age 25 to 29 were in prison in 2000, compared to 2.9% of Hispanic males and about 1.1% of white males in the same age group.All I could think about was finding some sort of control in the absence of it.

I sat easy in the back of the van with the cuffs on, tight. “Don’t move around too much cause them handcuffs’ll squeeze on you”, officer such n such said. In my head again I’m like “fuck you” real loud. “take that with you. Hope it make you feel bad”. But I weigh that against how bad this is making me feel. Don’t want them cuffs cutting in my wrists, my body expand when my anger get up. Now things in my head change. I wanna say “these cuffs fucking hurt!” But I know they’ll act like they don’t hear me.
1.46 million black men out of a total voting population of 10.4 million have lost their right to vote due to felony convictions.Now young next to me, sitting up against the doors, looking straight up at the ceiling, shook, sweating, scared. this his first time. He mumbling mad words up under his breath,
“ah fuck man … I can’t belieeeeeve this shit, oh my Goddddd! I ain’t even do nothing. Them cracks wasn’t even mine!”

In captivity you begin to fashion your mind to things like GOD and delusions.

Then young lost it. He lost his cool and kick his foot against the side of the van with a BIG F word. He said some nasty real foul shit, offend everybody: me, the detecs and the other two in the back of the van with us, slumped and complacent.
The MAN say,
“I told you about making all that noise back there”.
I makes sure he know I ain’t had nothing to do with the thud young made with his foot and the foulness he saying. I’m starting to loose the feeling in my thumb and every play I make is about me getting these cuffs off as soon as possible.
African-Americans constitute 36.8% of those arrested for drug violations, over 42% of those in federal prisons for drug violations and almost 58% of those in state prisons for drug felonies.Young finally calmed from his tirade. There’s desperate beaded sweat on his forehead and his eyes is red. One of his over worn Nike airs is half off. His white tee is dingy and there’s a huge Cubic zirconia stud in his ear. He got the evil nigga look on now. He give it to each next nigga that come up in the van.
African-Americans are incarcerated more than six times that of whites -- 1,947 per 100,000, compared to 306 per 100,000.

The U.S. rate of incarceration has increased by 22 percent since 1989, and is about 5-8 times the rate of most industrialized nations. Property crimes and assaultive offenses don’t account for the increase nor do the violent crimes that rate higher in the U.S. than anywhere else, but the “war on drugs” and “three strikes” crimes have accounted for 46 percent of new court commitments since 1980.My high came down right as I was getting my desk warrant at the station. I talked my way out of having to spend the weekend in the tombs. As I was leaving, I heard young mouthing off again. He ain’t gonna see day for a minute and I’m on my way the spot to get me a nick b4 I head home.

GoRealer

Two Real Mavericks

February 12, 2009 will mark the 200th birthday for Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. These two great mens names are rarely mentioned in the same sentence but one of the few comparisons between the two other than their shared birthday is that both Lincoln and Darwin opposed slavery at a time when slavery was a popular occurrence.    

Lincoln is quoted as saying, "Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally". He then, on January 1, 1863, issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared freedom to slaves within the Confederacy.

For Charles Darwin- in the book "Darwin's Sacred Cause"- the case is made  that it was his strong opposition to slavery the helped form his theories on human evolution. He believed in a connection between all living things. He concluded that all life might share a common ancestry. He then went on to write "On the Origin of Species: by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life" which became the most widely accepted scientific model of evolutionary biology.

One demanded that man be equal and fought a war within his own country based on that very ideal. The other proved that all men are equal and that the only difference between us and the fish in the sea is degree not type. Neither of these men were afraid to stand up for what they believed in even though there ideas weren't popular. We now look back and realize that it was fear that fueled ideas such as, "...the freedom of the white man is insecure unless the negro is reduced to a state of abject slavery..." and the non-belief of what we can now deem as scientific fact. 

The historical presidential run of Barack Obama drew many comparisons to Lincoln as well as John F. Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King. President Obama being a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln took his oath on the very bible that belonged to Abraham Lincoln. 

A friend of mine who worked on the campaign for Barack Obama knocked on many doors in Pennsylvania registering people to vote. He recounted for me of one such time when someone opened their door, saw all his Obama buttons and said profoundly, "It's okay, I'm voting for the nigger". 

Evolution? uh... yeah.

It's only been 146 years since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. With that said there are much older countries than ours who still view women as second class citizens. And Stem Cell research is going through the same hurdles that Darwin went through in concluding that organisms were infinitely variable.  

Yet it is hard to see the accomplishments of these two notable men in history and not question whether we've outlived the greatness of human thought. Will there ever again be those whose ideas and strength of character advance our collective intellect? Might we again begin to champion the importance education and intellect? 

wait... excuse me, The Hills is on.

GoRealer

No Man of Steele

Former lieutenant governor of Maryland Michael Steele has become the first African American head of the Republican National committee.
Really? What a year for the brothers huh?!
I got used to seeing and hating Michael Steele tow the republican party line in TV punditry land. He would repeat all the republican talking points during the campaign season: the Bill Ayers, the The Rev. Wright (who gives Steele a run for his money in the black benedict arnold category) and the 3 am wake up call thing. He played is position well: the oppositions black guy.
What's funny about it is when he ran for the senate in 2006 he tried to pretend he wasn't a republican.
Now as the RNC party leader he says, "This is the dawn of a new party" and vows to take the fight right to Barack Obama. Does he really believe he is anything more than token? When it was clear that Hillary wasn't going to get the nomination the RNC chooses Sarah Palin to try and get the female voters that were upset over Hillary's loss. Now that Barack has won they choose Steele to run their party. do they really think the American people are that dumb not to see this as anything other than a blatantly obvious ploy? Does the RNC really think that the American people will overlook such comments like where he compared stem cell research to Nazi concentration camp experiments on Jewish prisoners? I guess they do.
I agree with SNL's Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers when he said this past week "it doesn't work with just any black guy".

GoRealer

My President is Black

I'm probably a little late on this but it stuck with me. I just watched the performance of Jay-z and young Jeezy at President Obama's Inauguration last week. I found out about this because Bill O'reilly talked about. Not that I normally watch Fox news but... well yeah I do from time to time just for a laugh.

If you don't know already Jay and Jeez were filmed performing Jay's new song "My President Is Black" . During the performance there were many comments from them where they called ex-president Bush a Bitch and used the words "Motherfucker" and "nigga" a lot.

"Im so proud to be black right now, I don't even know what to say... nigga... " - Young Jeezy



But back to the song itself.

Now I normally wouldn't have much issue with any of this: I mean this is Hip-Hop right? Hip-Hop is a medium for young urban people like me. We use words like Motherfucker and Nigga. I use it. Cause sometimes you've got to put a motherfucking Nigga in his place, you know, even if I'm a 39 year old multi-millionaire married to Beyonce. It's just the language of the streets you know, where I came from like 20 years ago.

I get it. We got a black man in office. Therefore a song.

Yes, a song. And since Hip-Hop is THE black music of the time, actually some rhymes. It should be rhymes that will reflect the sheer genius of Barack Obama's historical campaign. Something that will pay homage to the millions of Black people who died between the first day a negro stepped foot on American soil to the day one became president. It will be intelligent, sensitive, and humble. It will be ripe with all the possibilities that are open to the minds of our children right now and champion our resilience:

"My President is Black. my Maybach too and I'll be goddamned if my diamonds ain't blue... my money's dark green..."

yup. fire.

GoRealer

Invoking a Sense of Grey

A lot of people are up in arms about President-Elect Obama asking pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration on January 20th.
Pastor Rick Warren is the author of the top selling book, "The Purpose Driven Life" and is also a big supporter of the proposition 8 initiative that was passed in California in November banning gay marriage.
Gay marriage is an explosive issue in America all of a sudden, it has aligned itself with abortion as being the two issues that are the dividing line of morality in our country.
Proposition 8 was passed because people are scared of change. They are scared that their concept of marriage will change. But the throughout the years it has changed drastically. Marriage in it's original concept is a business arraignment between two families. What we know of as marriage today is a religious institution. Two people declare their love for each other before God. They stand in front of a priest or a rabbi. But If the Church doesn't recognize the marriage then you just don't get married in a church. People get married at City Hall. In fact the Mayor can marry you. In that case don't even call it a marriage then, call it a Civil Union. But that Civil Union should afford those two people the same right as any other people who marry as far as the law of the state is concerned. right?
Nope. the Church defines what marriage is. What happened to separation between Church and state you say? Well that's a wonderful concept and ideology but it isn't a law or an amendment in the constitution. It's a suggestion of a concept written in a letter penned by Thomas Jefferson referring to the first amendment.
What seems to bother me most is that people who are not gay nor can have children let alone abort one feel so threatened by these issues. I, myself fall into this category. and when someone asks me what my view is I say I don't have a view because it doesn't affect me. But I have realized that that is only partly true. I am affected in that when one persons freedoms are taken away or when one person isn't afforded the same rights as another because of their orientation then that marks the beginning of the end of our democratic way of life.
But Barack Obama is a smart man, why would he invite Rick Warren knowing their differences in opinion regarding things like abortion, and gays?
Appealing to the masses is tricky business especially in this country. I learned that a few years ago when decided to put out an album. Like Jay_Z said you dumb it down to double the dollars. Not everyone is going to get Talib Kweli. Only the "progressives" and the "elites". But shouldn't we be striving to be better, to understand more? When you are pulling double shifts to feed your family on close to minimum wages and you get a chance to relax, puff an el and listen to some tunes you don't want to be trying figure out what the emcee is saying. You just want to hear some slightly witty, silly shit over a good beat. simple. You want to know that republican means good and demorcrat means bad. or visa verse. simple. It's the same even when we go to the movies. Within the first 20 minutes of any action movie you know clearly who the good guys are and who the bad guys are and those lines never get crossed. This clean cut way of thinking cuts across many lines culturally. In religion, well, Christianity at least, God is good. Anything that is not good is of the Devil and considered evil making the clear enemy of God, the devil. simple.

In the abortion issue there are those who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice. This battle has waged on for so long that those who fight on either side actually believe that they are the opposite of the other just because they oppose each others view. But that can be no further from the truth. Someone can actually be pro-choice and pro-life- but that would be too much for the average american to understand and come to grips with. They wouldn't know who the enemy was. And we need an enemy, believe me. This is where I think the brilliance of Barack Obama is at work. Americans have to fundamentally change the way they look at issues. One of Obama's quotes that really stuck with me was when he said that no one is pro- abortion. we're not on two clean cut sides of an issue. If we listen to each other we might just get a broader understanding of where we are coming from.
Baracks choice of Rick Warren to do his invocation is a statement of grey, explaining that nothing is as black and white as it seems.

gorealer

F'n idiots

Plaxico Burress is an idiot.

I don't think too many people will disagree with that statement. Wait here's another: Michael Vick is an idiot. I bet I'm 2 for 2, right? How about this, OJ Simpson is a monumental idiot.

I find it hard not to see them and be embarrassed. Obviously it is because they are black. Each of them had careers that I could only dream of having and made piles of money. Plaxico will lose his 137 million dollar contract of which he's already received 10 million of if he goes to jail; Michael Vick has already filed for bankruptcy because he is totally broke. When he gets out in June he will be on his knees to the NFL begging for re-instatement.

I guess I wouldn't be as embarrassed if we didn't just elect the first Black President of the United States. And though it was a landslide victory I know there are people out there just waiting for him to fuck it up so they can say "ya see, can't give those ngiggers nothing". Whoa, whoa, whoa... the "N" word... yeah, I know but I'm sure in a few years if you google "Dumb Nigger" you'll see a picture of OJ Simpson.

I don't think when Elliot Spitzer was busted with that call girl, white people we're embarrassed. They said "fire his ass"! So why am I so troubled?

I remember back in 1995 when OJ was was acquitted of the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. I remember the throngs of black students on campuses across America cheering. the opinion on whether or not he was guilty was split down racial lines. It was quite similar to the explosion of cheers when the news channels announced that Barack Obama had won the Presidency except it wasn't so racially split. well, at least not in NYC. But I bet if you polled those students from 1995 now asking whether they thought OJ had done it or not, I'm sure a lot would say that they think he did. But back in 1995 it wasn't about whether he had done it or not, it was about things being fair. By 1995 young people had been used to police brutality- ala Rodney King and Yusef Hawkins- and innocent black men being accused and imprisoned- ala the Susan Smith case- for things they didn't do, so much so that those who were guilty were looked past. We did little about gang violence and found reason to excuse gangster rap until it killed Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. It wasn't until 2007 when Don Imus called the Rutgers Female basketball team "a bunch of nappy headed hoes" did we really start to address the language used within the black community. But the speed in which the ban on the "N" word that Al Sharpton and Russell Simmons implimneted went out of the news and out of our minds is a clear indication of where we are as black people in 2008. Nowhere.

In fact I'll go as far as to say that I don't think there really is a "black people" anymore. What defined us as a people in the 60's and prior was a common enemy. Whether you were from the South, the North or the West, to white people all Negroes were the same. Though racism still exists in many aspects in America, there are other issues within the black community that are more pressing and don't get addressed, like the question: why do young black men have to wear so much jewelry and have so much cash in their pockets that they have to protect themselves with unregistered guns when they go to the club? huh? why?

Maybe there just isn't a black community anymore. I do remember when I was growing up, if I was to act up when my parents weren't around, there was always an adult to straighten me out. But now when I ride the train during after school hours and the kids are out in full force, acting up, I look over and see that some of the adults are dressed just like them, quiet.

Hey this is my opinion and what I have witnessed in my city. This is a blog, not professional journalism so feel free to disagree with me. But maybe it's just a latent instinctual reaction left over from the civil rights era that makes me cringe when I see someone like Plaxico Burress throw away such a promising career over something so stupid or when I see the surveillance footage of a brother punch an old woman in an elevator to steal her purse or when I see OJ, who might have gotten away with murder, not move out of the U.S. and just keep a low profile.

F'n idiots.

BLACK POWER

So people, my GOREALER blog got picked up by an online magazine called BlackPower.com

It goes live next week, check it out.

gorealer